Klarinet Archive - Posting 001090.txt from 2002/11

From: Neil Leupold <leupold_1@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Tonguing --- Brymer and Stein
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 17:18:56 -0500

--- Bill Wright <Bi6W@-----.net> wrote:

> I still maintain that 'closing the nozzle' is not the best place to begin.

The discussion is about pedagogy, i.e., the communication of a concept to a student using words
(and hopefully demonstration). In matters of pedagogy, perhaps the most valuable ability is being
able to approach a given issue from multiple angles and points of view. No two people have the
same oral cavity, tongue size/length, dentition, etc. By the same token, no two people
learn/absorb/internalize something in exactly the same way. People draw on experiences and
imagery in their own lives, unique to them, when forming new memories and concepts. Further, this
particular discussion is about something *sight unseen*, necessitating even further a teacher's
ability to invoke the student's imagination in such a way that they (the students) develop for
themselves a useful kinesthetic model of the proper technique. That kinesthetic model, i.e., how
it feels, must be informed by the effect being produced, another area where the teacher's guidance
is required. The teacher lets the student know when the effect they're producing is the right
one, and the student learns/remembers what it felt like to correctly produce the effect -- a sort
of yin/yang dynamic. Thus a technique is born.

It's entirely possible -- common, even -- for a student to develop a model in his/her head that is
completely the opposite of what is physically taking place. "Never mind the swing, just get the
ball in the hole." Teachers who insist pedantically that their students understand/internalize a
concept/technique in exactly the same way that they do are among the worst kind in existence. It
breeds rigidity in the student's own approach to his/her creative process, and frustration as a
result of never receiving full approval, even when the outcome is the correct one. Teachers who
understand and apply the idea that a student learns best when guided to teach themselves are among
the best in the world. We can't get inside a student's mouth while they're playing...any more
easily than we can get inside their brain, and it's inside the brain that the learning takes
place, not the mouth.

Perhaps for yourself and your particular style of learning, Bill, it is vital that you rationalize
and reconcile your concept of the technique prior to correctly applying it. "When all you have is
a hammer, all problems begin to resemble a nail." It's a narrow and predominantly ineffective
approach to pedagogy, yet it also illustrates that we are best educated when we become our own
teachers. It's that unique learning style thing again. And for some, understanding the physical
facts unexpectedly robs the player of the spontaneous ownership of the concept that they once
"felt" rather than "thought". It can literally be paralyzing.

The fact that, in one interpretation, two such gurus as Brymer and Stein suggest two opposing
concepts for producing the same desired effect, illustrates that the issue of how best to teach a
particular concept to a particular student remains perpetually wide open -- until you begin
working *on* that particular concept *with* that particular student. Until then, it's all
academic, and that alone is not much good in the world of making music.

Neil

Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------