{"id":710,"date":"2008-09-04T08:33:58","date_gmt":"2008-09-04T15:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=710"},"modified":"2009-06-29T21:41:18","modified_gmt":"2009-06-30T04:41:18","slug":"on-the-topic-of-teaching-saxophone-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2008\/on-the-topic-of-teaching-saxophone-5\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Topic Of Teaching Saxophone 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sure\u00a0our students\u00a0might\u00a0want to be the next Coltrane, Getz, Mulligan, Dulfer, Koz, or maybe Kenny G. But the reality is, they very likely might not be, and for the ones that are, the road to get there is not usually a short one.<\/p>\n

I had a student, who had a great deal of potential, but who wouldn’t put the necessary time in to\u00a0reach his full potential. I guess he felt that he should just somehow wake up\u00a0one morning and be able to play\u00a0sax\u00a0like he heard on\u00a0his CDs & MP3s. I explained to him that it didn’t work that way. That these players worked for\u00a0years to get to where they’re at. He didn’t get it.<\/p>\n

He is one of these kids\u00a0who has grown up\u00a0in the video\u00a0& computer game\u00a0and 15 second ad world we live in. Instant gratification: if it doesn’t come fast, it’s a bore. It’s almost like we’re hard-wiring ADD or ADHD into them.<\/p>\n

I’m sure we’ve all had students like this. This is seriously problematic. The question is how do you reach kids like this? It’s\u00a0a challenge. The old standards like Rubank…Throw them out the window…Forget about them…They don’t work for kids like this…<\/p>\n

The first time I encountered a student like this I had to rethink my teaching. All the methods that my instructors had used with me, and that I had learnt and been\u00a0exposed to in school and university, were not helpful. I consulted with a couple of instructors I knew, went to the local\u00a0music store, and started\u00a0looking for introductory saxophone methods that used play-along CDs. That helped…For a bit….<\/p>\n

I’d never used BIAB<\/a> much, and didn’t even own my own copy, so that was out. I quickly came to realize: I was seriously screwed \u2757 \u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

OK, so now I had to dig deep, really deep, and try to find a way to reach this\u00a0kid and motivate him. He had potential; serious potential. Luckily I have a good sense of humour, as did he. I\u00a0also happen to be very quick with one liners, as was he.<\/p>\n

So our weekly hourly (yes, we had hourly<\/span> lessons because he<\/strong> wanted 60, not 30 minutes of time with me) became\u00a0almost a stand-up routine\u00a0in which\u00a0we would play\u00a0some,\u00a0trade jokes (usually at the expense of each other), play some\u00a0more, trade more jokes, and so on, and so, for an hour.<\/p>\n

I had my studio set up so that parents could sit in\u00a0another room, close the door,\u00a0and watch\u00a0TV, read, or do whatever they wanted.\u00a0Over time, his mom ended up right in the middle of the action. She sat in the studio with us, and did whatever she brought that week: usually either\u00a0reading or knitting. She found the whole thing entertaining, so looked forward to the weekly lessons as much as her son did.<\/p>\n

Here’s an example of the kind of jokes I used with him…<\/p>\n

One day at a pet store, I happened to walk through the aquarium section, and noticed a set of skeleton rock band figurines for\u00a0a fish\u00a0tank. One happened to be a\u00a0sax player, so I bought it and hid it away in my studio until the appropriate time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One day when\u00a0my student was being particularly obstinate, I said to him: “You’re killing me”, and pulled out the\u00a0figurine and\u00a0held it up to his face. He doubled over in laughter, as did his mother. So from that time onward, whenever he was particularly\u00a0difficult, I’d get the skeleton off the shelf, hold it up to his face and say “you’re killing me”. That would settle things down again for a while.<\/p>\n

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I wouldn’t recommend this (almost an “in your face”, interactive, stand-up comedy routine)\u00a0as a teaching\u00a0strategy\u00a0for difficult\u00a0students, or any students for that matter. But it did work\u00a0with him because\u00a0of who he was,\u00a0who I was, and because\u00a0of the relationship that we had developed over the 12+ months\u00a0of working together.<\/p>\n

My point here is that as saxophone teachers working one on one with students, we have to be extremely flexible and able to think on our feet. We have to be willing to put the time in outside of the lessons, in order to figure out how to best meet the needs of our students.<\/p>\n

A cookie-cutter approach doesn’t work for all students. Flexibility and willingness to adapt our teaching style, be unorthodox (while still appropriate) when necessary, and be open to new learnings ourselves, are among the key elements in being successful in reaching our saxophone students, especially the more difficult ones.<\/p>\n

BTW, this former student still stays in touch with me. He started university this fall, and is still playing sax. He now plays alto, tenor, and is hoping to get a bari in the next year or so. He also just spent 2 years playing bassoon in school. And while not studying music in university, he is planning to audition for 1 or 2 music classes.<\/p>\n

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…this is just my blog<\/em>. <\/span> My \u201creal\u201d <\/b> website is<\/span> www.bassic-sax.info.<\/a> If you\u2019re looking for <\/span> sax info<\/strong>,<\/span> you should check it out too.<\/span>There\u2019s lots<\/em> there! <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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Sure\u00a0our students\u00a0might\u00a0want to be the next Coltrane, Getz, Mulligan, Dulfer, Koz, or maybe Kenny G. But the reality is, they very likely might not be, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[90],"tags":[647],"class_list":["post-710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teaching-saxophone","tag-teaching-saxophone"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t