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Re: Do you play along?

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2016-12-13 22:25

Are you talking about modelling or actually playing with the student? I can't imagine teaching young students effectively without playing *for* them. Giving a younger student a model is much more immediately useful than verbiage that tends to be loaded with words that may not mean the same things to the teacher and the student.

Playing *with* a student can, IMO, get in the way of having the student hear and learn to evaluate what's coming from his instrument. If the goal is to train a specific rhythm, it can be useful as a way to pattern the student's playing, especially if an incorrect way of playing the rhythm has become habituated. But it limits his ability to hear himself. On the other side of the coin, *I* can't really hear what the student is doing, either, except for a wrong note or rhythm. But I can't really hear his sound or the quality of his legato or staccato or how well he understands a phrase shape.

I do play duets sometimes with my students as a way to get them to think about playing an independent part accurately.

The bottom line is that how a teacher works with a student should depend on what's needed to help the student improve in specific contexts, not on any kind of universal routine. Different problems need different solutions, and no two lessons are completely alike in content or process.

Karl

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