2nd blog

I was going to start this blog with beginners, and my new ideas of how I am starting them off on the right road.  But I had such a fascinating lesson with a more experienced pupil last week that I thought it might be of interest.  N passed his Grade 5 clarinet last term with merit.  He always practised, as far as he said, but never made quite the difference between his lessons that I expected with his level of interest.  His performances never quite developed as I had hoped.  He is now continuing with his lessons on the saxophone, but not on the clarinet.

We started a new piece last week.  I sat down on a chair, and asked N to start to practise the new piece as if he was at home.  I had stressed the need for repetition as I had before. He understood the written music involved. But his practice style was very muddled.  Forwards, backwards, repeat once, move on: I couldn't really quite get a handle on it.  So, I showed him more clearly how to 'chunk' it into short sections (easy in this piece as there were lots of rest sections) and repeat each section until it was confident, and then play it another few times.  He recognised the difference, and tried it the following week.  The improvement in his work was dramatic - even N recognised it.  I think he'd been trying before, but I hadn't given him the real skills needed.

All I did to achieve this was to take time out from the teaching to spend the lesson on learning (him and me) instead.  N had all the skills but wasn't quite making them work for him.  I realise that I hadn't spent enough time demonstrating the best way to make a difference in his playing.  I've been teaching quite a long time now, and this was quite a revelation.

If you decide to try this out, do let me know how you get on.  And I'll make sure there's a picture in here next time, like Abby told me to.