Hans, you are right, but there is one hurdle: if younger players are not prepared enough technically enough to meet the demand of a very challenging piece they might get stuck with the obstacles of that particular piece for a longer period of time. If they are mature enough technically, to meet the demands of such a piece, they might work on it for a week or two only, so not to waste their precious study time.
Gradually - really gradually - achieving progress in playing technique, brought to them by more & more demanding pieces & etudes progressively, these students might grow much faster than confronted with a piece exceeding their abilities very much or too much. ############################################################################################### Am 12.11.2010 um 11:11 schrieb Hans Denayer: > Wilbert wrote: > =================================================================================================== > > 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 > ==================================================================================================== > > > 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!) > > > > _______________________________________________ > post: [email protected] > unsubscribe or set options at > https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/hpizka%40me.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
