minstrel: teaching

[Barbara Webb]

I thought I'd ask this list for advice on a situation that might have
happened to some of you. Where do you draw the line when encouraging
people in the bardic arts, so as to avoid the result that people
innocently assume they have an open-ended opportunity for free individual
tuition?

I've had a couple of people decide to take up an instrument, and come to
me for advice and guidance. So far I've been happy to help, e.g. in
lending them an instrument to try out, advising them on acquiring their
own (including helping them make it and or get it well set up), showing
them the basics of how to play, suggesting books and giving them music,
recording examples for them to listen to, offering them tips and feed-back
on how they are doing etc. However the result was that they, effectively,
started turning up weekly for their next "lesson". This was not a
situation that I was comfortable with as I'm not actually a music teacher,
just a bit more advanced on the instrument than they are, and moreover, if
I was getting that kind of individual musical tuition from someone else,
I'd normally expect to be paying for it.

What I'd prefer is if they joined in our regular 'music practice', where a
small group of varying abilities work through various pieces together.
This may often involve me in supplying much of the music and advice, but
it is in an informal context where I get to practice at the same time.
However they are unwilling to do this because they feel they are not yet
good enough to join in. Alternatively I'd be happy if at some other
regular meetings or events they took me aside occasionally to talk about
how they are getting on. I've tried saying 'well, I don't think there's
much more I can teach you' but this is not really true. Having gently
discouraged them from expecting a weekly meeting, they are still asking
(politely) whether we can arrange a further individual session some
time...Is there any tactful way to say 'no', or have I got myself stuck
here?

Caitlin


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