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March 2008March 12, 2008 07:46Okay, so I grew up weird. I actually put effort into it when I played. I can't believe the number of kids that just don't even try these days. Are kids really that much more pressed for time than they were 20 years ago? Perhaps. But the comment I hear most often from parents is: "I wish I would have listened/practiced/stuck with it more." So I try to give the kids good technical and mental practice habits for when they have to go play on their own. But there just always seems to be one or two that never get it.And it's not just at the high school level, either. I had problems when I taught at Brevard the last couple of years. I encountered conservatory students who didn't know how to even practice a scale efficiently. Heck, one girl tried to learn the Prokofiev 5 melodies and didn't complete it in the 6 weeks we had together. That sort of thing makes me feel I'm a bad teacher - when I can't inspire greatness in the people that need it the most - but I guess you just can't win them all. The idea that you work on your notes and try to learn the bowings, fingerings, rhythms, dynamics on your own seems plain as the nose on one's face. If you're coming in to a lesson with someone who is a professional musician or teacher and they have to sit there and tell you, "it's a 3rd finger, not a first finger", "E string, not A string", "8th note, not a quarter note" during *every bar* then the student is being incredibly successful on only one thing: pissing the teacher off. I have one student in mind right now that does this and I cannot express the level of frustration I have with her. Deep down I believe in her and if she just put her mind to it and concentrated she could be a halfway decent player and find lots of enjoyment from playing violin. But instead she's stuck with the bow on the fingerboard, duck feet posture, playing with bad tone, bad rhythm, out of tune. I've tried everything, even video taping her performance and playing it back to her. Nothing gets through to her. So I get frustrated. One of my friends describes that feeling as her skin melting off her face. I get this big knot in the middle of my throat when this happens. Everyone has weird students. I pose this question to other professionals: what do you do when someone constantly doesn't improve over time? Do you stick with them or drop them? If you drop them, how do you do it? I've begged and pleaded with the mother to stay for the lesson and she won't do it. Thanks in advance for any replies.
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