Di B
Member
In my short time teaching I think I have come across the most challenging thing to correct now!! Any help or advice with this is appreciated.
I have an 8 year old who has been playing cornet for 6 months. In truth, they have made little progression, but recently been given a gentle kick up the bum and they are now working again.
However, there are a few problems with how he plays that I am struggling to find a way of correcting and I want to address this before it becomes 'the norm'
As he goes up the scale from (bottom C to middle G - nothing more) his pysical playing position changes. He starts leaning back as he goes up the scale, and if I stop him doing this by getting him to sit upright on a hard wooden chair his head still tilts back considerably. In addition to this, I have found that he is so tense it is frightening. His head, shoulders and arms are all rigid when he plays - it can't be doing him any good at all. The higher he does the worse it is.
I didn't see this coming on at all and it seems to be a more recent thing (at least I think thats the case) and I have tried everything I can think of... but I know if he carries on like this he will probably damage his throat quite badly. The problem is there wether he is standing or sitting and how he breathes is fine. I have tried to get him to smile to go up the scale rather than crane his head back and this has reduced it a little, but it isn't helping the tenseness.
He is the sort of boy that takes it all quite seriously and the only thing I can think of is that he is doing this as a side effect of trying too hard and worrying about it too much.
An instrument change has been discussed, but as he wants to play cornet I have given him a reprieve for now... but I can see this being an ongoing problem with whatever instrument he picks up.
Any thoughts or ideas much appreciated.
I have an 8 year old who has been playing cornet for 6 months. In truth, they have made little progression, but recently been given a gentle kick up the bum and they are now working again.
However, there are a few problems with how he plays that I am struggling to find a way of correcting and I want to address this before it becomes 'the norm'
As he goes up the scale from (bottom C to middle G - nothing more) his pysical playing position changes. He starts leaning back as he goes up the scale, and if I stop him doing this by getting him to sit upright on a hard wooden chair his head still tilts back considerably. In addition to this, I have found that he is so tense it is frightening. His head, shoulders and arms are all rigid when he plays - it can't be doing him any good at all. The higher he does the worse it is.
I didn't see this coming on at all and it seems to be a more recent thing (at least I think thats the case) and I have tried everything I can think of... but I know if he carries on like this he will probably damage his throat quite badly. The problem is there wether he is standing or sitting and how he breathes is fine. I have tried to get him to smile to go up the scale rather than crane his head back and this has reduced it a little, but it isn't helping the tenseness.
He is the sort of boy that takes it all quite seriously and the only thing I can think of is that he is doing this as a side effect of trying too hard and worrying about it too much.
An instrument change has been discussed, but as he wants to play cornet I have given him a reprieve for now... but I can see this being an ongoing problem with whatever instrument he picks up.
Any thoughts or ideas much appreciated.