Introductory Clarinet Lesson: Reflection

After taking several days to mull over the outcome of the first five minutes of my introductory clarinet lesson as part of an assignment for Music in the Secondary School at the University of Bridgeport, I have reached a number of conclusions. When creating my lesson plan, using the School of Education's template, I wanted to incorporate a number of objectives and/or learning outcomes. I knew that at the very least, I could ensure that a student would have a general idea of how to put together his or her clarinet after a mere five minutes of an introductory lesson. However, there were many things that I found myself taking into consideration, such as how much time to spend explaining the various parts of the instrument, whether or not to start the student out with the clarinet, as opposed to using myself as a guinea pig for the student to observe and what to use as a hook from the moment the student and I became acquainted. When thinking back to my own first experiences with both the violin and saxophone, I am reminded of how homogenized the environment was. The instructor that I worked with from fourth through sixth grades was someone who I grew quite fond of. This individual had a great deal of knowledge to impart and was committed to his craft. With that being said, he was not always the most inspirational figure. Particularly in this day and age, when students are dependent upon technology, both in school and during daily life, teachers across the content areas have to work twice as hard to captivate, thrill and spur the curiosity of your average student. The musicians that you are seeing in the image below are from Paraguay and built their own instruments out of recycled materials. Now that's what I call dedication and unwavering desire to engage in one's art form!

When comparing and contrasting the observations that I made of introductory trumpet, flute and clarinet lessons taught by my colleagues in Music in the Secondary School to those of my own aforementioned instruction, I am struck by how nervous we all were. I think that each of us had a very clear picture in his mind of what needed to be accomplished, and despite the many similarities from lesson to lesson, we all took on a slightly different method of teaching. Originally, I wanted to have a clip of Benny Goodman's "Air Mail Special" playing in the background when the student entered the room. I felt this would generate a very appropriate, open, creative and fun atmosphere in which to begin working with the student in question. Since Professor Schneider moved from one lesson to another consecutively, there wasn't time and or proper logistics for having him leave the room and re-enter as a typical student would upon walking into the music room of a school from another class setting. Below you will find an absolutely phenomenal rendition of Benny Goodman, James Mundy and Charlie Christian's "Air Mail Special". This version was recorded March 13, 1941 and features Benny Goodman on clarinet, Charlie Christian on guitar, Cootie Williams on trumpet, Georgie Auld on saxophone, Johnny Guarnieri on piano, Artie Bernstein on bass and Dave Tough on drums.

I tried to exude as much confidence as possible when sitting down with Professor Schneider, who was doing his best to play the part of a rambunctious sixth grader with little to no previous musical experience. I think that I demonstrated sincerity in conveying my excitement at the fictitious student's decision to pick up the beautiful instrument we know as the clarinet. I like that Professor Schneider made it a point to challenge each of us by making comments along the lines of, "I don't listen to music," "My Mom is making me play this instrument" and "I've never heard of such and such artist." He also chose to "fool around" as a typical sixth grade boy, aged 11 or 12 might be apt to do. I assumed that the background of one's average beginning clarinet student would dictate that said child had probably heard little to no music, which prominently featured the instrument in question. Knowing that we only had five minutes with which to work, I opted to only play around forty seconds of an alternate recording of "Air Mail Special" featuring Benny Goodman. After this I pulled out Accent on Achievement: Clarinet, Book 1, a method book that provides particularly helpful visuals of each band and orchestra instrument that it services, along with photographs of proper posture and embouchure for the student to refer to. I know that not every learner is of the visual variety, but to me having several points of reference is helpful to any student, regardless of his or her preferred learning style. I regret not bringing my own clarinet, as one of my colleagues chose to do, because despite the need to ensure that a beginning student is not going to drop his or her instrument, I think that allowing the student to get up close and personal with the clarinet, trumpet, flute, etc. from the beginning is important.

I did quite a bit of talking, not unlike my peers, when explaining the different parts of the clarinet to Professor Schneider, ranging from the reed to the lowest section or bell of the instrument. Frequently, there is a grey area between the role of a professional musician and that of an educator. It is not often that the two go hand in hand, mainly because some of the greatest performers have the most difficult time explaining how it is that they do what they do. As musicians, we all have a great deal of information at our fingertips, but it becomes challenging for us to revert back to what it is like standing in the shoes of a brand new beginner. I could have accomplished the same task of teaching Professor Schneider how to put the instrument together, without belaboring the technical terminology of each individual part. Inadvertently, I managed to keep Professor Schneider's antics at bay, by instructing him to place the reed into his mouth, holding it there for a brief period of time to ensure ample moisture, which equals consistent vibration, also known as producing a sound. I regret not having sufficient time for Professor Schneider to begin forming an embouchure on the clarinet, subsequently developing the ability to make a sound. I was briefly able to show him proper hand positioning, but I felt extremely rushed and sensed that I was trying to cram a bit too much material into such a short window of time. The surprising paradigm shift was how slowly versus quickly five minutes elapsed, depending on whether one was sitting in the audience or taking the role of teacher.

The element of an audience observing my "mini-lesson" did boost my anxiety a bit, but when I further examine this "x-factor", I realize that invariably a teacher will always have an audience when working with a full class or small group. Individualized instruction in a public school setting is bound to be constantly absorbed, hopefully even by those students who might not be directly involved at a given moment, but benefit nonetheless. As previously noted, there are several things that I would change about this initial effort, but I also genuinely feel that for a first go around, the results were not completely deplorable. I look forward to learning from the mistakes or hiccups of this experience and growing as the semester and my future career progress.