OK, it's 30 hours until my first lesson. Well, 30 and a bit. This is just a standard first-lesson-panic post, so feel free to ignore it! I just need to witter and then hopefully it'll all be out of my head and I can calm down
I'm panicking already. This is very silly, I know, but I am someone who panics so I'm sort-of used to being like this. I'm also a pre-planner and a list-maker, so guess what I've been doing this morning?
I've made the decision that lessons will take place in the living room (the teachers is coming to my house). I usually practice in the bedroom as it doesn't have a party wall, but I'm not inviting a strange man in to my bedroom on first meeting Downstairs the only room without a party wall is the kitchen, but my husband will be using that. Still, as far as I can work out, the party wall is with next-door's cupboard under the stairs, so that's not too bad
Well, my husband will be there, which is good, as he won't let me yield to the temptation to hide under a blanket and pretend to be out when the doorbell goes. Yes, I know I want lessons, but it's just so scary. That I've never had any contact with the teacher - this has been done through an agency so far - probably makes it worse. I know, people are usually OK, they're just people, and he is, after all, a teacher so he expects to be teaching people who need to improve And I'm sure he'll have a perfectly sensible attitude to the recorder, being as he chooses to teach it!

Here's my list of things to do:
Bring music stand downstairs
Bring recorders downstairs
Bring music downstairs

That's all. Very simple. AND I'm not going to allow myself to do any of this before I get home on Tuesday (which will be 1.5hrs before the lesson). I refuse to be all ready 24 hours before, that's silly. See, nice and easy. Until I start panicking again and I think 'Which recorders? How much music? What will I play?'
I will probably just have the descant and the treble, but make sure to mention that there is also a tenor and a bass (maybe I'll tuck them in the living room so they are to hand if needed).
I will admit from the first how much music I have. It's a truly terrible amount (I have magazine holder thingys - one for descant, one for treble, and one tenor/bass/mixed [ensemble stuff or solo-but-play-it-on-any-recorder stuff]). At least most of it (well, more than half of it, so technically that's 'most') is secondhand. It's true, if I see recorder music not-aimed-at-children in a secondhand shop, I am compelled to buy it I guess if I just admit that then with any luck he can find something in my hooooge pile that he can teach from. If I have to go out and buy Recorder From The Beginning, I shall be less than impressed! Also, at least most of what I've managed to collect is up-to-G5. I don't have anything too ambitious (if you ignore the Handel sonatas, and the harder bits of Der Fluyten Lusthof), but I do have plenty of really random things which don't appear too hard but could well end up being a lot harder than I think (a book of 50 Telemann menuets, for example).
What shall I play? Who knows! Luckily, one of the reasons I want a teacher is because my own practice is just so aimless - what to play, when to play something else, how hard/not hard a thing to work on, etc. So his reason for being there is that I'm so indecisive so that I haven't decided on something to prepare is quite in keeping I'll probably be happier to just sight-read to be honest, give him an idea of what I can / can't manage. I do have one descant piece I'm happy with and could 'perform', oh, and now I think of it there are a couple of treble pieces in not-too-bad shape - though they haven't been practiced in probably a month or so...

OK, that's all out of my head now, I shall go and be calm for at least the rest of today. Then there's just tomorrow to get through

Maizie: I hope it goes well! Good luck and enjoy it. I'm sure you'll be fine

Play something you're confident with and don't need to think too hard about, and don't worry about it too much. It's not a pass or fail situation, your teacher will just want to hear you play and start to get a rough idea of where you're at.

Have fun!!

Enjoy your lesson!

Maizie, you sound a bit like me - I also like making lists of things to do in advance and try to consider every eventuality. In my first oboe lesson nothing went as I had expected but it was a good lesson (I actually found the second more stressful than the first because I was worried about what he would think of the practice I'd done during the intervening week). I think you should be prepared for it to take at least a couple of weeks for your lessons to settle into any sort of pattern - it took several months for my teacher to work out what I knew and what he needed to work on with me and how I learn best.

Enjoy your lesson (and don't fret about what you could have done better afterwards ).

What kerioboe has said about not fretting afterwards has made me think of saying to you what I often need to remind myself - it's a lesson NOT an exam. Things may go wonderfully or badly but at the end of that day it's what you learn that matters, not whether you "pass" or "fail" in terms of how well you perform!

I love reading your witterings Maizie!

Hope the lesson goes well, look forward to hearing about it!

Maizie, I'm sure the lesson will be wonderful with all that preparation! Try to think of your new teacher as a friend you haven't yet met - hopefully, that's what he'll turn out to be. If you can put yourself in his position, you'll realise he is probably even more nervous than you, coming to a strange house; maybe if you concentrate on how you can make him feel at ease, it will stop you panicking about the lesson.

