lesson updates 10/21

October 21! Where did this month go (and can I have some of it back?)?! Wows.

It was so nice to finally be back into my normal routine, and to see my students again. I missed them! Student M reappeared after weeks of being a flakey student, and he accepted my "laying down the law" without resistance. (Not what I expected.) And he actually opened up a little bit about some of the root causes behind his problems - I won't go into them here because they are very personal - and he promised he would be a better student. We'll see if this change of heart sticks for the rest of the semester.

More importantly, back to HLS. We had a great lesson this week! We started in on some new repertoire, and I'm interested to see how he it progresses. Her embouchure has become a much more habitual thing (I'm having to remind her about it less and less every week), and her technique is continuing to become more natural and refined. In working on producing a fuller, rounder sound, I've asked her to play everything mf or louder - and it's helped a lot! But now her playing has a very static quality to it. It may be time to start reworking dynamic contrasts and phrase shaping into the music, and I'm hoping the new sonata we're working on will be a good tool for that. My fear is that in playing more expressively, old habits will kick back in. Great diligence is in our future!

The end of the semester will be here before we know it. Keep practicing! :-)

mid-semester frustrations

Can we have another fall break now? I missed the first one, and am running out of energy...

... and so are my students, apparently.

Last week I did not teach any of the kiddos because I was inhabiting one of the "isolation booths" (yes, that is what the sign on the door actually says) in the computer lab taking my comp exam. But I gave them all an assignment based on their all around rather poor showing in our previous week's lessons.

I sent them an email about how to be an effective music student. It's a top ten list put together by the tuba professor at the University of Georgia and that Dr. Dennis AsKew shared with me at the start of last year. The top ten list is as follows:

1. Take your classes seriously, including theory, ear training, and music history.

2. Listen to as much music as you can.

3. Learn and know your scales and arpeggios, they are the building blocks of western music.

4. Schedule your practice time as though it were a class, and make yourself a tough attendance policy.

5. Go to concerts!

6. Embrace what technology has to offer us in developing as musicians.

7. Be curious! Strive to know the repertoire for your instrument.

8. Play with your peers.

9. Be serious about your pursuit of excellence. You owe it to yourself to be the best musician you can be.

10. Know that every great musician in the world still considers himself or herself a student of music.

I then asked them to spend the next week seriously contemplating this list, analyzing how successfully they have implemented the suggestions in this list and what they can work on. Before their lessons with me this week, they all have to write a blog post about their musings.

I'm hoping that this will serve as a mini "wake-up call" for each of them, in different ways. And that they take this assignment seriously. But we'll see. :-)

a weekend of revelations

Howdy, readers!

Well... the past few days have been great. Many little events have shed fresh light on my teaching and the hamsters in my head are working extra hard to churn out new ideas to keep up. ;-)

The first moment occurred on Friday when the student you have been reading about so far (HLS) gave her first rep class performance. She did great! One of her major goals for the semester is to work on her technique, and she has made tremendous progress already. To focus on technique, we've been working on a Stamitz concerto (early classical, not too difficult harmonically but with lots of sixteenth note passages that need to be played even, light, and fast). She did a great job keeping a steady tempo, and playing the technical passages evenly and without missing accidentals. There are other concepts I've been mentioning but haven't started really bearing down on yet, like the angle of her clarinet (she likes to keep it pulled down close to her body). During Dr. Burke's "masterclass" time with HLS after her performance she mentioned ALL of these other things that I'm referring to. It was excelled! Hannah totally understood (because she wasn't hearing anything knew) and at the same time realized that she hadn't really been thinking about them as she should (because we were focusing on technique). It made me realize that while we needed the weeks of focused study on technique (and learning to practice regularly and adjust to college life and all those other things freshmen face in the first few weeks of school), she is ready to handle more than one thing at time now. I can't wait for our lesson tomorrow!

