Re: Standardizing Skill Levels

[Douglas Tate <douglas.tate@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 03:21 10/06/2004, ozharp wrote:

>I've heard high school kids playing for pennies on street corners in many
>cities around the world  performing classical and jazz on conventional
>instruments and one thing that has always stood out to me is how almost
>without exception these kids can effortlessly run musical circles around all
>but a very small handful of the best chromatic players I've heard. Now this
>could be just a coincidence, <Giant snip>

By the late 60s I had won the world harmonica championships on two 
instruments and come second on a third (Diatonic, chromatic, harmonetta)
By the late 70s I had done literally hundreds of recitals of classical 
music in serious music clubs in Europe, done long recitals on the UK's 
prestige classical radio station, etc etc
By the mid 80s, my young daughter, at age about 10-11, sfter having had a 
formal education on flute for about 2 years could out read me and was more 
agile on her instrument.  Playing 'house music' with her during her teens 
really helped my playing formalize in a variety of ways.

'Hard Knocks' school had meant that it had taken me decades to get to the 
standard of a young flautist!!!  Where I gained was in musical experience 
from actually playing with a multiplicity of musicians in professional 
circumstances.  However, there were huge holes in my tech expertise and 
general knowledge ( I learned the deep theory and history when I had to 
teach it as head of music in schools :))) and that was in order to keep 
ahead of my pupils)

There are VERY few harmonica players who can play with musical authority, 
no matter what the genre they are in.  When I hear the expertise of some of 
the players from the far east, it frightens me! (note, expertise in music, 
not technique only)

In my opinion a formalised pathway through the minefields of learning is a 
VERY beneficial thing!  A structured grading system can help to give goals 
but it is really only an offshoot to the structure of learning.

As I said in a previous post... it is the teacher who can put students of a 
structured course... not the structure.

Douglas t