Wilbert wrote:
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Hello all.
I really want your honest opinion on the following.
I have a friend, a college freshman non-music major, who is playing in a local
college/community orchestra. Her horn teacher has her working on Schumann's
Adagio and Allegro. I feel this selection is entirely too difficult for a
freshman. I saved it for my Graduate Recital!
This student does not yet know her major and minor scales and arpeggios, two
octaves. She has not worked through any type of exercise book such as Singer
of
Standley. She has never been introduced to the Farkas warm up. She has never
played her way through Kopprasch book one.
Am I out of line here? I always thought that to play music, let alone to play
music musically, one had to have a firm foundation in technique. How do you
feel?
I've seen this teacher do the same type of things to other students in the
past. I feel she is totally wrong, and is placing a brick wall before her
students that they just can't climb over. It's one thing to challenge a
student, it's another thing to frustrate them.
Wilbert in SC
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I have a related story about the Adagio & Allegro.
Once I was walking on the street with my horn in a fixed bell case and an old
man stopped me. He said: "That's a horn isn't it?" I answered him yes and the
conversation continued that his father had been a horn teacher of the
Conservatory of this town and that he had some old scores at home. He asked if
I
would like them. After writing him a note, visiting him in his house and
listening to some war stories, he gave me the score of the Adagio & Allegro. He
said it was his favourite peace and he would very much like to hear it once
again. At that time it was also much too difficult for me, but together with my
accompanist (and stephfather) I set my goal of playing it through once a year.
Now, 6 years later, I will play it for my final exam at the same conservatory.
Hopefully I can still reach the old man to invite him to my recital.
Morale of the story: sometimes it can be challenging to play a piece that is
too
difficult and set it as a long term goal to play it in some years. If that's
the
only thing you are working on, then I don't think it's a very good idea to
build
such a barrier.
Greetings,
Hans from Belgium (not the other Hans!)
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