Teaching
In this section, I'm uploading a collection of documents that give a snapshot of my approach to teaching bassoon. Ultimately, I believe the lesson teacher has three primary roles: teaching students the fundamentals of their instrument so that they can harness its expressive potential without technical hindrances, synthesizing what the student learns in music history and theory courses in order to create well-informed musical interpretations, and most importantly, inspiring the student to achieve ever increasing levels of artistic performance and satisfaction. The documents here offer a few examples of how I approach these three roles in lessons. While many of these documents are aimed at college level bassoonists, I enjoy teaching all ages and use forms of these concepts with all of my students.
The first category is my approach to the daily routine, a group of fundamental exercises to be performed in a key of the day. Rather than just a sheet of drills, this document has a lot of text explaining the motivations and goals for each exercise, as well as how to apply what it teaches to other music.
I'm also including a set of performer's guides to several of the bassoon's best known solo pieces. These guides are designed to walk someone through my approach to forming an interpretation of a piece, an interpretation that is rooted in analysis of the entire score and placed in a historical context. Each also includes some biographical information about the composer and some ideas for other resources for further study. Rather than trying to force my own interpretation on students, my goal is to teach thought processes that equips students to think critically and perform faithfully to the composer's intent.
Mozart Concerto in B-flat major Performer's Guide
Weber Concerto in F major Performer's Guide
Saint-Saens Sonata Performer's Guide
Telemann Sonata in F minor Performer's Guide
Bassett Metamorphoses Performer's Guide
Reed-making Resources:
Photo by Jennifer Grubbs