The other "lightbulb" moment I had this weekend happened this afternoon. One of my other students, I'll call him M, has really been struggling. And I mean really struggling. Since classes started he has already missed two lessons and had just a half lesson one week. We have had no consistency and absolutely no sort of routine established - it's frustrating because he just doesn't get it. But that's where my heart bleeds for him... he doesn't get it because he doesn't know what he is supposed to be getting. Honestly innocent ignorance. So I was just about ready to start giving up on him, after weeks of trying to help him out and offer as much advice as I have to give... until today. I had the honor of performing a concerto with the University Band today, and M happens to be in that group. He wasn't playing on the concerto because the group was reduced in size so today was the first time he had heard it. After the concert he purposefully sought me out (I could tell he wasn't just passing by!) and said that he was "blown away" and that he had no idea the clarinet could sound like that. He sounded so excited! I really hope that I was able to give him a glimpse into what he can do if he works at it and doesn't give up on himself. I'm really starting to think that a lot of his problems are self-confidence related (even his trying really hard to appear confident on the outside), and he needs to know that I believe in him and want to help him. If he can get his act together and actually come to a lesson this week, I've got a great plan for him! I hope that in some small way I was able to help him find some inspiration and a goal to work toward. If I can do it, then he can too.

I don't envy these freshmen one bit! It's easy to forget just how hard that first year of college is, and how important it is for us to be the best teachers we possibly can be for these students - they need us.

video from lesson on 9/16

I think I finally found the time to edit and convert a video file to upload here! Now... I just have to hope that as I write this the conversion actually shrinks the file down enough that it will fit on this blog. :-)

This is a clip from my lesson on September 16 with HLS take from minutes 10 through 25 (approximately). If you go back and read my post about this particular lesson, you will recall that I was struggling with not talking to much - or so I thought. After watching the tape back, it doesn't seem like it was much of a struggle at all. I was concise with my words (mostly!) and HLS seemed to be receptive towards my comments and initiated the types of changes I talked about.

Our biggest concerns on this day were technique and air. I chose this particular video excerpt because it is from my typical first part of a lesson - scales (to warm up the student and get them focused on playing clarinet, since most of them come to their lessons straight from sitting in a classroom) and then the infamous etude of the week ("fundamentals" time). I try to use this time as an opportunity to introduce new ideas or as a refresher on a concept that needs renewed focus or energy. The students learn this pattern of playing scales then an etude in their lessons and this consistency allows them to focus in more directly on whatever topic is being addressed that day, and it gives them a specific drill or passage of music they can then use during the week to practice said concept in an isolated manner. In this clip, you'll hear us talk about "bouncy" air versus continuous air flow and how we can use our air as a foundation for fluid finger motion. This theme carries on through the entire excerpt, and it continued for the entire lesson.

rain, rain go away!

Yesterday's lessons with all of my students reflected the dreary weather in many different ways... including my lesson with HLS. The students struggled to focus, I struggled to find different ways to help keep them focused, and we all just felt like we needed to take a nap. Oh, you pesky little rain clouds! Stay away from my lesson days!!

Anyway... specifically about my time with HLS. This week I had one specific goal in mind for our time together: leave HLS with a strong level of motivation and positive energy going into her first (ever!) rep class performance in exactly one week. My plan of attack (which I organized the afternoon before) was to review "rep class rules" and answer any of HLS's questions (how to find background information about her piece and what type of info is appropriate to share with the class, etc.), go through the piece she is performing (reminding her of what to practice and think about between now and then, but also not dwelling on tiny details that could cause unnecessary stress or worry in a first time performance), then practice feeling nervous and give strategies for dealing with that (run through the piece imaging everyone is there watching).

