Author: clariniano
Date: 2012-01-06 04:29
I think one way of attracting students, at least for me, seems to be having people hear and see you. That's how I've attracted a number of students recently, most from the church my husband is music director at, which I usually play about once a month, though occasionally twice, especially at Christmas or if the originally hired soloist can't seem to be contacted. (it's happened about 3 or 4 times in the past couple of years). So being about to perform well is definitely an asset in teaching. And my husband seems to be able to keep students progressing to advanced levels within 4-5 years starting as beginners, because he can REALLY play. And all of the teachers I have had on both clarinet and piano have been fine performers, and really inspire me to play better. Plus often at concerts I hold for students my husband and I play something impressive, but not really virtuostic, and the kids and parents are impressed. People from the Kumon math program in the basement of the church sometimes come in to listen to us practice or even a lesson, and we've signed up 5 students that way.
Though I generally produce great players from clarinet students (4 kids I have taught have gone on to music in university, though one on a different instrument than I taught him (I taught him clarinet, he's in a Jazz performance program on guitar, in his final year), though I got in touch with him several months ago, when I accidently found his ad on craigslist and I was looking for a guitar teacher referral for a couple people who asked me if I knew good guitar teachers), I have also had fine results with piano students, particularly in recent years, especially with this Level 6 Piano RCM student I teach, who is probably going to be my first 90%+ piano exam mark beyond elementary piano. I am by no means a professional piano player, and get very few piano playing enagagements; even some of my friends don't know that I can play the piano to an early advanced level!), but I have a good ear for what sounds good, I study with good teachers, and have a collection of recordings and youtube videos that I show or have students listen to.
But my experience is that many fine performers happen to be good to excellent teachers as well. In fact, one of my students in university as a Performance major, told me while he was studying with me that his previous teacher (before me) really sucked at performing and teaching, after he saw me play a concert several years ago we asked him to turn pages for my husband.
Meri
Please check out my website at: http://donmillsmusicstudio.weebly.com and my blog at: http://clariniano.wordpress.com
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The Clarinet BBoard
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