Music · Wednesday July 23, 2008 by Julie
This guy taught me how to do glissandos on the clarinet. I already sort of knew, but I needed somebody to tell me before I felt ready to try it myself.
It used to be that I’d berate myself for not learning things in particular ways. I ought to be loose enough to have learned glissandos by simply noodling around on the clarinet a lot. I ought to be logical enough to figure it out by sorting through what I already know about the production of sound on that instrument. I ought to be studious enough to carefully read the book I have on clarinet technique. And most toxic of all, I ought to be musical enough to be able to intuit how to do it.
Whether I teach kids, adults, or myself, I keep seeing this. At some level, everyone knows how they learn best. Most people fight it.
