The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Meri
Date: 2004-12-04 18:12
An 8 (almost 9) year-old clarinet student who I have been teaching for almost three months seems to be having problems with combining reading music with playing. He can do them well independently of one another (and I have been teaching him some things, such as the scales/arpeggios which would be on the Grade 1 clarinet exam if he does it, the chromatic scale, and basic articulation patterns, plus a few songsāa quasi-Suzuki approach to clarinet, something I have never done before but proved to be a necessity with this student. He is doing quite well, has a very nice sound. However, I am running out of things to teach him by rote, and he struggles with reading and playing at the same time. I am thinking about teaching him the first two or three lessons of the method book by rote (Galper clarinet method), and connecting them to the written notation, and beginning to teach him possible solos if he were to do the Grade 1 exam in June. I am doing music theory, rhythmic development and normal ear training as well, and he is doing well at that too.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Meri
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Author: Jim E.
Date: 2004-12-05 03:58
Does the kid have a learning disability? You might want to speak casually to the parents about how he does in school. That might give a clue to whether he might be classified. How is his hand/ eye coordination? Does he play video games? I'd hate to encourage any kid to play such games (only because thay don't seem to need encouragement to do so) but the hand/ eye used there should have some carry over to instrument playing.
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Author: allencole
Date: 2004-12-05 09:44
How is his rhythm on the rote-learned stuff?
Does his reading problem seem to be more in terms of pitch or of rhythm?
It seems like you're doing the best thing for the time being. It sounds like he's progressing on all fronts--he just hasn't managed to integrate them yet.
Allen Cole
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