(BTW Mike, my dearest friend is a composer of film and tv with no real
training, and so I know natural brilliance goes a LONNNGG way! Even he,
though, wishes he had proper training in his youth.) :)
Shawn
At 10:02 AM 1/2/97 -0500, you wrote:
>On the subject of lessons vs no lessons, this is something I have been
>thinking about so much lately. I am a strong advocate of sitting down and
>putting your hands to the harp and that is why I get so many people in
>hospitals to instantly play using the mode system. I get frustrated when
>teachers carry and attitude that they "know it all" and act superior to the
>student because I believe this kind of attitude in life is detrimental and
>can leave people feeling inadequate. How many times have I encountered
>people who have said, I love music, but I'm not good at it because my teacher
>told me so when I was little." It's like my son, just losing first chair in
>his Jr. High band this year and ending up in last chair, not because of his
>ability on the sax but because his cork was broken and squeaked during the
>auditions. His self esteem has been teetering and the only thing he felt he
>had going for him was his music. Because his audition score was 92 instead
>of 96, he was demoted. For heaven sakes, what are we doing to our children
>putting this kind of pressure on them in Jr. High while they are trying to
>learn an instrument in order to have a means for self-expression throughout
>their lives. Needless to say, he was laughed at and has lost zest for
>playing at all. You can be assured I had a few words to say to the
>administration - the reply? "we need to prepare kids for the real world -
>and the entrance to music schools involves competition in the real world". I
>proceeded to tell them that my mother had problems with her jury performance
>at Juilliard but Marcel Grandjany was kind enough to ask the jury to leave
>the room while she warmed up, they all listened outside and came in and
>passed her with flying colors." That's humanity, folks. I've heard of far
>too many teachers slapping a students hand - they all need a good course in
>psychology before they begin to teach! There is a wonderful study of TA that
>goes into life scripts and how we as people have certain things that can
>identify where our strengths and weaknesses are. If a teacher is very aware,
>they will watch the student and listen to their speech patterns and custom
>their teaching style to ENABLE that person to succeed. An article on the
>Psychology of Becoming a Harp Player based on the TA Model appeared in one of
>the Folk Harp Journals a couple of years ago - since I am not near my
>journals at present, I can't guide it to you. But it was my final paper for
>a psychology class that was one of those key events in my life.
>There are many teachers who are threatened by their students and that is one
>of the reasons that the teacher/student relationship continues. The student
>is never empowered enough to feel they have made the cross over as a "real
>harp player". I often tell students to sit down at the harp from the very
>beginning and picture yourself as a professional harpist. How does a
>professional look? How do they feel? If you think of yourself as a student,
>your body takes on the feeling of inadequacy. But if you think of yourself
>at the top - and I don't mean walking around with a haughty air - but if YOU
>BELIEVE IN YOURSELF then your music will reflect it. I then tell them to
>"fake it until you make it". Some where along the way, the cross over will
>happen when enough practice has gone in and you won't need to grapple with
>the feeling of inadequacy.
>
>My dilemna recently has been that I have many students asking me why they
>can't do fast trills, arpeggios or bisbisgliandos the way I do.
> Unfortunately, we are living in a world where we want to do it all very
>fast. I am fortunate for the years of study and more over the years of
>practice. I believe there probably hasn't been a day in over 40 years (1
>year out I recall) that I haven't played the harp. While in school at the
>Mozarteum in Austria we literally practiced 8 hours a day on a single
>passage. Boring? To what ends does one subject oneself to this? Good
>questions. I asked myself that along the way too. But it does result in
>pure discipline in the cells of the hands and mind and wonderful muscle
>development. It is very frustrating when you want to play something and the
>hands just can't manage to do what the mind or heart wants them to do. If
>having a teacher guide you day by day or week by week can offer you this
>(especially the discipline of getting to the harp each day if only for a wee
>bit of time) then it is worth the lessons. But choose your teacher well, let
>that teacher be a well of inspiration and discipline and when you start to
>feel that the teacher is hindering your self-esteem in your attempts,
>question it and pull away if you need to. Teachers need teaching in this
>area. If you are content to play the way you are playing at present and feel
>that you can get to where you want on your own, then continue this way.
> There are many wonderful players who have been learned with lessons and
>without. The key is knowing what you want, how to do it and then DOING IT,
>over and over and over and over. It's time to close and leave for another 9
>hour stint at the Aquarium. (I believe that's doing it TOO much, though!)
> Happy New Year and Happy Harping, Tina Tourin
>
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sbird@dpts.schdist57.bc.ca
"It is not so much our friends' help that helps us
as the confidence of their help."
Epicurus
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