[TPIN] What IS competent?

[Daniel,John]

I think most of us by now realize that playing the trumpet 
is a challenge.  Even on the days where every single thing 
comes out right, I wouldn't call it easy.  I've worked my 
whole life to become a good player, and I know the days 
that it is "easy" are a direct result of that hard work. 
 Even when it is easy, I have to work extremely hard to 
keep it that way.

So if we know how hard it is to play the trumpet, why in 
the world would we expect it to be easy to teach the 
trumpet?  To be alone in a room with student after 
student, giving them your full attention, can be 
exhausting.  And I know that very, very few of them are 
going to sustain the kind of effort necessary to fulfill 
their potential, which is OK.

I think for the first 10,000 lessons I taught, I tended to 
teach my students the way I had been taught.  For the next 
20,000 lessons or so I tried to teach my students the way 
I wish I had been taught.  Now I try to teach each student 
the way they need to be taught, which means I'm switching 
gears for each one, sometimes dramatically.

I am certainly a more experienced teacher now and much 
more capable of working with advanced students.  I am 
probably more capable of working with problem students. 
 But the truth is, the more I teach, the more I am humbled 
by the process.

Sometimes etude checking is all a student can handle and 
all the commitment they are ready for, for example.  Some 
students are going to be derailed by the slightest 
suggestion about embouchure.

My teacher as a kid certainly tried to show me some 
physical aspects of playing, but it never clicked.  He was 
succesfull in teaching me about music, and we went through 
a ton of repertoire.  I pretty much had to figure the 
physical part out much later, mostly on my own.

Trust me, every student is a challenge to teach.

John