Have you considered mentioning to your neighbour that you're starting recorder lessons? Then you needn't worry about any noise going through the wall - anyway, recorders aren't very loud, it's not as if you were starting trumpet or saxophone!

Try to pick out two or three pieces from different eras that you feel you play well, so that you have something ready to play to your new teacher. He will certainly want to hear you, so don't have such a huge pile of music on the day that you can't choose what to play! I think it would be worthwhile to pick out some pieces today so that it's all settled in your mind before tomorrow comes.

I hope you have a great lesson! Do let us know how it goes.

Hello Maizie

I really enjoyed your witterings too!
Is this your very first lesson ever?
I am so looking forward to hearing how this first lesson went. If possible just relax and let it happen and you will enjoy yourself.
You have an impressive amount of music!!! I recently found some really pretty magazine files at Laura Ashley to hold my bestest and least tatty pieces of piano music. (I too cannot resist second-hand piles of music).
Perhaps you should select a few pieces only and separate them from the hooooooooge pile so as to make things easier to choose when you play something for him.

I shall be thinking of you having all that fun, which is what learning music is all about.
Caroline

I'll probably be happier to just sight-read to be honest, give him an idea of what I can / can't manage. I do have one descant piece I'm happy with and could 'perform', oh, and now I think of it there are a couple of treble pieces in not-too-bad shape - though they haven't been practiced in probably a month or so...

If you are happy to sight-read at a first lesson, as a teacher I would regard that as a gift.

I am always acutely conscious of the need (and your teacher may feel differently of course!) to build up a picture of a new student without wanting to put him or her "on the spot " at the first lesson. I personally would find an indication of what you can prepare, plus an idea of your sight-reading ability really helpful as a starting point.

Yes - you may well find he's at least as nervous as you !

Hope it goes really well, and do let us know !

It's not my first lesson ever - it's just my first lesson in fifteen and a quarter years
As for the idea of selecting some pieces - as both Caroline and BerkshireMum suggest - that's just genius. I'll put a couple of things on the music stand ('things I can play') and the rest can just be laying around as 'my embarrassing pile of music'

Hi Maizie

I love your 'wittering' too. Good luck, I can empathise with your feelings and even now, I sometimes feel a bit nervous for my lesson.

Let us know how you get on.

G

Good Luck Maizie!

I well remember my first piano lesson. Meeting someone new, in his house, if I could find it, playing his piano. Could I play something for him without messing up? The answer was no! In the very first line of my party piece, I realised that the Bs that I'd been playing for ten untutored years should be B flats!! Trying to correct that while playing on was not possible. No wonder my friends and family had never been impressed with my playing!

I laugh about it now, and of course that first lesson really wasn't bad at all. I have a very patient and understanding teacher, and as I'm approaching Grade 5, he must be quite good at his job too! I can play a bit now too!

I hope you find the same Maizie.

A

All the best Maizie - hope it goes well!

Ditto! Looking forward to hearing about it

Well, apparently the good thing about panicking yesterday is that I can't maintain the panic for that long - so this morning I am excited. There are 9.5 hours to go (not that I'm counting) so I could still revert to panic later on...you'll probably hear all about it tomorrow morning anyway

Remember to have the kettle boiled when he arrives! Good luck!

Excellent!

Have fun!

Hope it goes well for you
Beverley.

OK, first lesson done. Interesting...it was good fun, I've got stuff to work on (including scales but slurred arpeggios which I'm not so good at). I seem to get on OK with him - he's about the same age as me.

BUT - and I can't yet decide how big a but this is - he does not play and never has played the treble. He plays the descant, and in the past has played tenor and bass. But he's never played treble. I knew he was a first-study clarinettist, but he does advertise himself as clarinet, sax and recorder teacher.

On the one hand, the fact he doesn't play treble means he can't have taken beyond G5. Actually, now I remember, he told me he's never done recorder exams. Not necessarily a big deal - it doesn't mean he can't play and teach well (see all the threads about piece of paper vs. ability!)

On the other hand, it does seem to indicate that he's not teaching recorder as a 'proper' instrument because if he were then of course he'd play treble.

Then again, many of us here will tell you that recorderists play recorders, and if he can teach me on one, we can surely apply it to any of the others

Pah, why couldn't this be easy
Still, when all this started I did initially approach the agency as only having the money for one term of lessons, so at least I have a get out alibi already in place if I decide I'm not happy with it

Oh - and he was Very Pleased to see my embarrassingly huge pile of music - "should be something we can work with then"

Sounds like you had a good lesson!

He's played bass but not treble? Singular... not in a position to give an opinion about how much of a problem that is though it seems a bit odd, but I guess you have a term to see how you get on at least.

My flute teacher is a bassoon player primarily, but she's so far got me distictions at 2 and 4 and a merit at 5.
Years ago my flute teacher hadn't got a music exam to his name, but he was very very good.
Hope it works out for you.
Beverley.

