Re: Standardizing Skill Levels

[Douglas Tate <douglas.tate@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 16:11 11/06/2004, Ken Wolman wrote:
A lot of good stuff
<snip>

>Meaty.  A giant slab courtesy of Joe to sink your teeth into.

I concur!


>In all cases there was a METHOD, there was a plan--yes.  Scales, 
>arpeggios, reading music, etude books, deceptively simple pieces to learn 
>phrasing and rhythm, a metronome, fingering charts, embouchure 
>practice.  Moments of total frustration mixed with "I GOT IT!"  Too few 
>formal lessons, but some.

With a formal plan the "I GOT IT"'s seem to come a little closer together :)


 >> If someone dies and leaves me money I'll get a Renaissance, assuming I 
can play it.

That's nice... Thank you :)


 >>Where's the help?  In bait-and-switch books on how to play the chrom 
which then refer you back to the book you didn't buy on the diatonic so you 
have to go back and buy THAT.

Writing a starters's book is a VERY difficult task.  I've been trying to do 
it for years and can't make it so that you can leave an average person in 
front of it and they don't use it as bookshelf filler.  Writing an advanced 
book is a doddle.

I'll use a Joelike analogy.
Remember shift stick autos?? Ah, age has it's advantages!!  If you tel an 
experienced driver of a shift stick car how to turn on the radio when he 
doesn't know, he'll find it easy... he's got so much automatic car driving 
skills under his belt that he is on autopilot with them and only has one 
extra thing to do.
I remember my first lesson starting from the side of the road... believe 
me, you had to do all of these things in England.
Left foot Firmly on clutch pedal, Right foot Firmly on brake. Right and 
left hands at 10 to 2 on the wheel, looking straight ahead whilst looking 
in the rearview mirror and the right and left wing mirrors, the other right 
hand (UK remember) signalling out the window, the other left hand on the 
gear shift, the other right foot on the accelerator.  Oh and listening to 
your instructor whittering away in your ear.  I ran into a ditch first time 
out!

It's like that with instruction stuff.
DIFFICULT to write starter books...

  >> I'm not ready to grow into Doug Tate's book yet--that book is a reward 
for achievement of a certain level of skill, not a mere instruction manual, 
and I'm saying that because I mean it, not because Douglas reads and posts 
here.

Yup ... Big Brother is watching.  You are right, it isn't a book for beginners
but there is a lot of stuff in there which beginners need to know.... and 
MANY harmonica players of advanced playing standard but not taught NEED to 
know!

Ken... if you come to SPAH I'll stand in front of you and tell you what you 
are doing RIGHT as well as what you may possibly be doing wrong.

That's a promise.

Douglas t