Teaching

Today, I went to All Region Band auditions. I am in the middle of my third year to teach middle school band in the same school district. As a result, I now have a whole bunch of students in band whom I taught as beginners. I love going to these auditions and seeing how the students have progressed in the time since I started them out. Some of them absolutely amaze me.

The clarinet players, for instance. I am not a clarinet player. I can play it, but I took one semester of lessons in college and played it in band for one semester. That is the extent of my clarinet experience. And yet, I can teach them very well. We had sixteen clarinets in the All Region band, and eleven of them were my beginners. Makes me feel like maybe I'm doing something right!

So how do I teach? What does it take to be a good teacher? I plan to begin a series of posts that will address just such a topic.