Klarinet Archive - Posting 000756.txt from 2004/10

From: Robert Wood <instruments@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: This general theme-creating good musicians,altering classics.
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 14:44:33 -0400

Like the lawyer whose free observations are worth what he was paid for
them, perhaps I could offer refunds if... ......etc.....ya tida...

I was taught by a succession of conscientious gate keepers- and once
free-I vowed to search for something more buoyant, something with lift
to it that would enable a student to fly..first at his/her best
altitude- and love the experience, and perhaps be moved to fly a bit higher.
During some 40 years of teaching I have had wonderful results from
students who were invited to take a piece and process it with the tools
they had- at that moment, sharing what they knew AND what they believed;
including changing musical instrument parts they were given a chance to
"improve". They knew very little. They believed an awful lot. But the
PROCESS gave them the feeling of equity, some respected value, and most
important of all - an interest in seeing what else was around the bend
downriver. School for me should always be a place where you are
encouraged to make mistakes, to navigate your boat regardless of the
wind, and keep going - to justify the efforts of that universe of cells
that make up the body, the talent, the soul?
Here's an example:
1. 10 and 11 year olds were invited to discuss their choice of any three
Beethoven sonatas - as the music was being played- they could pause it,
stop and go as they wished. Each one had the floor and we took notes
from them for later discussion. Three criteria were expected:
(a) Is this part the same or different from the last? -{ my belief is
that music is organized by change}.
(b). Is this passage in a duple or a triple meter - or a combination,or
some other meter you can count.? Has it changed?...from which meter to
which other meter.?
(c) Is the passage in a major or a minor tonality.? Identify when it
changes from one to another.

Naturally-before this assignment - a lot of folk singing, listening,
demonstration with notation, and instrument playing endured this simple
analysis until they were familiar with the process.
--------
THEN: The student needed to discuss briefly WHY one sonata was picked
over the others ( Waldstein,Pathetique, Appasionata).
------
If you are still with me - it should be clear that those particular
criteria are merely appropriate handles for the student to privately
experience the passion, the surprise, the excitement - and believe that
he/she had some control over the process of acquiring that experience.
They spent a great deal of time with all the sonatas so they COULD state
WHY they liked one more than another. We treated that statement as
fact-since it was the students belief- regardless of his/her reasons.
_____
The class discussion revolved around those 3 particular criteria first -
then was easily allowed to cover the students emotional responses
without forcing anyone to accept what excited or moved others. Later
students were invited to bring in their favorite pop records
for the same treatment - and usually it was the heart rending text that
salvaged yesterdays musical dishwater - and they did revise their list
of favorites with this process. (I remember an awful doggerel called
"Patches" that dovetailed with unalloyed adolescent turmoil).

Did they become good musicians? A fair number went on to serious
study-the rest I know not of, and now I prefer to bear those ills I can
deal with.
Never once was a student ridiculed or criticized for his opinions. Facts
were corrected-with gentle, respectful firmness.
---That example took too long for me to lay out. So I stop here. There
are a number of others ; instrument playing- which I'm beginning to
publish. But I'll close with my belief that if I gave students tools to
work with, tools that were available to everyone, chances to use and
sharpen those skills - and be respected for the honest vulnerability
this process required , then the student would feel whatever power,
whatever volition, whatever control lay within the talent and within
that single soul. That has been enough for me to keep me still pursuing
that damned, elusive Pimpernel.

Bob Wood

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