Finding the right music teacher

[kokotg]

My 9th grader is thinking about majoring in music, so I'm scrambling to figure out what we need to be doing to prepare him for that. He plays clarinet and piano, but would be focusing on clarinet in college. He's had the same piano teacher for 4+ years now, but just started private clarinet lessons a couple of months ago (and has only been playing clarinet for about 10 months). His clarinet teacher is the guy who happened to be teaching at a local music school....he seems fine for the most part, but I don't think he has much/any experience preparing kids for college auditions and all that sort of thing, so I'm thinking of trying to find someone else. But I'm completely at a loss as to how to find The Best Clarinet Teacher (even though I've googled "how to find the best clarinet teacher" 😂). I don't even know where to start. When I try to look online I just get stuff like local music stores that have a whole mess of instructors listed; I feel like there must be some word of mouth kind of networking that I don't know about. Help? 

ETA: we're at Oberlin right now for admitted student days with my oldest, so we did a conservatory tour with my 9th grader. He loved it and says he can't think of anything he'd want to do except music. I'm so out of my element with music that I have no idea if Oberlin is a realistic thing to hope for or not....but I want to give him the best shot I can. 

Edited April 6, 2019 by kokotg

[chocolate-chip chooky]

I'm in Australia, so our systems may be quite different, but do you have music examination boards that you could consult?

I know, for example, that my daughter's new piano teacher has been involved in examinations with the AMEB (Australian Music Examination Board), so I'm confident that he knows his stuff and will be able to prepare my daughter thoroughly.

Perhaps you could contact whatever your equivalent is of our AMEB and ask who their local clarinet examiners are and then hope that they are also clarinet teachers. Just a thought.

Good luck!

[klmama]

Oberlin has a terrific music conservatory, but the acceptance rate is only about 30%; getting accepted there is difficult even for excellent, dedicated musicians who have been playing for 7-8 years, which is the norm for a high school senior.  While I don't want to say it's impossible for your ds to be accepted when only having played for 4 years, I do encourage you to help him appreciate and apply to a wide range of schools to increase his chance of admission into a music program, if that's still his goal when it's time to apply.     

Has he explained to his clarinet instructor that he wants to major in music?  Having that knowledge might change the way the instructor approaches things.  Most people expect to make a year's worth of progress in a year, but your ds is really looking at making 2 years of progress in just one year.  That's going to take extra effort on his part - probably several additional hours of practice daily beyond what he's doing now and possibly more frequent lessons.  

As for finding a better instructor, is there a college in your area with a music department?  You might call the music department there to ask who they would recommend.  

[easypeasy]

I would contact a nearby college with a music department, track down their clarinet professor, and ask him/her if he takes students, or recommends someone. Another point of contact would be to find out if you have a youth orchestra in your area - contact them and ask if they have any teacher lists or recommendations. There are also summer camps that are non-competitive that are still taking applications that might benefit your son with an immersive experience over the summer and he might make some good connections there.

For a student wanting to make great strides in progression at this age, I wouldn't imagine that most local music school teachers are going to be qualified to assist him properly. Planning and practicing specifically with the ultimate goal of college auditions (especially if aiming for Oberlin/similar) is a whole other entity than simply learning how to play the clarinet for the local high school band or orchestra.

(One of mine was saddled with a sub-par instructor for years. Because of local "music politics" (it's a real thing! 🤬), we couldn't change until this teacher released her from his clutches. She has had to work extra-hard and extra-fast to un-do the damage this teacher did - lazy technique instruction, poor musical advice, etc... Thankfully, now, she's with a top instructor and is making great strides & will be prepared to apply at any of the schools/conservatories she's considering next year. But, for the next kid, we sure learned our lesson! I've been mindful and nit-picky with his instruction from the get-go!!)

[kokotg]

6 hours ago, klmama said:

Oberlin has a terrific music conservatory, but the acceptance rate is only about 30%; getting accepted there is difficult even for excellent, dedicated musicians who have been playing for 7-8 years, which is the norm for a high school senior.  While I don't want to say it's impossible for your ds to be accepted when only having played for 4 years, I do encourage you to help him appreciate and apply to a wide range of schools to increase his chance of admission into a music program, if that's still his goal when it's time to apply.     

