Klarinet Archive - Posting 000234.txt from 2002/07

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl]Teaching methods -- was it Nurture or Nature?
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 12:27:43 -0400

Bill Wright wrote,
>I suspect that most people on this list snickered (or shuddered?)
>when I caused Mahalia Jackson and Mozart to materialize on
>Hangman's Hill, and then I asked what they would talk about.
>If a musician must put him/herself into the audience's shoes on
>occasion, then why not into a composer's shoes on occasion as
>well? The concept is not nonsense.

I agree with you and I think your witty Hangman's Hill scenario would be
interesting to consider. Unfortunately I'm thinking too subversively
(probably the result of trying to keep myself out of the middle of an ugly
flame war down amongst the horror movie critics) to contribute anything
useful. I keep imagining that Friesberg leans down from his hiding place in
the tree and accuses Hobb of "materializing" a fake Mozart for reasons as yet
unknown. Hobb's magic trick doesn't fool his old acquaintance for five
seconds, because even though the Mozart impression looks fairly convincing,
Friesberg immediately recognizes the other guy's Mahalia Jackson
impersonation, which he already saw twice at Don't Tell Mama in New York.

Anyway....

>My daughter also volunteered (without prompting from me) that,
>on the basis of her experience, she is absolutely convinced that
>offering each student a candy bar at the end of the lesson makes
>them more receptive to requests for practice and to the other
>things that belong in a complete music program --- music theory,
>proper instrument maintenance, history, improved retention of
>what was covered during the lesson or master class, and so forth.

You don't mention the age of her students, but I hope she clears that candy
bar with parents first, in case any of the kids are diabetic.

>I'm sure many of you remember my posts on the value of offering
>candy bars and the negative comments (dare I say derision?) that
>some people on the list offered in reply. Not every teacher agrees
>that it's a bad technique. [My daughter commented that adult
>students are equally as likely to nab a 2nd candy bar as the kids are.]

Although no teacher of any subject has ever offered me a candy bribe, and
although as a teacher I never offered one (nor would I), I don't question
that this technique might work well between some teachers and some students.
However, as a student, I would find the offer of a candy treat so patronizing
and insulting, and such overpowering evidence of a serious mismatch between
teacher and student, that I would walk out of that lesson and never go back.
Age is not the issue here, because when a new pediatrician offered me a
lollypop in return for being a good little girl when I was five, I threw the
lollypop on the floor and shouted, "How dare you?!" On the other claw, four
years ago, I got along splendidly with the surgeon who said to me, shortly
after I woke up from emergency surgery, "I wish I could autopsy you, to
figure out why you're still alive." Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

>Can (or does) focusing too much on a subset of
>your sensations and cognition, such as the composer's
>intent or 'proper' technique, restrict your creativity and/or
>your intensity of emotion? Can music truly engage the
>entirety of one's sensory and cognitive systems ---
>in the sense that you may feel more musical or transported
>if you conceive of your entire body being involved?

I think those are valuable questions, but my answer to all of them is, "It
depends." There are too many potential variables here, while I only exist in
a context. Where am I? When am I? What else is going on where and when I
am? How many *other* things must I try to keep in my mind all at once,
besides *those* things? How much is "too much" in that context?

What kind of music is it? Who wrote it? (J. S. Bach? Eminem?) Does the
music itself imply or evoke some specific physical response? (Gregorian
chant? Jitterbug?) In context, is there anything wrong or right about
restricting one's creativity and/or intensity of emotion? (Is it appropriate
for the lead singer in a rock band to throw back his head and scream during a
stadium concert? Is it appropriate for the church organist to throw back his
head and scream during a funeral mass?) *Why* would I think / *Do* I think
that I know the composer's intent for this particular piece? Am I reading
this music, or have I memorized it, or am I improvising?

I'm not saying that the questions are worthless or meaningless, but only that
I can't answer them, even for myself, in the abstract. I balk at trying to
formulate generalizations as broad as these questions seem to imply.

Lelia
LeliaLoban@-----.com

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