Klarinet Archive - Posting 000368.txt from 2002/12

From: Karl Krelove <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Re: HELP! -- Teaching Beginners
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 10:29:23 -0500

Bill,

I think there's a good deal of discussion of this in the archives - it's
come up several times in the past.

To me, the most important things to keep in mind are:
-make sure the beginner is playing on correctly functioning equipment
-keep it simple and refine in as small steps as needed
-keep focused on music the children will want to play

Given the age structure in our local schools, where children turn 6yo
sometime during their first grade year, most of the schools in this area
(Philadelphia suburbs) allow clarinet study to begin in grade 4. Most of the
kids in 4th grade can reach and cover the keys, while a great many of the
3rd graders, especially in September, can't.

They can't tell if a hand-me-down clarinet from someone's attic is leaking
like a piece of cheesecloth or not. Frustration with squeaks and fuzzy sound
will absolutely lead most children to give up quickly. So make sure they
have an instrument in good working order, a mouthpiece with an intact facing
and reeds that have strength and consistency characteristics that are
familiar to you - Ricos may not be what either of us would any longer choose
to play on, but at least you know what the kid has when he takes one out of
the box.

You need to distill what's necessary for a good embouchure to the most basic
essence. I try not to meddle too much at first with what a student does
naturally. I try to correct problems that interfere with immediate success
one at a time if possible. Of course, really basic things like cheek puffing
should be attended to right away. The same applies to hand positions, finger
movement and most other technical matters. It's true that a really BAD habit
formed at this stage will be hard to break when the student is fifteen and
studying the Mozart Concerto with a major orchestra player, but most
sloppiness can be gradually corrected over the first couple of years,
especially if its basis is actually the small hands or underdeveloped
musculature of a young student.

Any of the method books from the major school music publishers will provide
material in a graded sequence that will introduce one or two new notes at a
time. The authors tend to differ primarily in when to introduce the break
and when to introduce eighth notes, and in their philosophy about page
layout, use of color, pictures, ancillary text, etc.... They mostly all use
the same public domain tunes - "Folk Song," "French Folk Song," German
Dance," etc... for obvious financial reasons, and almost all of them find a
place for Frere Jacques (under various titles), Mary Had a Little Lamb
(Merrily We Roll Along), Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (occasionally
attributed to Mozart) and several others you can guess at within the first
few pages. The important thing to remember about very young students is that
these "kid songs" serve to fulfill the basic teaching principal of starting
with the familiar and working toward the unfamiliar. They know these songs
and, although most of them think they're grown up beyond actually singing
them anymore, they actually enjoy playing them. Since you're only teaching
clarinet, a book like Rubank or the old Alfred Learn to Play Clarinet (which
although published for each instrument was not a coordinated "band" method)
or the Collis series, or newer ones like the Galper or Opperman methods, may
move students more quickly. Many times these can move too quickly for very
young (9-11 yo) students. I always pad any book with my own sometimes
simplified versions of current movie or TV themes to provide a kind of
"current event" interest.

You can expect a wide range of responses from the child who still doesn't
know a C from a G either on paper or on the instrument after weeks of
lessons to the one who gets a clean sound the first day and can play
everything in the first 6 pages of the book after the first lesson on note
reading. Will your students be in private or group lessons? If in a group
you have the added challenge of trying not to bore the latter while you give
the slowpoke at least a decent chance to have something "click."

By the way, children develop cognitively and physically at very different
rates, and in the age range within which our students here normally start,
the differences can be staggering. You didn't say how old your beginners
will be - if they are older, say, middle school, some of these differences
will have begun to even out. The child who just isn't "getting it" may swear
he/she practices faithfully every day, and it may well be true (or, of
course, not). That there is no observable progress may be caused by a lack
of cognitive readiness, physical/motor development or both. If the child
goes home having not a clue what he's been "taught" in class because of a
cognitive lag or even a full-bore learning disability, or can't make even
the first note come out because he lacks strength in his hand and arm or
facial muscles enough to produce a tone or get the holes covered reliably,
he can "practice" until Hell freezes over and nothing will come of it. These
children may need all the patience you can muster to just wait them out
until their development catches up with the physical and musical demands of
playing clarinet, or they need to be counseled to wait until they're older.

There was recently a series of posts about when (and how) to teach tonguing.
My strong preference is to teach tongue articulation from the very
beginning - usually starting with the second lesson. They will find ways to
articulate notes one way or another without instruction, usually sooner than
later, so they may as well do it the "correct" way from the start. The
longer they articulate with their breath or with lip pressure, the more
resistant they tend to be toward touching a vibrating reed tip with their
tongues.

More than $.02's worth; sorry if I've gone on too long.

Karl Krelove

> -----Original Message-----
> From: William Semple [mailto:wsemple@-----.com]
> Sent: Sunday, December 15, 2002 7:49 AM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] Re: HELP! -- Teaching Beginners
>
>
> I have been asked to provide clarinet lessons to the young people
> who attend
> the Piedmont Music School here in Virginia. I played a recital
> recently, and
> well . . .
>
> I've provided instruction to more advanced students from time to time, but
> have never worked with young people who have never picked up an
> instrument.
>
> Where can I find advice on this very critical early stage of instruction.
> And for those teachers out there, I would really appreciate some thoughts,
> not just with respect to introductory technique, but what I can expect or
> should expect from young students. What age is appropriate to start? I
> started playing when I was 12.
>
> Bill Semple
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>

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