Klarinet Archive - Posting 000030.txt from 2010/02

From: kurtheisig@-----.net
Subj: [kl] Japanese students- was-Buck up friends.....
Date: Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:44:46 -0500

Several years back I had a few groups of Japanese Grad students coming over for a week at Christmas for advanced study on sax and clarinet. They were charming people who worked very hard. They hung on every word and worked hard to get every nuance I taught them. They were good players all, and could certainly sit beside or better the students at our California Universities.

My professional American students were amazed at these, often women students, who were so good and so aggressive. They were very polite, followed directions well regarding the finest musical points and played well. They were hungry for points of finesse and grabbed at each one like it was a treasure. They were anxious to get every last little bit I could give them. Private lessons could go on for 4, 5 or 6 hours, and though fatigued would push themselves to get every last detail. The American students would say to me: "You wouldn't push me like that in my lesson!" I answered to these big John Wayne types: "No, you'd cry." They have a very hard work ethic in their culture. It was a bit challenging to teach them that the greatest enemy of playing is tension and that they had to be totally relaxed while playing. At attention, but relaxed.

Though these wonderful students were the hardest working people I have ever seen, they aren't alone.

I had a 19 year old student that had SIX 5th grade sax students that in 5 and one half months were playing the Bassi 27 Virtuoso Studies and doing #1 well or perfectly.
Good tone, phrasing, articulation etc. These were 10 and 11 year old kids on college level etudes in FIVE AND ONE HALF MONTHS. They were each also working on either the Eccles Sonata or the Handel Sonata #3, both arranged by Rascher.

She also had VERY fine elementary bands from age 19 to 25, until she went on to other things. She had no degree or credential, and was the finest elementary teacher I have seen in this area. Besides myself she had studied with Claude Gordon and Steve Adelstein.

This is NORMAL if you teach correctly.

-----Original Message-----
>From: michael and Linda Marmer <mlmarmer@-----.net>
>Sent: Feb 1, 2010 11:05 PM
>To: klarinet@-----.org
>Cc: Joseph Lechner <Joseph.Lechner@-----.com>
>Subject: Re: [kl] Buck up friends. It's going to get worse
>
>Notice all these kids, wonderful kids, are sitting on the edge of their
>seats, like I was trained to do as a kid and still do.
>
>Someone on this list made a comment that was not necessary to do, as a adult
>now.
>
>I still do it.
>
>Mike Marmer
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Dan Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
>To: "Klarinet" <klarinet@-----.org>
>Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 10:25 PM
>Subject: [kl] Buck up friends. It's going to get worse
>
>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9p0Acf-SbU&sns=em
>>
>> Dan Leeson
>> dnleeson@-----.net
>>
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