LITTLE STEPS ADD UP TO GIANT STEPS

Calli, one of my nine-year-old clarinet students had a challenge: she wanted to win an audition into the advanced band at her school and go with them to their Disneyland concert.

But she'd only been playing for just over four months, and the audition piece was way over her skill level.  She'd even auditioned once before and was stopped mid-performance.

But she was determined. I broke the song down for her into little phrases, some only a few notes long, and we worked on finger placement and tonguing exercises too.

Friends, before I tell you how this story ends, what I've described for you is an important learning/teaching tool.

Isolate, then integrate.  Meaning, separate out the difficult passages, break them down to just two notes if you have to, practice slowly, build up speed and confidence, then string them back together.

Back to Calli:

This time when she went in to audition, the teacher stopped her, then asked the class to applaud.

She did it -- Calli's going to Disneyland with the band.

Next? Learning that success brings greater responsibility in the form of harder pieces to learn and delivery in performance.

But I think she can do it.

And Calli? She KNOWS she can do it.

practicing, scales, saxophone, music lessons, clarinet, woodwinds, music instruction, teaching strategies