On Mar 2, 2008, at 9:36 PM, Stephen Arndt wrote: > For those of us who don't have (and who have never had) teachers, > this is a great way to learn.
Stephen's comment brings to mind something I have been thinking about for some time: how many of us in the lute world can claim to have "studied" with a teacher for any substantial length of time? Is the idea of studying an instrument with someone an impractical notion nowadays? It seems to me that most of the instruction on the lute, at least that most people talk about, is received at seminar workshop weeks, master-class weekends etc., mostly in informal settings. It's a bit like the folk music world: mention almost anything that constitutes a formal background in music, and the cry goes up: I don't need that! I don't need to know theory. I don't need notation. I don't need to know this, I don't need to know that. (in the lute world we do know history, I'll give us that!) If you're an independent music teacher, I'm sure you have heard people say, "I don't want to learn music. I just want to learn the (fill in the name of the instrument)." In the old days of learning classical guitar in the 60's, there was very little opportunity to study with anyone unless you happened to live near a big city, and there just happened to be a teacher nearby who could give you instruction. Today the infrastructure is in place to study the guitar formally: national- and state-certified educators with advanced degrees and considerable performing experience are working in colleges and universities throughout the world teaching music on the guitar. I wonder if the lute world will ever advance that far. We don't seem to have moved much further forward in developing this type of infrastructure for lute-related studies than we were 35 years ago. Lutenists may not be as thick on the ground yet as guitarists, but there are more and more of us every year, and we're getting higher visibility than ever before. Perhaps the movers and shakers in the lute world need to address this. As far as I know, there are very few places one can go to receive a formal education on the lute, and even fewer to learn how to teach the lute. If I wanted to become a guitar teacher, a piano teacher, even at my age it's obvious where I would go for my education. But if I wanted to become a lute teacher where would I go? Where do I look to find somebody who can teach me to teach the lute? David R [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
