... for untalented students?
I'm starting the clarinet after some bad educational experiences with jazz guitar where I didn't work on my ears at all and just learned scales and arpeggios and the theory on improvisation. I didn't feel like anything more than a poorly trained monkey at the end of two years.
I just had a quick 30 minute lesson with a clarinet teacher (jazz background) and there were two things that were rubbing me the wrong way:
My idea of learning music is: yes, learn the instrument (scales and arpeggios), but also learn to hear music, improvise over chords, hear chords, and transcribe music.
In the thirty minutes I met with my clarinet teacher, who has a jazz background, he
- repeatedly stressed the importance of learning to play in all twelve keys, and
- repeatedly offered me method books.
I don't have any issue with learning to play in all twelve keys, obviously I think that's a pretty basic requirement to master the instrument. But would I rather be able to play well in 3-5 keys that play poorly in 12? I feel like I want to work on my musicality, phrasing, fluidity, ear, etc., and that playing in all twelve keys is just going to bog that down. I worry I'll get frustrated with technical exercises and quit. I'm just beginning, and I want to get inspired as soon as possible. If the choice is between learning to Play Petite Fleur by Sidney Bechet in Bb major or learning to play Mary Had a Little Lamb in twelve keys, I'd much rather the former.
As far as method books, exercises, again, I love that shit, but I don't see why I need to read it. You tell me to play an arpeggio up to the seventh and walk back down to the root of next chord up then repeat until you've completed an octave, I can do that without reading music. In fact, it's probably more of a sign of fluency and mastery to be able to track that in my head than just read it off the sheet music.
He also wants me to learn to read music, which, fine, I'm not averse to it, but I just don't want it to be the main way I absorb musical concepts because I know I don't internalize music that way.
I explained where I was coming from, but he didn't really seem to get it.
I suspect he's one of those terminally talented people who has all the ear training stuff figured out and for him learning music is just learning to master the instrument technically AND/OR he's able to internalize the music just by playing through these exercises which for me get pretty mindless after a while (for instance, I don't say, "oh, yes, that's the third minor seventh chord," just because I've played the arpeggios a million times).
I feel like I'm going to need to supplement with my own exercises, for instance playing arpeggios over a backing track, or continuing transcribe on my own. He says he doesn't do transcriptions; then he said he'll sometimes GET transcriptions of solos to study them, which to me seems absolutely backwards, like improvisation is some kind of cerebral exercise. And again, it's probably isn't just academic for him because he's actually talented and has a good ear and his analysis goes to good use, but I'm afraid for me it would just be, "Oh, ok, so know I know this passage is in this mode, but, so what if I can't hear the difference between one mode and the other, I guess I'll just randomly noodle up and done in this mode when this chord comes up" or "ok, so this is a repeated ii-V-I pattern modulating to a hyperfricative contabulation or whatever, but so what, I hear the final root, but the rest is just vague blahness, guess I'll play [first, third, fifth, seventh] of [chord] as it passes by and hope I don't lose my place."
In the 1970's and 80's, if you wanted to play in high school band, you had to pass a standardized musical aptitude test. I feel like selecting for talent is what music education is based on. If you have aptitude, you can pick up all these things that aren't explicitly taught, but if you struggle with hearing, teachers aren't prepared to help you out with that. I feel like I'm kind of going to be on my own with getting my ears into shape.
I did start to transcribe music on my own about six months ago and it's made a huge difference, so for the first time in my life, I think I have a chance to be musical, but I'm worried it's going to be a solo project.
Edit: It reminds me a little bit of how untrained native teachers of language are HORRIBLE language teachers because they have no idea why anything is the way it is, they just can explain to you what they'd say in every case without being able to distill it down to a set of rules. Teachers who learn the language as students know all the rules and are naturally better teachers than untrained natives. Same with music. People who pick up music naturally aren't going to know how to teach that to people who struggle with it.
Submitted May 27, 2025 at 10:07PM by rainbowcarpincho https://www.reddit.com/r/Learnmusic/comments/1kx48pv/do_talented_musicians_make_terrible_teachers/?utm_source=ifttt