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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000023.txt from 2005/09
From: "Grace Tice" <grace.tice@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [DR-L] "Getting it" the first time
Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 01:00:34 -0400
I like Susan's comments on this topic. Phil, you are awake too early to be
thinking so hard!!! Good topic to bring up. I've been stewing on it all
day long. I've tried to trim this down, but you won't believe it after you
read all this :-)
Some master class I went to one time---the comment was made that some things
just take longer to simmer before the flavors mingle in the right way.
I can think of things my very first oboe teacher said that didn't make sense
until I was well into college. I thought I was doing what they were asking
me to do, but can look back and know it wasn't true. To me, it's part of
the process of doing the best you can with what you've got. As you mature,
you have more life experience to add to your thought process, so you know
you have to dig in to work out something, or you know that it might not be
worth the trouble to learn x, y or z. Or you learn it just for the
challenge. I'm also thinking of the way we learn to emote when playing too.
I find it a lot easier now that I'm (ahem) over 40. I just put it out
there, and have learned to worry less about what people are thinking.
***Notice I didn't say I don't worry at all.***--just less.
As for not telling people when you see what they are doing that could be
better or easier, I think you are partially right. Sometimes it's wasted
breath, because you really can't tell anybody anything unless they want to
hear it, BUT if you are the teacher, you have to plant the seeds and hope
that someday your voice will be what they hear in their head when they
really do "get it". It might be someone else's explanation that makes it
fall into place after all, but it's stacked on layers of other teachers
pushing and other people playing beautifully within earshot.
I hope some other people will pipe up on this one. It hit me just right
today.
Grace
Hi -
Just musing. I am trying to understand why it is that it often takes several
years after being given clear, good advice to actually understand it and be
able to put it to good use.
Examples, I was given some good instruction on tonguing, to not think so
much
of attack, but of releasing the air with the tongue. But it wasn't until I
started experimenting with the up-and-down tonguing that I finally "got it."
I
think I have it, anyway. I'm doing a lot better with low note articulation
now.
I understand better how there is a strong unconscious tendency to burst air
when tonguing due to speech habits, and that this has to be "unlearned"
somehow.
Everyone is told to relax the fingers, keep them close to the keys. But it's
only in the last six months I saw the light and really worked to make a
"religion" of it. The technical improvements, as a result, have been
heartening. But
couldn't this have occurred years ago?
I was told my reeds and oboe seemed to allow too much air flow. I was even
given an example of a more resistant reed to play (in terms of the quantity
of
air flowing through the reed not stiffness). But it took several years
before I
realized it wasn't a matter of a "blown out" oboe nor tubes that were too
wide, but simply that it was possible to make a reed with a slightly smaller
opening arc, and all of a sudden, sustaining support is so much easier and
more
relaxed.
Why does it take so long to figure this stuff out even when it is explained
and pointed out clearly? Anyone know?
I see it happening with some friends, also. It seems almost useless to try
and give some advice or explain things. If they aren't "ready" for it, it's
like
talking to a rock rolling down a hill. What can one do?
- Phil Freihofner
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