> >> I've said this before, but I believe that being a good teacher and >> being >> a good player are two entirely different skills. >> >> >> Toby >> > > Yes. And I wish the vast majority of festival/school organisers would > pay > attention to this fact. Brilliant musician does not necessarily mean > brilliant teacher. And we need more brilliant teachers than brilliant > musicians at this point. > > Sharon Knowles
Alot of the very best musicians can't even tell you what they're doing. That doesn't detract from their abilities or expresiveness. It just means that they haven't spent time developing that skill. It's definately a separate skill.. Articulating what to do and how to do it in way that connects with lots of different people is no easy task. Espcially if you're trying to teach little kids! Here is the US, teachers of any kind don't get the kind of respect or compensation they deserve (but that's a different story). One of the best music teachers I've ever dealt with is Stan Chapman, from Nova Scotia. I have endless respect for that man. His day job is actually as an elementary school music teacher. Bless his heart, he has the patience of a saint and cast iron eardrums. Stan was the guy who taught all these players of my generation, that sort of turned things around with the music, Natalie MacMaster, Ashley MacIsaac, Wendy MacIsaac, Jackie Dunn.. Those folks. One of the things that strikes me most about Stan's teaching is his flexibility. For instance, he told me that after having a long talk with Angus (Ashley's dad). They decided to let him keep playing the fiddle off the right shoulder, yet still strung up like a right-handed instrument. It's a highly unorthodox position, even for traditional musicians. What it does is effects the tone quality in strange sorts of ways. Think of it, all the strings are backwards! If you've ever heard Ashley play, there's something about his sound that is different from anyone else. There's sort of this ringing bite that hangs around as a constant undercurrent. I could pick out his playing in a second. Stan was flexible about that. My first teacher wasn't. I myself am left-handed, and my first teacher forced me to play off my left shoulder, with my left hand on the wood, becuase it "is the correct way". Stan showed me some tunes one time, and I played them straight a few times, then tried to make them sound the way I wanted them to.. Rather then saying "what the hell are you doing?", he smiled and said something like "Ah okay, having fun with them already?" The world needs more teachers like Stan. Toby Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
