staying in shape

Whoever said

"Those who can, do.
Those who can't, teach."

never tried to teach clarinet lessons to students with whom they didn't have a common language. Some of my younger students also have only the most tenuous grasp on reading printed music.

In the U.S., I could explain practice techniques. Describe phrasing and stylistic points. Talk at my students till their eyes glazed over.

Here, I've got to put my money where my mouthpiece is. If there's something I want to hear, or a point I want to make, I've got to demonstrate it. This is not so hard with my young students, who are learning basic scales and working their way through the massive etude books that will teach them how to get along with their instruments. However, it also applies to my more advanced students, who are working on major concertos. Orchestral excerpts. Really, really tough music. And I've got to be able to pull out any passage of it on a moment's notice.

This job is making me a better player, and even when I fail spectacularly (as in studio class yesterday, when I made an appalling mess of a really tricky passage from Debussy in front of nine students) I am getting better at relaxing, at being consistent, and at not taking my bad self so seriously.

I'm a very preparation-oriented player. I've got a solo recital coming up in August, and I've been actively preparing for it for more than two months now. I programmed it in February. This is partly because I am not one of those blessed souls whose hands seem to know what to do without too much effort. I've got to drag my fingers through everything with painstaking care, and I'm insanely jealous of the many, many people for whom this just isn't a problem. Unfortunately my practicing, necessary though it is, also begins to seem a little idolatrous at times, and having to have the entire repertoire of my instrument literally at my fingertips at all times is teaching me that maybe that ironclad practice schedule isn't absolutely necessary for every single passage of every single piece I ever hope to play.