Author: cjwright
Date: 2007-02-13 03:25
I think as a teacher, we are constantly torn between having students work on what they need, versus having students work on what they want.
In my opinion, I think it should depend on what kind of other playing they may be doing (are they a student? Do they play in ensembles at school or amateur ensembles? Chamber music? etc.) and their purposes of playing.
For instance, I recently spent the week with David Weber down in Arizona taking lessons with him, and I spent most of the week playing glissandos. Even though I had an audition that week, he felt it more important to address a specific question I asked him about playing with a silky smooth texture (such as de Lancie in the 2nd mvt cadenza of the Strauss. His 32nd notes sound as if they're one long note.) He trusted that I took all of my musical knowledge and applied it to music. This is how de Lancie taught at Curtis. (David mentioned that not once did he play music for de Lancie, but rather long tones, scales, arpeggios, etc. The tools and lessons learned were to be applied to all the other music. Similarly, de Lancie only played long tones and glissandos for Tabuteau for the first two years at Curtis.)
Now, not all of us want to be sitting around at home playing long tones all day long for our lesson, and so I think there is a necessary balance of working on etudes, excerpts, and solo work.
Perhaps in an hour's time, I'd spend 30 minutes on warmup, checking reeds, long tones and scales, etc. Then I'd spend another 15 minutes on the etude of the week, and another 15 on solo work. Meanwhile, I'd re-emphasize the concepts discussed during the first 30 minutes throughout the etude and solo work. If the student were incapable of maintaining the concept while playing the etude, we'd either have to a) play the etude slower, thus running out of time and not reaching the solo work, or b) go back to long tones, intervals, and scales. In any case, I think students need to have a clear concept that the purpose of basic fundamental set-up elements (i.e. air, embouchure, breathing, and finger placement) is to sound good on other things SUCH AS etudes and solos. The goal must always be kept in focus; otherwise the student is prone to losing interest.
You asked the ratio of playing vs. speaking, and I think the phrase "Less is more" would apply. The less speaking, the more playing, and the more we can express through music. If the student is tired, then the teacher should be demonstrating something by playing it for them. Sometimes, it's even best to play together to check a steady tempo and pitch, which tends to ride up for younger players.
I think all of the concepts you mention really function together. Tonguing can not occur correctly without proper air support and a flexible embouchure. Spending time in front of a mirror with a student demonstrating how to do all of these properly is the best method of instruction I've found.
Finally, the teacher should assess your progress. Often us oboists work so hard on "activating a small minute muscle" in our embouchure to focus the sound more and after a week's worth of work, we still sound crappy. Sometimes, it takes an external party such as our teacher to encourage us that we "have made great progress this week" and that it "will get better with more practice". Otherwise, we often criticize us to no end.
Hope my two cents are useful.
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