Re: Question
I teach at a college where students have never been shown things properly..(stick control, Cirrone, Chaffee, John Riley books...etc.). Now that I have been here for a year, I am finding that keeping the students interested is becoming increasingly hard. I have shown clips from drummers that they like, taken them to concerts. What else could I do to keep there movtivation?
A couple of things to clarify:
Are these students there for drums? When I took percussion in college, I was the only "drummer" in the class. Everyone else was a music education major who needed x-number of units of percussion for their degree. They weren't motivated, they just wanted to get through it, because percussion was not their passion.
Are you expecting too much? You say these students have no formal back ground, but then you mention Cirrone, Chaffee, and John Riley as standards. Those books are going to go over a lot of people's heads. If you're trying to get kids to jump into that level of material, you will lose all but the most motivated players. I'd say scale back what you expect.
And the other thing to realize is for many kids, learning how to play an instrument is just one of many things they are doing. It's not a career choice, it's not something they hope to excel at it, it's just one of many things they are trying out. They're on sports teams, they're up all night studying for their majors, and music class is just another passing interest. 99% of college football players never play ball again after college. They do it for a while, and then move on. Music isn't quite the same thing, but there is still a similarity. How many times have you met someone in passing who said "oh, yeah, I played drums in band back in college, but I stopped after graduation" ?
I hope that helps.