 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Meri
Date: 2001-05-07 22:20
I recalled that a few of those who said that they were self-taught for a few years before taking private lessons.
Now, a couple of questions:
How has starting out as a self-taught player helped or hindered your progress in private lessons?
For the teachers:
If you've had students who were self-taught for a number of years before taking lessons, how are they different from students who've taken private lessons most of the time while learning an instrument?
Meri
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Author: Sara
Date: 2001-05-08 01:21
I played for about a year before I started taking private lessons, and over the last three years, we've gradually worked through the bad things that young clarinet players learn in a band setting where they don't really get a lot of individual. Of course he tackled the big things and worked down to the nitty gritty things.
And now I see things from the other side, as a teacher of beginners and first and second year players. I see the all these kids that come into lesons with as much dedication as anyone could expected from the finest player and get easily frustrated at my corrections. I believe that the player who have pretty much learned are not bad but they just don't have that slight pull that the people how start right from the beginning have. But I used to be that way, so I can relate to that.
Sara
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Author: Nick Conner
Date: 2001-05-08 03:35
Hello. I have been the top player in my school since I began playing clarinet in sixth grade. As a sophomore, my first year possible, I was lead clarinet. However, I didn't start lessons until this past summer. Although this seems late, NOT having a teacher at first has helped me greatly. Not that most people shouldn't start right into lessons, but my desire to learn (in anything, I'm weird like that) led me to discover many resources, like Sneezy, on my own. Even though I now have a private teacher to help me, I have retained my desire to search out knowledge of the clarinet independently. I'm sure not everybody is like this, however, because nobody in my town really understands why I do what I do. Anyways, the moral of the story is: From my lack of direction in my early years, I learned to direct myself instead. These habits have complemented my new position under the tutilage of a private instructor. Hope I have offered some insight; I'm just a lowly high schooler, but this is as much as I can contribute.
Nick Conner
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Author: Bob R
Date: 2001-05-08 15:17
My experience has been both good and bad with self-teaching. I taught myself to play the clarinet about a year before I started taking lessons. As a person who now teaches lessons the biggest problem I see is un-doing poor playing habits. I think its great for a person to pursue learning to play on their own, but without proper guidence you can sometimes do more harm than good. IMOH, its better to learn things right the first time, instead developing bad habits that will need to be corrected later. Now this doesn't mean you can't teach yourself the right way to play. I just think its important to learn techniques properly whether or not you have a private lession teacher. I tend to find most poor playing habits developed from a lack of direction or incorrect information.
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Author: SusieQ
Date: 2001-05-08 16:02
Bob, I can't agree with you more. I am one of those old dogs learning new tricks (alternate fingerings) and undoing my bad habits. Playing with bad habits and then going back to correct them can take years.
Still learning the hard way!
SusieQ
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2001-05-08 18:02
I haven't had any formal lessons for years, during which time I "learned" how to play [maybe to just blow tolerably] most of the cls and saxes and oboe-eng horn. I did pay close attention as to how the better players did it, and was receptive and appreciative of advice given by friends and here on the 'net, could have done better!! Don
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Author: Todd
Date: 2001-05-09 06:43
I self-taught myself for three years, then took lessons for about 3 1/2. The teacher I had said he took me as far as he could and I needed to find another teacher. It took me 23 years to get back into taking private lessons ( I started again last June). During that time I again self-taught myself the way I thought I should play and sound. I was wrong. I wasn't too far off, but enough so that I wish it hadn't taken me so long to start lessons again. My teacher has had to work on breaking what I thought were too many bad habits, most of which are gone, but I feel I still have a way to go to improve my tone.
Not only have private lessons helped me with my technique and tone quality, but also with musical interpretation and performance preparation. I am more focused in what I'm playing and have a better idea of what to listen for both in my music rehearsals and in personal practice time.
