 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Katfish
Date: 2002-05-29 20:57
I have always taken and given half hour private lessons. That seemed plenty of time to accomplished what needed to be done. I think I would have trouble filling the time in an hour lesson. Those of you who take or give hour lessons please enlighten me.
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Author: Meri
Date: 2002-05-29 21:51
The 45 minute or 1 hour lesson is definitely better than the 1 hour lesson. My student's lessons are 45 minutes, but we tend to push an hour. My own lessons are usually about an hour, but occasionally we'll go 1 1/2-2 hours. (I only go for a lesson about once every couple of months) The longer lessons, for me, allows greater understanding and greater mastery of concepts discussed; it also gives sufficient time for things that include some of the following: warmups, listening, sight-reading, theory, assignment material, and duet playing. I would not be able to do this with 1/2 hour lessons.
Meri
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Author: diz
Date: 2002-05-29 22:37
Katfish. I hand 40 minute lessons (the way the lessons worked in the school I attended), and it was never long enough. I then went onto hour lessons when I got to diploma level and these weren't long enough.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2002-05-30 00:07
It depends on whether the lesson is actually a directed practice session, or whether it is instruction on how to do this direction oneself at home. Is the student being taught how to teach themselves, or are they being taught to be reliant on the teacher for every improvement in every bar. If it is the former, then required lesson time reduces. If the latter, it keeps increasing.
Yes, a little flippant, but there is some truth here.
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Author: Mindy
Date: 2002-05-30 01:40
I have had a few 1/2 hour lessons at the beginning, but I went to hour lessons. They were ok for a while, but now that I go to a professor...... an hour lesson is NOT long enough. I agree with what Gordon says........
--Mindy
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Author: Mitch A
Date: 2002-05-30 02:02
Started from scratch w/ half hours. (finger drills, alt fingering). Once I stared coming in with scores and duets, we went to an hour and it flew by and wasn't enough. I considered band rehearsals an add'l 1.5 hrs per week - still not enough.
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Author: gemmaelizabeth
Date: 2002-05-30 11:15
When you study with someone who is a professional player themselves, 1/2 simply isn't enough. They have so much input because they are so experienced. Recently I had been having 1/2 lessons and everything was so rushed. if you are working on say, a concerto, how on earth are you meant to work on all three movements, scales and studys AND have time to talk about it!!!
An hour is tight enough as it is!
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Author: thomas piercy
Date: 2002-05-30 14:00
If a parent inisists on 30 minute lessons, I think it better to go along with that than not have the child take lessons at all. Sometimes the 30 minute length request is based solely on financial circumstances. I still manage to sneak in more minutes if I can (pro bono).
My lessons with De Peyer, Russianoff and Opperman would go from over an hour to 2, 3 or more hours. If there was work to do, if the energy and concentration were there from both of us, then we would go on (and on). This is a method, concept and relationshiop between the master teacher and the student that I try to carry over to my students. I can't imagine getting in all the needed info into a half hour.
Tom Piercy
thomaspiercy.com
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Author: William
Date: 2002-05-30 15:37
The pail will only accept as much water from the pump as it's capacity allows. After that is reached, it is just overflow and waste. So, decide how big your pail is, pump until full (being careful not to spill), and charge by the pint, gallon, or liter or whatever the going local utilities rate might be. However, the real question might be--how deep is your well and how pure is your water?? Good Pumping (and drinking--I'll stop at that!!)
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Author: Sara
Date: 2002-05-30 23:08
I started with the half hour lessons, but then once I started getting better and playing better it gradually grew into 45 minutes then into an hour. I guess as I started getting better, we found more stuff to talk about and to improve upon, and I learned more stuff and i could ask for help on stuff that I knew I needed help with and my teacher didn't have to guess what things I needed to work on. I personally teach 45 minutes to an hour lessons, I try to keep in to 45 minutes, but you know you find things to talk about with your students.