Has he explained to his clarinet instructor that he wants to major in music?  Having that knowledge might change the way the instructor approaches things.  Most people expect to make a year's worth of progress in a year, but your ds is really looking at making 2 years of progress in just one year.  That's going to take extra effort on his part - probably several additional hours of practice daily beyond what he's doing now and possibly more frequent lessons.  

As for finding a better instructor, is there a college in your area with a music department?  You might call the music department there to ask who they would recommend.  

Thank you! I do realize Oberlin would be a long shot, and I don't mean to imply that it's Oberlin or he'll be miserable (if I didn't already know enough to caution him against getting a dream school in his head, going through the college application process with my oldest this year would have taught me!) He did audition into advanced band (3rd of 4 levels) in the homeschool band program he plays in after a summer of learning clarinet on his own, so I think the piano gave him a good head start--but aside from that we don't have a lot of context for evaluating him yet. He's auditioning this spring for a local youth symphony and will be adding woodwind ensemble on to the concert band and jazz band he's doing now in the homeschool program (keyboards in jazz band, but I'm trying to talk him into switching to clarinet in there), so....year of music! We'll see at the end of it how much progress he's made and whether he still says he wants to do nothing but music 🙂 . 

The instructor knows he's interested in a music major, but I gather that most of his students are younger and it's not something he has much experience with. I was wondering whether cold calling music professors was a thing to do (we're just outside of Atlanta, so there are a number of colleges within striking distance). I'll get on that! 

[kokotg]

3 hours ago, easypeasy said:

I would contact a nearby college with a music department, track down their clarinet professor, and ask him/her if he takes students, or recommends someone. Another point of contact would be to find out if you have a youth orchestra in your area - contact them and ask if they have any teacher lists or recommendations. There are also summer camps that are non-competitive that are still taking applications that might benefit your son with an immersive experience over the summer and he might make some good connections there.

 

Thanks! He's auditioning for youth orchestra this spring....their website used to have a list of instructors, but they redid the site and I can't find the list anymore (there was only one clarinet person, IIRC)....but I can e-mail them to ask. I've looked for summer programs, but we're going to be on a trip all of June and I haven't been able to find anything that happens in July. I'll keep looking, though--my husband is a teacher, so we can go wherever in the summer and turn a music camp into a family trip.

[kokotg]

7 hours ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

I'm in Australia, so our systems may be quite different, but do you have music examination boards that you could consult?

I know, for example, that my daughter's new piano teacher has been involved in examinations with the AMEB (Australian Music Examination Board), so I'm confident that he knows his stuff and will be able to prepare my daughter thoroughly.

Perhaps you could contact whatever your equivalent is of our AMEB and ask who their local clarinet examiners are and then hope that they are also clarinet teachers. Just a thought.

Good luck!

Thanks! the music school where he's taking lessons lists preparing for theory exams as something they do on their website, which was one of the reasons I picked it....but so far there's not much evidence that they actually do all the stuff they list on the website

[Roadrunner]

Call local youth orchestra. Search through local music competitions or other selective events and see who participates (whose students participated). 

 

If you are in Atlanta area look up Brevard summer music camp. They have a high school program as well. 

https://www.brevardmusic.org/institute/faculty/

look at their clarinet faculty. If you contact them, they might be able to show you in the right direction. 

Mali’s Emory has an excellent music program. Check with them as well.

 

Edited April 6, 2019 by Roadrunner

[mathnerd]

I think that given his desire to pursue the clarinet at the conservatory level and the short number of years he has left to pull up his technique and repertoire to college audition standards, the best option would be for him to get into a precollege conservatory program where the teachers can mentor him, coach him, polish his techniques and also give a strong referral to prospective colleges and to professors who might accept your son as a student. I am not sure which university in the Atlanta area offers precollege music studies-but if you called any college music department, they will refer you to the closest one. Good luck.