Klarinet Archive - Posting 000549.txt from 1995/06

From: Sal Lozano <Solzano@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: the best sax players
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 19:40:46 -0400

Ok John.....you wrote

"1. I think it is MUCH easier for a good clarinet player to become
a good sax player than it is for a good sax player to become a
good clarinet player. I don't expect much argument here."

If someone is a good musician and has a concept of playing their
instrument, it wouldn't matter what you started on. If you have the mental
tools to play with good pitch, good time, and have an idea of what a good
player should sound like, it works both ways. The saxophone, just like the
clarinet, takes time to learn. Like the clainet, there are many traps on the
saxophone that have to be addressed:
What is the tendency for a written A above the staff on an alto sax?
What is the tendency for a written C, 2 lines above the staff on clarinet?
How do you attack a low C# on the tenor sax and how is that different than a
low E on the clarinet?
If you use hard reeds on the clarinet, do you use the same size on alto sax?

All these questions are easily answered if you take time to study. With the
amount of saxophone exercises and etudes, concert literature and
transcriptions ( from Bach to Bozza and Mozart), it is possible to develop a
foundation for playing correctly on saxophone. After you gain a little
headway in that department then going to clarinet is going to take the same
amount of time, provided you wish for it to sound as good. Embochure
development will have to take place. As well as conceptual knowledge through
studying and listening. But the bottom line will be good pitch and tone as
well as good time. If you have that on one, you can certainly develop it with
another

Your second statement:

2. I think that as a developing musician, you will become a
better saxophone player if you start on clarinet than if you start
on saxophone. Gotcha!

Why is this?
Is it because as a saxophone student, he or she wasn't given the proper
direction? Is that type of training inferior to a sax player who should just
be in a stage band? Whereas the clarinet player is in concert band or
orchestra.
A good musician should be able to do it all. No matter what the order is. You
have to be pointed in the right direction.

another snip

I
have to believe that clarinettists have an advantage. When I was in Junior
High School, a good friend
of mine was the first chair alto sax player in the band, and I
was in a battle for first chair clarinet with another friend.
One summer the sax player and I decided to teach each other
how to play our respective instruments. While I found the sax
to be rather easy to play (the fingering was like a simplified
clarinet and the embouchure is more relaxed), my sax
playing friend, who was a good musician, had a very
difficult time playing clarinet. I tried to show him how
to form the correct embouchure, but his facial muscles
were not developed enough. He also had to learn all the
notes in the lower register while the only fingerings I
needed to learn were the altissimo. My sax friend never
got to the point where he could even start to think about
playing altissimo on clarinet.

A junior high student is just learning the birds and the bees and how to
sneak into an R rated movie. You can't tell me that a concept of how to play
either instrument is at all developed. I'll bet that your sax playing wasn't
a lovely thing to hear either.

The clarinet requires different muscle development than saxophone. A person
who has played only clarinet for years will have to really work in order to
get to good saxophone playing standards.

As a developing musician, you can easily become a good sax player just by
being a good sax player. Or a good banjo player, Piano player, trumpet,
player, flute player, Drummer. Whatever. You don't need a starter kit.

Sal Lozano