 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Brenda ★2017
Date: 2009-03-30 20:11
The topic of the student crying in lessons made me think of a conversation I had a couple of days ago with my former teacher. I seem to remember disappointing him more than he remembers.
We were discussing how I expect my students to come to their lessons prepared, and that one student quit because she was unable to practice for several weeks. This has been an issue for a long time and I was ready to phone her to suggest that she leave lessons for awhile. While talking with my former teacher about this I asked him if I did that to him very often and he really couldn't remember it happening often. YAY! I was very sensitive to the practicing issue because I really wanted to play well during my lesson. But with 4 children and a job getting in the way, the practicing sometimes took a back seat.. not too often though.
My mother of my other student said that her daughter tells her that I'll hate her for not being able to play something well. So now I'm beginning to see that as a student we become so concerned about failure that it's a bigger issue than our teacher thinks it is... thus the tears.
So if the student really should be better rehearsed I have no problem in telling them. I don't want them to waste my time if their priority in life is something else and they keep cancelling their lessons. But if one area of their assignment isn't worked on because they've concentrated on a problem area, then great. They need heartfelt commendation for the work they DID do. Their progress would be easy to see from week to week.
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2009-03-31 08:00
I remember it being very difficult to explain to my teacher how I was feeling.
I remember quite often not practicing a piece because I didn't 'get' it; it was just a sequence of notes with no discernable pattern. Modern stuff, especially. Now I conduct a community group and I try extra special hard to explain pieces to them, even if they know it already.
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Author: Nessie1
Date: 2009-03-31 12:10
It is often hard for a student to have the confidence to say to the teacher what it is that is bothering them about a particular thing (piece/scale/exercise). Of course, sometimes they haven't been able to work out what it is themselves but sometimes they have, in which case it will probably help if they say to the teacher "I just don't know where to breathe in this passage" or "I need a way of getting from this note to that note more smoothly" (or whatever it might be). Otherwise the teacher can only guess and make suggestions based on those guesses (which may be incorrect guesses. Equally, it may help if the teacher asks "What do you think is the problem here?"
Vanessa.
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Author: Brenda ★2017
Date: 2009-03-31 18:34
Yes! This is a good reminder for us to ask specific questions of the student - or to anticipate what they might be thinking and to ask them.
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Author: D
Date: 2009-04-01 18:14
This is one of the main differences I have noticed as an adult learner. We get a lot more work done in lessons now. I go in and say I need help on X,Y and Z. (i.e. these two bars don't make sense or I've forgotten the fingering for..., or how do I do this ornament...) My teacher says I want to hear you do Q and P and then as we do the things I ask for she works in more advice/threats etc as appropriate. It is so much more effective because it is a conversation. When I was a child I had music lessons for 4 years. I'm sure we wasted hours just playing through stuff with no purpose. Perhaps I didn't understand the purpose of different things was then. Or perhaps my teacher didn't explain the purpose in a way that I understood.
I know that now I look forward to my lessons rather than dread them or just see them as that's what you have to do to learn to play.
I'm sure if I ever saw that first teacher again she would remember it all totally differently!
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