For many years I have been teaching students in remote areas of Australia via video conferencing and some of my earliest of students have now graduated from Illustrious tertiary Music Institutions with multiple degrees.
When I first embarked on this daunting task the technology was expensive, unreliable, scarce and my colleagues were justifiably skeptical.
Now that I am spend much of my time in New Zealand I have been delighted to have been leading a major research project instigated by the New Zealand Ministry of Education looking into the viability of teaching children in remote areas of NZ via video conferencing. As part of this pilot project we have taught and monitored closely the success of teaching clarinet, violin, voice and drums. The students were all beginners and for them they are the first group of New Zealand students who consider a music lesson is when you receive your tuition via video conferencing. All the students
It really is never too late at the CSM
I taught my first 73 year old when I was 15 and I remember Perc’s enthusiasm for playing the clarinet. Perc had worked on the New Zealand railways all his life and by the time I knew him he was a widower and he decided that he wanted to learn to play an instrument.
In the decades since I have taught many such people and some of my most joyful music teaching experiences have been with my adult students.
Every January my wife and I run a course for adults in Bellingen on the beautiful North Coast of NSW teaching adults from scratch how to read music and how to play the clarinet. This course is part of a much bigger Summer School called Camp Creative where over 800 people of all ages come to learn new creative skills. Each year we have 20 new adult students and this coming year will be our 9th camp. Most of our late starters have stuck with it and bought their own instruments and joined local ensembles and for me the definition of an optimist is a 93 year old who bought his own clarinet having enjoyed the course so much.
It only seemed natural when I returned to my old music school the Christchurch School of Music to start classes for adults who wanted to learn to play an instrument. We started with five clarinet players and then that grew and grew. At our Showcase Concert in 2006 we had a group of nearly 20 adults playing an item and this inspired other parents and grandparents to follow suit. In 2007 we have adults learning for the first time violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone, trumpet trombone, tuba and we mustn’t forget the ukulele.
It is one thing learning to play an instrument but it is everyone’s dream to play with other musicians so I decided that it would be wonderful if all of our late starters could play in an Orchestra together. Since the CSM is situated in Barbadoes Street I decided a good name for the Orchestra was The Barbadoes Street Sympathy Orchestra.
For the first rehearsal some of the adults were so nervous they didn’t want to walk through the door into the Music Centre Chapel where the rehearsal was to be held. Life’s high achievers don’t necessarily want to feel they are back at Primary School again.
I had written a piece tailored to their abilities called “Its Never Too Late” and within a few minutes of starting everyone relaxed when they realised that their wrong notes and strange sounds were no worse than the person’s next to them.
By the time the concert came around there were well over 50 adults playing, and laughing together and if joyfulness is the measure of success then there was no doubt that the Barbadoes Street Sympathy Orchestra scored top marks.
It really is never too late to learn at the CSM.
Mark Walton OAM
CSM Musical Director