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Re: Teachers being honest

Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-04-14 22:54

"Question to Ed:
After so many years of teaching, do you think that approach did more good or harm?"
I can only say that I have several students that realized that they were not going to make it as a symphony player and took other musical roads for graduate degrees. I've seen many students, especially in other studio's, that are not realistic. They think they're all going to be great symphony players, but few if any, ever have made it. Please remember, I don't advocate discouraging students from going after their dream, I just let them know how difficult it is to reach that goal and that they have to make great sacrifices in time in the practice room and have to sacrifice some social life time but I never tell them they can't do it. It is surprising how many students don't realize how few jobs there are until I tell them. I was very naive when I was a student and when I realized what I was facing i really turned on the practice time. One of the problems today is that there are so many more schools graduating "clarinet majors" today then there were when I graduated and only a few more jobs. Probably ten times the number of students. It used to be 40-50 applicants for a good clarinet job when I was auditioning, now it can be a couple hundred. Do the math. By the way, I'm only retiring from Peabody, not the BSO. We call that semi retired, only one job. My kids are out of college and my mortgage is paid for. I will continue to upgrade and add to my new website though and teach privately, I still love to teach. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com

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Teachers being honest new

Ed Palanker

2009-04-10 22:22