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adult students

Author: claire70
Date: 2009-02-19 19:41

I've been teaching for about 4 years or so now, and the majority of my students have been kids, either complete beginners, or who have come to me having studied elsewhere for a few years. But I occasionally get an adult 'returner', ie. someone who played as a teenager, then gave up for several years, and now wants to go back to it.

I've just got one of these students a few weeks ago (she just had her 3rd lesson with me today), and I'm thinking about something I also noticed with another similar adult-returner about a year ago. (Although that one gave up lessons again after a few months, so I didn't have time to work out the answer...) Namely: she plays quite nicely but with quite a small, constricted tone. This seems to be the complete opposite to a beginner, who tends to be quite raucous. The only way I can describe it is that she sounds like I would if I played on a reed which was too soft and closed up for me. However, the reed isn't too soft for her, because obviously she's lost her embouchure a bit. If I gave her something harder, she wouldn't be able to get a sound out.

Does anyone have any tips how I can get her to open up the sound? Or is it just a question of time, as her embouchure develops and she can cope with harder reeds again? Her general technique is quite good otherwise, and she seems to be using enough diaphragm support (inasmuch as one can ever tell...)

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