Klarinet Archive - Posting 000243.txt from 2003/10

From: ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: [kl] Learning to love (was: reeds for beginners?)
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 23:52:32 -0400

Christy=A0Erickson wrote:

> Some sixth graders could perhaps do this
> [...snip of excellent post...] than in learning to
> love music?

I agree with you completely. There's a real question (in my mind, at
least) whether #3's and a close mouthpiece has the effect of eliminating
youngsters who don't fit a particular mold. It depends on what the
school's goals are, I suppose.

As a related topic, I wonder if "allowing children to explore music"
would be a better phrase than "learning to love"? A person can be
conditioned to pursue (or to avoid) almost anything, but conditioning
wears off after the coercion disappears. For example, how many of us
'learned' to love (say) algebra and pursued it after we left school?
Some behaviors are formed by habit, I suppose, such as eating spinach
because that's what Mom put on the table. But if you never really
liked the stuff in the first place..... Especially something as
physical as music, I wonder whether a person can be taught to love it
(if it isn't instinctually pleasurable)?

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