Klarinet Archive - Posting 000101.txt from 2007/01

From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?sarah=20elbaz?=" <sarah@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] music students
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 05:11:15 -0500

Nicholas,

This is a problem that every music teacher has to deal with and I would like to ofer you a strategy and not a solution.
But first I would like to refer to some things that Bruce wrote:
I do not think that a clarinet teacher should be a psychotherapist or a scocial worker, a clarinet teacher should be "ONLY" a clarinet teacher and a musician. If the child needs therapy he should get it somewhere else.
And more that that- using therapy or any other "gimmickes" to make student practice is wrong: they shlould learn to work and music is exciting enough to make them work.

" Students in this age are in transition" : Is there an age when we are not in transition? please tell me when it is Bruce , I will be happy to know !

I will write more soon, my student just finnished worming up...
Sarah

> -------Original Message-------
> From: Bruce M <bmcgar@-----.com>
> Subject: RE: [kl] music students
> Sent: 12 Jan '07 07:08
>
> 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>
> >Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> >To: klarinet@-----.org
> >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
> >
> >Your Hotmail address already works to sign into Windows Live Messenger! Get
> >it now
> >http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwme0020000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://get.live.com/messenger/overview
> >
> >
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