Klarinet Archive - Posting 000333.txt from 1995/06

From: Nichelle Crocker <NCROCKER@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Glissandos
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 01:17:00 -0400

David Niethamer left me with this question:

>My question for Nichelle is "How do *you* show or describe what is going
>on inside your mouth when you play?" Not possible with any accuracy unless
>you own an x-ray machine, and possibly not with any three-dimensional
>accuracy then.

To both David Niethamer and Clark Fobes- I do see your point. I think I've
gotten over my head, so I'll back up for a second.

Let me first explain the origins of my frustration about learning glissandos
which was where this discussion began. I had been experimenting with the
technique on my own with little success, and needed to learn to do it
fairly quickly for a piece I was playing. I went to several clarinetists
asking them to teach it to me, and even spent an entire one hour lesson with
a clarinetist who did it superbly but somehow couldn't communicate to me
how it was done. Then I sat down with a freshman at the university who
quite simply said something about the position of my tongue. That was all
I needed. I learned it almost immediately. Sometimes we need specific
details.

The things I do well intuitively are not the things I spend the majority of
my time studying with my teacher. My lessons are spent dealing with problems,
musical, technical, or whatever, that I don't naturally compensate for. I do
believe that intuition is a powerful thing, and very important to music
making. I am not generally an overly-analytical person. But the things that
do not come to me naturally I need a little help with. And I need someone
who can explain, demonstrate, and describe to me what I need to do.

I do not argue that intuition is unimportant. It is very important. I do
disagree with the statement Mr. Fobes made that music is an art and not a
science. I argue that it is both, and that the two do not necessarily
exclude one another.

Nichelle Crocker
NCROCKER@-----.edu