Klarinet Archive - Posting 000098.txt from 2007/01

From: "Bruce M" <bmcgar@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] music students
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 02:08:22 -0500

Nicholas,

I teach privately and also tutor the clarinet sections of the local high
school bands, and I've taught at a private school for so-called "learning
disabled" kids (read "lazy," in most cases), so I've had experience with the
same things.

I, too, used to get frustrated, until I realized a few things. (By the way,
though I'm trained as a psychotherapist, I have no quick fixes, so if you're
out to change THEIR behavior, read no further. You can only change your
own.)

- Students at this age are in transition. What is important to them now may
not be important to them tomorrow. My job is to keep them playing until the
desire "takes," which usually happens in their senior year, sometimes later.

- Thanks to MY generation, children nowadays are coddled and spoon fed even
through four years of college. They want easy answers and quick fixes
because parents have always been there to provide these. You, as a teacher,
are not going to be able to change this behavior. Simply, you're not with
them enough to change it, and even if you could change it, you probably
don't have the energy it would take to put up with the sturm und drang that
trying to change a whole gaggle of students would require. Develop "the
serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed, the courage to
change that which can be changed, the wisdom to know the one from the
other."

- Why should they find out things on their own when they can get quick
answers for just about anything from most teachers and parents--or the
internet? Work isn't considered a virtue anymore anyway, and the completion
of work doesn't bring the satisfaction for them that it does with us older
people. Is it any wonder that they get wide-eyed and incredulous when it's
suggested to them that they dig for something themselves, when everything
has been provided for them on a silver plate? Can this be changed? Maybe,
but not by you: not enough time, not a close enough relationship.

Things are different when you're dealing with college performance majors or
kids who really are into playing and have ambition. But the standard
kid--the one who will never become the next Morales, and doesn't necessarily
want to--is a different animal. Are your goals for them unrealistic? Can you
accept the fact that most don't really care enough, at this stage of their
lives, to really put for the effort it takes to improve their playing?

What I try to do is just keep them playing in hopes that, in later years,
they'll be good enough to want to keep playing throughout life; to play in
their college bands, and then later in their community orchestras; to help
them acquire something that will enrich their lives later on, even if they
don't realize that it does now.

When a kid doesn't practice, I just tell 'em they're not going to get better
unless they do, but I don't make a big thing about it. I tell them that
their parents' forty bucks can be spent working on lessons or just playing
duets, but that I'm not going to suffer if they don't get better--I still
have their money--so if they come unprepared, it's their problem, not mine.
If they ask for a quick fix--one that they could figure out on their own
with a little effort--I just refuse to provide it.

One of the striking things about teens is how little sense of
self-responsibility they have. They don't seem to understand that, if they
fail or screw up, ULTIMATELY, the world goes right on. Their parents will be
disappointed, but they'll live. Their friends will go on with their lives.
Their teachers will have a new batch of students a year down the line. What
they do or don't do to improve themselves ultimately only affects them.
(This is another lesson I try to teach my students AND their parents.) By
impressing this on them, I'm trying to get the kids to take ownership of
what they do or don't do, and you'd be surprise how, when a kid gets that
message, their sense of power increases and their willingness to be
self-directed strengthens.

Some kids will tank on you, for sure. But most (in my experience), if kept
playing, will improve and persist, even if they don't practice as much as
we'd like. If you can keep them going until graduation, I think that
eventually it dawns on them that the skills they've acquired can be used
forever, long after their too creaky to play soccer or too busted up to play
football.

(Sorry about the rambling, but many things come to mind.)

Well, so much for my palaver. Get your reward from the knowledge that you've
kept them playing for yet another week, even if it means running through
duets every session. Don't get your shorts in a half-hitch when they fail to
meet your expectations. Give all you can to those who want it and will run
with it, but don't "down" the kids who seem helpless cases.

Keep 'em involved, at some level, for as long as possible. Eventually, most
will get it, even if you're not around when they do.

Cheers.

Bruce

>From: "Nicholas Yip" <clarinets21@-----.com>
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>Subject: [kl] music students Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 20:45:23 -0800
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>
>Hi,
>
>I remember a number of years ago I was spoonfed and coddled. Now I am on
>the other side of the ball and am the teacher of music students. I am in my
>second year at a high school as a director of bands. I also currently run a
>studio with mostly high school students in clarinet.
>
>Both in my classes and studio a number of my students so several things;
>
>1) They come in unprepared for lessons.
>
>2) They look for the quick fix
>
>3) They often ask questions of things they can figure on their own.
>
>One of my studio students has been through 4 different clarinet teachers in
>5 years.
>
>I need some help. I have tried training some learning skills, consistently,
>but they seem to go back to old learning habits.
>
>Nicholas Yip
>Clarinetist and Music Teacher
>
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>
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