Jude

seem to have such fantastic learning tools for music - everybody has tuners and metronomes and recorders and beginners have these interactive programs for everyday practicing at home. Even drills can be done with accompaniment, pro players provide models, not just of trumpet etc. tone but of how the specific piece should sound, how everything fits together in ensemble playing. Tempos can be slowed down until a tricky part is perfected and then speeded up as a challenge...Personally, I find some of these programs addictive.

But the only person I know who has taught from back in the old days (1950s) up until today doesn't agree that performance has improved. He says students are worse than they used to be when he taught out of Rubank's - they practice even less than they used to, they don't want to play anything they don't recognize, they don't memorize anything, including scales.

So: what do you teachers see today? Enthusiastic, well-prepared students who perform far better on average than kids used to, or the slackers I described above?