Posted by Ian Easton on July 15, 2001 at 08:22:35:
In Reply to: teaching beginners posted by MD on July 14, 2001 at 15:08:00:
In teaching a beginner, you're teaching far more than how to read music. A lot of the books cover this very well, sequencially (I use Accent on Achievement or Learn to Play) and if lessons were just this, a smart student could learn without a teacher (I often have kids that 'rush ahead' in the book).
You have to also make sure no bad habits develop (tone production...buzzing, tounging, breathing etc) from the word go, as well as keeping an eye on posture.
You're also going to need to teach him/her good practice habits, and foster a love of music and the instrument. Sound easy?
I've 'taken over' a lot of students whose previous teacher (for one reason or another) didn't manage to correct problems. It's so much harder to break ingrained bad habits, and being the new teacher, the element of trust hasn't been built yet, so what you say often carries less weight!
Depending on the student's maturity, he/she may be very keen to play tunes straight away: this is where the Accent on Achievement series is useful (apart from the pretty pictures and colour-coded concepts): kids love playing whole-note tunes with a backing CD. For older students, starting with the basics is best. They aren't going to be 'turned off' from lessons if you give them a week of just mouthpiece excercises, or spend the whole lesson on breathing.
I prefer teaching a student from a beginner level. No conflicts of teaching ideologies (to use a euphemism)!
Ian Easton