Re: Standardizing Skill Levels

[Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>]

On Jun 11, 2004, at 12:58 PM, Douglas Tate wrote:
>
>
> I concur!

  You're only being nice because you feel sorry for me :(
>
> Writing a starters's book is a VERY difficult task.

  THAT makes sense. The first grade teacher has to teach you to read 
from " O ". The second grade teacher has a FOUNDATION to build on. I 
was lucky. My older sisters taught me to read when I was 3. I guess you 
could refer to them as a "standardized study plan" yuk yuk. By rights, 
the teachers should have turned over MY share of the pay they were 
receiving to teach me to my sisters.

>   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 
> tell 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.

  We (once) did it the same way here. But it's 2004 and why "Row" 
through traffic? :)

>   I ran into a ditch first time out!

  Try a bulldozer (no wheel). Hey, try a boat. THEY steer from the 
stern. THAT can get tricky :)
>
> 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
>