Author: Craig Matovich
Date: 2007-02-13 04:23
Excellent Cooper, as always! I'll add a couple thoughts...
In my youth, (relative term... I mean late 20s), after playing in an army band, and later graduating from a conservatory, I taught oboe and music theory at that same conservatory for 4 years.
There we had a prescribed number of musical steps a student would take over 4 years in either a music ed program (fewer steps) or a performance program which required more accomplishment as a performer.
I also participated as an instructor in our community outreach program open to high-school students and adults.
For the college students, having their advancement and graduation tied to and paced to semester juries kept them advised of their overall goals. Scales, etudes, and literature were part of the exams. Recital preparation was required for performance majors and optional for music ed students.
They were responsible for meeting their own goals. As a teacher, I focused on any remedial needs the first couple years, musical concepts and phrasing became more important in later study once basic habits were in place.
I realized early every student is different, so aside from warm up routines, I tried to focus on areas for development while emphasizing their current strenghts. Some fun, some challanges, a liberal dose of reality and then leaving the psyche intact is actually a pretty tough act.
Leaving someone with a life-long affininty and love for music and OBOE was more important to me than cutting heads to find the next De Lancie.
For younger students, extra TLC, plus I insisted I adjust their oboe first lesson and then sold them the best or second best reed in my case.
Unbelievable... young HS students getting better focus, tone production, etc., than 1st year conservatory students (in some basic way... but not having a lot of technique).
So, I think a teacher needs a lot of lattitude, and given a hard-working, devoted and oboe loving player to work with, most player teachers I know bend over backwards to go the extra distance.
(Perhaps not true if the student's mom or dad drags to lessons w/o much interest, a sad but true thing, but those really don't extinguish the flame of interest for a teacher with any really motivated student.)
Still,.... burnout can happen. If anyone thinks a teaher is facing that.... move on. Do them and others a favor and tell them why.
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Corrolary: As a student, I was much more interested in learning OBOE from my oboe instructor than MUSIC. I already had that...from other instruments studied and from an early love of music theory. I wanted to learn OBOE. Everything about OBOE. Some teachers dug that, others did not.
(Similar experience with my piano and flute teachers... I wanted to play jazz, and for them to teach me piano and flute... not their music per se.)
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Lessons learned:
Different students need very different things. Musical concepts and instrumental pedagogies probably need blend in some altrustic manner for best results. (And I still appologize to my classical flute or piano teachers at every opportunity for what I subjected them to duing my stuy with them.)
Adult students, especially those with other musical proficiencies require careful consideration and varied lesson plans. They need concepts and a few touch points to regain bearings now and then and a few guiding wisdoms to carry them for years. (I was fortunate enough to receive such instruction, for which I remain very grateful.)
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The Oboe BBoard
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