Like many musicians in Southern California, I play in a variety of community groups with players of widely varying skill levels, from beginner to pro.  Many colleagues who are high school age and beyond have asked me as a teacher, “Why should I take lessons?  I know the fingerings.  I know how to read music.  What could you possibly teach me that would make it worthwhile?”

When an adult begins playing, they have high expectations.  Perhaps they want to sound like that clarinetist they heard on the local jazz station; they will buy the instrument, check out the best jazz mouthpiece, research which reed to buy, and then emulate a jazzy vibrato style before learning about embouchure and breathing.  Or perhaps they heard Mozart’s clarinet concerto, and said, “I want to play that!”  They’ll go to the local music store and buy it, and try to play that piece, and ONLY that piece.  After all, the first movement looks pretty easy, right?   But they don’t know about phrasing and breath control that’s needed to make this VERY DIFFICULT piece sound easy.  In both cases, the student may get frustrated because they don’t sound like the recording, and abandon their quest to learn a musical instrument.

Such learners may not see the sense of an instruction book.  “Give me a fingering chart and a recording of what it sounds like, that’s all I need”, they may say.  As their teacher, I help them  find a book a level or two below where they think they are at, to build the all-important embouchure, tonguing, and breathing technique.  These are building blocks to achieving that wonderful jazz sound, and perfecting the Mozart.

Everyone has life skills acquired in a professional career or through life experience which will can give students who are young adults and older a running start when it comes to learning an instrument.  However, the following rule still applies to many aspects of learning an instrument; “You have to crawl before you walk, and walk before you run”.

Taking lessons will help get you from crawl to run.