Reading Reflection 3

There are many techniques and methods an orchestra teacher could use; in fact, they are too numerous to enumerate here. However, a couple that were mentioned in the article by James Kjelland struck me as interesting and useful. First, the section on “Glue Bows” vs. “Feather Bows” was interesting. For one, I did not know the actual, functional difference between playing near and playing away from the bridge. Also, I thought it seemed to be an effective way to teach this concept. When addressing pitch, then, the author suggested had two main suggestions – use a piano, and have the student(s) sing the pitches. A piano can be very reliable and useful. One’s voice, however, is almost essential to his or her playing; thus, (and this goes for any instrument, string, wind, or otherwise), if the student can hear and sing the pitch, then they will be able to play it correctly.

Some materials, as presented in Hamann and Gillespie, that could be beneficial to technique building would be Finger Patterns (Foundation for the Advancement of String Education), Belwin String Builder (CPP-Belwin), and, of course, Essential Elements for Strings (Hal Leonard). Along with these materials, a string teacher needs to be aware of other related things such as the existence and activities of area professional organizations, in particular ASTA. Also, the teacher should know where the best (both in terms of quality and price) places are, locally, to have repair done. Finally, the teacher needs to find a good resource for finding music, both method books and sheet music/orchestra scores.

I personally would attempt to blend all of the approaches that we have learned about. The handful I mentioned here are only a small portion of all the concepts we are learning in this class. After awhile, many seem to be very similar. I would hope to synthesize all I am learning, and be the best non-string-playing (at least at this point) string teacher I can be!

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