Thanks, Helen, for you story. I bet many of us have been there. I took =
up
teaching kids with no teacher training but lots of recorder playing. I =
got lots
of help from my friends at ARTA, but the first semester I assumed they'd =
get
through the whole book "Recorder Time". And the first lesson I "taught" =
them
BAG on the recorder, the music staff, BAG on it, blowing, breathing and
articulation. Needless to say, we had to go over it all again! =
Fortunately, I
never felt like I could take up brain surgery ;-)

I still bring more work to each lesson than they can do, but that's just =
in case
they get on a roll.=20

Best, Sue

On Thu, 9 Oct 2008 20:04:54 +0100, you wrote:

>This reminded me of a something that happened to me many moons ago.
>
>It must have been about 25 years ago; when I was young, naive,
>inexperienced and incredibly stubborn.
>
>They had been learning a piece that was way too hard for them. I had
>totally misjudged what they could do! They were playing a few pieces
>in our Summer concert, but this one piece, despite many lessons, just
>hadn't come together at all.
>
>In desperation, I said "those who feel confident, play it....the
>others, don't blow, just finger the notes"
>
>So up on stage they go. Play first and second piece. Then comes the
>dreaded piece 3.
>
>I play the intro...then the chord to start....nothing....nothing at
>all. About 60 children, all poised with recorders in their mouths,
>fingering the notes and not a sound coming from it.
>
>I tried again. Played the intro...nothing.
>
>In the end, in front of all the parents I said "for goodness
>sake....SOMEBODY must be able to play this piece!" I sat down again.
>Played the intro and one lonely player played. There they were all 60
>fingering away, and only the sound of one player.
>
>At the end, I explained to the audience how they had worked at getting
>the tone so perfect that it sounded just like one player LOL.
>Okay...I then explained what I had told them, and we gave a round of
>applause for the soloist.
>
>Very funny. Everyone had a good laugh, including the recorder players
>
>It wouldn't happen these days, as I can usually tell whether they are
>going to get an ambitious piece within the first couple of weeks, and
>we'll abandon it if I know they'll not get it within time for the
>concert, but in those days, I found it hard to judge and with all the
>work we had put in, I didn't want to drop it.
>
>Anyway....it just reminded me. Oh what it is to be old and have so
>many things to reminisce over LOL
>
>Helen
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