Sara
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Author: Chrissie
Date: 2002-05-31 00:13
In my experience, the longer the lesson, the more you tend to be given, and the more you're expected to practice. Not necessarily in quantity of music, but difficulty and mastery of concepts. These things end up filling the 45 minute or hour lessons quite easily.
Chrissie
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Author: Todd
Date: 2002-05-31 07:03
I also started with half hour lessons. I felt rushed and I think my teacher was too busy watching the clock, although I did learn basic fundamentals. I think for the sake of time, some things were skimmed over. I now have "0ne hour" lessons, which last anywhere from 90 minutes up to 3 hours. I've found now that one hour lessons are not quite long enough with my present teacher because he has so much to offer. However, when approaching two hours, I begin to lose some focus and concentration, even though we take breaks. By the third hour, I was exhausted. I've heard in college that after about 45 minutes to an hour, most people need a break from lesson or lecture because the mind gets tired. I think it depends on the subject being taught and the person's interest in what's being said.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2002-05-31 13:42
It also depends on just how solid the content of the lesson is.
If I go to a lesson with a specific area I wish to address, then a mass of teaching can occur in a very short time.
At the other extreme, if both the student and the teacher lack focus or direction, then 3 hours may have very little content and achieve very little. Indeed it may be nothing more than an ego trip and pocket liner for the teacher.
If the teacher is saying similar things every week then this is an indication that the student is not attending, during practice, to what the teacher teaches, and may as well give up lessons altogether until he/she gets focussed. I suspect many lessons are in this category. The student - or perhaps more likely the parent! - believes that by paying the money and attending lessons a player will magically be produced.
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Author: Allen Cole
Date: 2002-06-02 12:34
While I would prefer to have a full hour with every student, I teach half-hour lessons almost exclusively and this includes theory. Do my students suffer? I doubt it. My students accounted for a third of the middle school clarinets and a third of the high school saxophones in All-District Band this year. Two were eligible for All-State. In many cases the families could not have afforded full-hour lessons.
Several factors make this work, and Gordon's comments about the character of the lessons are very appropriate.
1 - Scale studies are given to the student in a compact and consistent format. (scale, scale-in-thirds, and I/IV/V arpeggios can be done in about one minute per key)
2 - Theory study is very gradual (Master Theory Workbook)
3 - Lessons (in more circumstances) proceed in a set order so that the students know what's coming.
4 - I keep a large file of handout sheets on various issues, so that I don't get caught having to explain something 10 different ways, or having to write out a lot of the same things by hand in students' notebooks.
5 - I try to suppliment normal instruction by forming chamber groups during the summer.
Now these are mostly middle school and high school kids. I usually find ways to give a little extra time to my best high schoolers. I also allow a full hour for adults, because they are not involved in a band program. In order to get this extra time, they have to be able to take their lessons in the morning, or at other off-peak times & locations.
Half hour lessons can be efficient for the student, affordable for the parents, and can allow the teacher to reach a larger number of kids. If I taught hour lessons only, I wouldn't have a big enough pool of students to form compatible chamber groups--and this is something that I consider almost important as the lessons themselves.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2002-06-02 12:45
"I keep a large file of handout sheets on various issues, so that I don't get caught having to explain something 10 different ways, or having to write out a lot of the same things by hand in students' notebooks."
Likewise, as a repairer, I have a wide variety of handout sheets to inform without me spending huge amounts of time talking.
It takes time to prepare but makes live contact time more efficient.
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Author: David Dow
Date: 2002-06-03 11:18
I work full time as an orchestral player and professional private teacher and find the half hour framework even with beginnners too hard to take mainly because a warm up to pitch is done by that time. Also i tend to feel the student requires attention that the half hour just doesn't provide.
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Author: Melanie
Date: 2002-06-05 09:22
I always start out my beginning students with half hour lessons for two reasons. One, parents don't want to spend as much money when the student is just starting, and two: beginners just don't seem to have the stamina to play and focus for more than that time. I usually start adding time to there lesson pro bono, but eventually move the length to an hour so that there is more time to work on various things.
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