Aw bless!

You sound like me!

Hope it went well.

It's all different this morning - I'm really pleased, I have to say! I have two pieces to practice and eight scale/arps. One piece is from the descant Time Pieces (the Saltarello - which is G5!!!) while the other is from one of my other random books and has a bit of a fiendish rhythm to it.
Last night, after he left, I wandered upstairs and posted, had some dinner, then sat down to chill. I then realised my legs, knees and ankles were really achy, and by 8.30 I was nearly asleep on the sofa. This is fairly normal for me if I've been anxious - I have a little crash afterwards from the 'adrenaline hangover'. So a day and a half of panicking had its effects - and was clearly unecessary as it all went well.


He started with descant, then moved to tenor (whcih is exactly what I did as a child). Then he said that as he got bigger he got the bass - which reminded me in a way of my school, where the one bass just went to the oldest/tallest player (I was always a bit jealous!)

I've realised that I can still do treble practice - I can do the equivalent scales/arps, and probably pick some pieces of similar fiendishness. "The Elephant" is in the treble Time Pieces book (and on the G4 list) and it has been calling at me for a while so I shall start there I reckon. I can always ask his advice during a lesson if I get stuck on something, as what I get stuck on is unlikely to be 'treble specific'.

Oh, and he said my tounging was very nice and not at all spitty

And my husband has offered to sign my practice book at the end of the week

Sounds like he knows what he's on about then, and yeah that would make sense about the bass *lol* Unusual not to play treble, but that doesn't mean he can't give feedback on your pieces etc

While this teacher might be able to give you the general musical feedback that any musician listening to you could, he obviously isn't a recorder player if he doesn't play the most important instrument in the consort.

I would wonder what does he know of tone production on the recorder? Alternative fingerings? Extended techniques? You can't expect to fill those gaps by asking a forum - you need a teacher who will show you.

I wouldn't want to study with someone who didn't play the instrument I'm learning to a serious level. And not playing a treble recorder means he is not serious.

I know, katyjay, and it's really hard given the lack of viable local alternatives.
Many of the teachers 'near' me are about 30 miles away (which is a fair distance, for me!) Most of them only offer 1hr lessons (at £30), and a fair few say they do from intermediate standard (some do beginners). But if you add on the cost of getting there, it's something that I simply can't afford - certainly not as a weekly lesson, and I'm dubious about the benefits of less frequent lessons, though that may be something to think about. I'm not sure how I'd fit it in, either, a one hour lesson with either driving on the motorway or the train each way (probably adds up to over two hours if I drive, nearer three if I used the train).

This weekend - when I officially joined my local SRP group - I was given the directory of members. I found a few members of my branch are interested in teaching, but I am on the 'extreme edge' of my group, geographically, and most of them seem to be on the other 'extreme edge'. One seems to be a bit nearer me, so if I can work out who Betty is, I'll speak to her next time

I am bound to get an email from the agency today - they haven't had any money out of me yet
I think I'm going to do this term, because I think even some 'descant only' teaching is going to benefit my confidence as much as anything else (make me happier about phoning the scary teachers in the Cambridge area who don't seem to have email addresses!) But basically I'll hand in my resignation at the same time so that all parties concerned know it is going to be ONLY for this term. And I'll make clear the reason WHY.

It could well be that your current teacher doesn't end up being your long-term recorder teacher. But, recorder specialist or not, he should be able to help you focus on what you want to learn, the steps you need to take to make progress, help you to structure a practice regime that works for you, give good, more general musical advice etc etc, all of which could help you to make a lot of progress in a term and put you in a better position for when you do manage to find the right recorder teacher.

Ideally, we'd all find that perfect teacher straightaway, less than ideally, even the less than perfect can offer a lot, especially in the short term and especially if you're aware of what the shortcomings might be.

I've had quite a few saxophone teachers over the years ranging from the "this is really not going to work" (one lesson only!), to the OK, to the exactly what I needed at the time, and a couple of really good teachers, including my current superb teacher. Apart from the first one I've learnt stuff from all of them.

me too! my first flute teacher didn't even play the flute (darn county music service!). i had one flute teacher who insisted we sit on stools. she gave up on me when i dropped my flute though (unfair of her, considering as i was about 8). on of my other teachers used to put clothes pegs on my nose, because she was totally paranoid about me breathing through it. my flute teacher now is excellent though! (although i can't help feeling slightly panicked about doing gr. 8 and a music bursury audition in less than 6 months!)

Oh Maizie it all sounds great. I just wish i could actually FIND a clarinet teacher for that first lesson. I so desperately want to get started and so far my first efforts on my own have been dismal. Luckily I am detached with a large garden - so, once I produce that first note, no-one else will be able to hear.

Judi