Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-08-18 21:44
I have only a couple of reactions to add.
Ed Palanker wrote:
> Then while
> studying with Russianoff I wanted to study bass clarinet with
> Joe Allard privately, ...i asked
> Russianoff if he would mind if I took lessons from Allard on
> bass while studying with him and he said, Joe is a very good
> teacher. Even though it was bass clarinet Russianoff was not
> threatened.
I think switching teachers is different from branching out during the summer or for specialties like bass clarinet. Did Russianoff play bass seriously? I'm very sure Gigliotti, when I studied with him at Temple, would have had no objection - might even have encouraged me - if I had wanted to take lessons with Ron Reuben, who had just become the Philadelphia Orchestra's bass clarinetist and had been one of my teachers when I was in junior and senior high school. I'm not sure I'd have gotten the same response if I had announced that I wanted to go to New York to study with Russianoff or Opperman.
echi85 wrote:
> It's unlikely you can get
> everything you need from only one teacher.
It's less than unlikely - IMO it's nonsense - that you can get *everything* you need from any single teacher or combination or succession of them. But depending on what the level of maturity is of a student's playing, consistency may be important just to establish a base line from which the student can go on to teach himself as he gains playing experience and informal input from more experienced players. Much depends on a student's stage of development.
Switching around from one teacher to another through middle or high school may prevent consistent growth. Graduation from high school to college is a natural time for changing teachers, but switching during a college program is, I think, almost always going to be seen as a student's value choice between the teachers involved. Switching from one teacher to another as an adult amateur with a day job can be a useful way to explore and find novelty in varying approaches depending on his ultimate objective. Of course, studying with a variety of high-level players can be valuable for a young post-college career-bound player who wants to strengthen specific areas of his playing or musical knowledge.
If a complete switch is made, I think you will most often not be able to go back if you later want to. I'm wondering if, once Ed moved from Simon's studio to Russianoff's, he could have gone back to Simon at Mannes if things hadn't worked out at Manhattan (if, for example, Russianoff had needed for some reason to reduce his teaching schedule and sent Ed off to another teacher at Manhattan).
I have had students who studied with me through their junior year in high school move to a college prep department at a major music conservatory for their senior year (studying with a grad student there). I've encouraged them once they'd already made the decision, and in two cases they've come back to me for summer work when the grad student who was teaching them left. But that's a different situation.
The issue of getting varied input is, IMO, not a particularly valid one until the student has reached a level of experience that lets him or her evaluate the input for its usefulness to him. It isn't that you can't learn without a dominant, consistent influence on your development. But you'll spend a lot more time going down blind alleys or reversing a potentially successful direction because a new teacher turns you around.
Regardless of the reasons for a switch, while the old teacher may support the move, the student shouldn't *expect* him to or expect to make the move without changing the relationship with the old teacher.
Karl
|
|
The Clarinet BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