We mostly stuck with the plan. However, HLS had spent most of the week sick and she still sounded very sniffly and was having trouble taking deep breaths. (I have replenished my hand sanitizer bottles... it's sickie time!) So we still reviewed rep class procedure, and that was great because she had several good questions that I could tell she was anxious to go ahead and have answered and not worry about any more! We reviewed the piece as planned and got some great work done it. I was also able to give her a finger exercise to practice this week that should help with one of the really tricky spots - it made a big difference immediately in our lesson. I deviated from the plan, however, when it came to practicing standing up and playing a run through of the piece - by this point in our lesson (a little over 35 minutes in) she looked and sounded worn out. I decided it would be better for us to not struggle through a bad run through (because of her cold and energy level) and have that memory stick with her as she practiced this week. That's exactly the kind of thing that can throw off a young performer, and I wanted her to leave feeling confident instead of anxious. Instead we talked about how she has experienced performance anxiety in the past, and I suggested doing things like taking a few minutes to take some deep breaths and calm the mind whenever she begins to feel nervous. Deep breathing burns a lot of adrenaline and that can reduce the signs of anxiety (sweaty hands, shallow breathing, shaking fingers, etc.) significantly. I reminded her after she takes a bow to take the time to think about what she is playing before she starts and to enjoy every moment. I sensed she was feeling more at ease about playing in rep class after taking the time to think through everything - and realizing that it isn't as scary a situation as she had thought of it before.

HLS left with a smile on her face, a promise to eat some chicken soup and get good sleep over the weekend, and a positive outlook towards her upcoming performance. I was left behind actually feeling a little nervous for her myself (sympathetic nerves, I suppose?) and sent some positive energy into the universe directed toward her. Am I getting attached to these kiddos, already?! :-)

Next week we'll see just how successful this plan of attack was - after rep class!

September 16 lesson

Let me first say that you know you are doing a good job detaching yourself from "modern technology" when you realize that every moment you had the time to seriously contemplate writing in your blog, you didn't have internet access or a computer close by. (I'm looking for the positive side.)

Speaking on the positive side... last Friday's lesson with HLS had many positive sides! I was able to get her to practice with a metronome - something that had previously been a frustrating and subsequently neglected endeavor. And she stuck to it every day! Her rhythm and fluidity in her finger technique (one of our ongoing projects this semester) improved greatly, and she was able to make the connection between her progress and the tools she used to get there. Another step towards learning effective and efficient practice habits: check.

However, this lesson was a personal struggle for me. I am not the kind of person who likes to sit and talk everything to death, but I do like verbal communication - and after watching some lesson footage I have realized that sometimes I like to talk too much. And I suspect that moments when I talk a lot are when I am trying to give my mind the space to figure out what needs to happen next. With time and experience this won't happen as much (I hope!), but in the mean time it's frustrating. So I tried to be aware of when I was slipping into this "talk while I think" mode and not let it happen, and by the end of the lesson I felt like I didn't succeed at connecting with HLS and what she needed me to help her with in our hour together. Every week we aren't going to solve every problem, but I felt like I was creating more problems than I was finding solutions this time around.

Ho hum. I do have some video to post on here.... eventually. :-)

Lesson with HLS #2

On Friday, September 9, my "guinea pig" student mentioned in the last post (who will be referred to in this blog now as HLS) and I had our second lesson together. Our lessons are going great so far and I'm already starting to see the first glimmers of real progress.

There are a couple of technical aspects of playing the clarinet that I'm working on with HLS: embouchure change and hand position/finger technique.

Regarding the embouchure change, things are going well - slowly, but well - so I'm happy with that. After going over the specifics of a good embouchure in our first lesson together, I had HLS talk me through all of the "steps" in creating an embouchure during this lesson. She remembered almost everything correctly and by having her talk me through the process I was able to quickly identify what things needed further clarification. I also asked her to warm-up and play her scales in front of the mirror and watching her embouchure, noticing when it starts to revert back to old habits. So far I've noticed this happening mostly when something becomes technically hard or she is getting tired - we'll see if she comes to the same conclusions this week in her practice. :-)

The hand position and finger technique have already improved a lot, but she is still playing her etudes slow enough that she can really think about each muscle movement. This is great for now while she establishes the muscle control and relaxation necessary for good technique. We are sticking with the same etudes for another week and trying to work on speeding up the tempo by practicing with a metronome and allow the finger motion to become more fluid and even as the tempo increases. I'm curious to see how this challenge goes this week because these ideas are clearly new ones for HLS.

Those are the essential things we worked on in our 50 minutes together, and I hope I see the evidence of good practice again this coming week as I did this past week.

Go Team!! :-)

ps - hopefully I'll get a few minutes of video up from a moment in this lesson when we were talking about hand position.... if I can figure this thing out!