It's nice to say you're self-taught and that you did it all on your own, but it's better to have someone that can listen to you objectively, give you guidance and prevent bad habits from forming. The books and music I got when I was self-teaching myself were all good--they just have more meaning and reinforcement from taking lessons. As I've told many people, I've never been so excited to sit down and practice scales and exercises.
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Author: Ginny
Date: 2001-05-09 19:08
I am not sure how self-taught I am. Woodwinds class years ago, picked it up again.
I certainly have plenty of bad technique to unlearn, now that I go to lessons w/my son.
My son had instruction from the start. He has fewer bad habits, and they are not as ingrained. He has a beautiful embouchure, quick fingers, lovely tone, fairly good articulation...
He is on his second teacher, and she is wonderful in that she understands technique and sees just what is off. Since he is twelve I expect he will have good clarinet habits for his life.
For my kids I want good technique from the start. I wish I'd learned that way.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2001-05-09 20:11
I started clarinet in the beginning band class in 7th grade, though I had taken some piano lessons before that, so I knew how to read music. The band director was a trombonist, but he knew enough to get us started and gave everyone the basics.
I started studying privately when I was in the 9th grade. In retrospect, I should have started sooner. I had to make big changes in embouchure and hand position, and I got help on reeds and a better mouthpiece. Equally important, I could hear a really fine player right next to me, who set a standard and helped me work toward it.
I haven't studied formally in quite a while, but I still need to go back to a "guru" every so often to have an expert listen to me and point out bad habits I've fallen into.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: jerry
Date: 2001-05-10 17:31
Having *attemted* to learn golf , in days of yore, I was cognizant of the fact that one can develop bad habits when learning something new -- especially a musical instrument as complex as the clarinet.
Although I am better at "self-taught" than falling asleep in a classroom (I'm good at that too), for me this does not apply to the clarinet. So, what I have learned on my own has been during the time between teachers (only a couple of weeks at a time).
Generally, I would say that learning the *right* way via a teacher, the *first* time, is a lot quicker than learning on ones own then *undoing* that to learn it right.
FWIW
~ jerry
Still in Clarinet Boot Camp
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Author: Lindsey
Date: 2001-05-10 20:50
Well...I"m kind of self taught and kind of not. I had a teacher in 5th grade with a group of "beginning band students" who played brass but was able to show us the basic fingerings (not alternates or anything like that) and how to blow into a clarinet and produce sound. That was about as far as that went. I wasn't allowed to practice at home at the time because my parents were weird like that and didn't think I should be playing at home until I knew how to actually play "music" so I didn't get too far. I moved on to JR. high where the director refused to help me learn anything basically so anything at all that I picked up for those 3 years of "self teaching" was purely by accident. Enter HS. I had the same director for HS that I had in 5th grade but I was put to the test. Although I played 3rd clarinet two years in a row, I think I learned the most I have ever learned. I learned to play w/o squeaking and how to actually finger above the normal first register during those 2 crucial years...all by myself. I'm not sure how I managed it but my junior year I was 1st chair in 2nd clarinet and by my sr. year I was in Honor band and All-Area band as a 1st and was section leader during marching season and 2nd chair during concert (the drum major from marching season was 1st). I was amazed with all I had learned! Then I showed up for college and was told again that I shouldn't even be playing and that I sucked by my director. What did he expect from me when I had learned basically everything on my own! Well, I've been in private lessons for 2 semesters now and have made leaps and bounds. I'm still nothing to brag about by the music department's scale here at curf, but I'm improving greatly. Most of what I have been doing this year is learning to breathe, support, count alone, and alternate fingerings. I had developed a lot of bad habits to get me by while playing with a group in HS (relying on others to keep the beat, etc.) that I have had to work through w/ my wonderful instructor. Although I'm frustrated w/ the music department here which is looking down on my pursuits as a music ed major because of my history, I'm not discouraged. Sometimes Self-taught is all that is available for learning something as was in my case. I say something is better than not learning at all when it comes to music and although bad habits do take a while to break, with the proper guidance given the chance when it comes, they can be worked through and great improvements made! :o) I'm basically for both methods, I guess.
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