On 15 August 2011 19:24, Hans Pizka <[email protected]> wrote: > The other source for the defects in the embouchure its the ambition, both > by the teacher & by the student. Why > starting with Mozarts no.1 concerto, - and study it for weeks & months, > because not mature enough for it -, as there is a legion of short & not high > pieces for horn & piano to please the embouchure, the student, the teacher & > the audience. But what can you do, if teachers have not one cent worth > knowledge about this literature. > > At this point I'd like to put in a plug for the system of graded instrument exams we have in the UK, run by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM). There are eight grades of gradually increasing difficulty, where Grade 1 can normally be taken by a student a year or so after starting an instrument, while a high mark in Grade 8 is what would be expected of a high school student hoping to go on to music college for a performer's course.
Each exam includes three pieces, (or two pieces and an etude), a selection of scales, a short piece of sight-reading, and a selection of aural tests. This has the potential disadvantage that teachers "teach to the test", but has I believe the greater offsetting advantage that when going for the next grade, at least the pieces and scales being selected are of a difficulty appropriate to the student's current level of achievement. Good teachers will of course include other technique work in between and in addition to the exams, and will also include some fun pieces for the student which are not for the purpose of exams. I've described the system in more detail on my blog http://jonathanhornthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/10/music-teaching-in-uk.html Regards Jonathan West _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
