Klarinet Archive - Posting 000719.txt from 1995/05

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Ed (long winded) Lacy
Date: Thu, 25 May 1995 13:18:19 -0400

Good subject line! And, you're right, I admit it, I am long-winded. It
comes from being a teacher for 36 years. I always like to say that after
teaching that long, one can talk for 50 minutes about almost anything,
and sound like he knows what he's talking about. :-)

On Thu, 25 May 1995, Sal Lozano wrote:
>
> I would like to bring in another way of getting around these weird keys.
> Thinking of them as keys with appropiate scales and harmonies. It helps me to
> not only practice the usual stuff in the usual books...but also to get these
> key centers in my head. Every time your wierd key comes up, find where your
> notes fit in the harmonic structure. Don't just look at a Gflat or csharp as
> a note and say damm when you miss read it because you didn't look at the key
> signature. Look at it and say to yourself.....where does this note fit in
> the chord or harmonic structure....treat it as a melody .....then try to play
> through it again....not just as a bunch of notes but as a part of the musical
> passage.
> We've seen these notes before . They are just in a different order.

Right! Good point. The best music reading occurs when we "mentally
sight-sing" the music we are playing, and then play the melody which we
have conceived of in our mind. That's how we know whether or not we have
played it correctly - if the sound coming out of the instrument matches
what we know we are supposed to hear.

So, IF we have played a certain note, and know that the next note is
supposed to be a certain interval higher or lower, or is supposed to be a
certain scale degree in the prevailing key, and IF we know our instrument
well enough, then our minds send the proper signal to the fingers to
produce the next note. And, the way we learn our instrument that well is
by playing scales, arpeggios and other technical studies, multiple times
over a period of years. Bad news for those who don't like to play scales!

Ed Lacy
el2@-----.edu