[email protected]

In a message dated 7/8/02 6:59:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:


> I have a daughter who wants to play the violin. She's taken lessons, gotten
> bored, and dropped the lessons.She didn't drop the violin, really, but her
> progress dropped to an imperceptible level. She takes it out, occasionally,
>
> plays stuff from her old beginning book and painstakingly picks out pieces
> she absolutely loves - from musical theater. The process is very very very
> slow.
>
> IF she had a teacher - which she wants, by the way - who would let her
> REALLY
> pick her own music - even if it is far beyond her ability - she'd stick
> with
> it. What she wants is a teacher to help her out with the music she's
> interested in playing - not a teacher to put her through her paces -
> following the standard systematic progression through the standard lesson
> books.
>
> I've talked to teachers. They say she's being lazy and that, if she wants
> to
> play, she has to pay the same price they did - go through the required
> steps.
> They say that if she doesn't have that self-discipline (or get it imposed
> by
> me) that she won't be able to learn.

I have always taught piano and voice this way....34 years now~ since i was
11...luckily i had an unschooled piano teacher (at least unschooled in the
music field) and he was so creative and encourage me to teach neighborhood
kids at age 11. so...i KNOW that the reason i have been successful all these
years(this is my main career as a single mom) is because i have always let
the students pcik their own music~ you can learn the same stuff from bach and
billy joel and and N Sync.....the kids have varied tastes and end up trying
lots of different styles because they know they can here! No PRESCRIPTION
teaching here! DENISE


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

In a message dated 7/8/2002 3:59:27 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:


> But perhaps you could incorporate some of that. Find out what it was that
> they heard that drew them to the violin, or the kinds of things that kids
> find cool until they get used to listening for themselves. Maybe they could
> bring in recordings/music of things they like and mess around with it so
> that learning how to hold the bow isn't the point of the lesson. It's a
> skill that gets picked while working towards something they want.

I ALWAYS wanted my cello teachers to just PLAY for me. They almost never ever
ever played and when they did it was almost always to show me how to do some
exercise correctly. Piano teachers are a bit better about that - they
sometimes play the other hands in duets, for example. I bet the violin and
cello teachers feel like that's not part of the "instruction" and that
they're taking your money for instruction, not for listening to them play.

--pam

National Home Education Network
http://www.NHEN.org
Changing the Way the World Sees Homeschooling!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Cheryl Duke

I bet the violin and
> cello teachers feel like that's not part of the "instruction" and that
> they're taking your money for instruction, not for listening to them play.


My piano teacher would play for me. That inspired me more than anything
else he did. Unfortunately he figured out that I had a hard time playing
anythying unless he played it first....and then he refused to play for me
anymore. He thought it was wrong to learn to play by ear. It wasn't like I
couldn't read the music but in those days playing by ear was a bad thing.

Cheryl

[email protected]

In a message dated 7/8/02 10:39:14 AM, PSoroosh@... writes:

<< I bet the violin and
cello teachers feel like that's not part of the "instruction" and that
they're taking your money for instruction, not for listening to them play. >>

I bet they don't want to be intimidating. If you're trying some three-note
song and they take off on some sonata you might faint, or see it as a place
you could never get.

I like the point, though, and I think it's important for the student to know
the instructor is not just one lesson ahead of them, but really is a master
of the instrument and LIKES the instrument, doesn't just "like" beginning
lessons.

Sandra