Klarinet Archive - Posting 000182.txt from 1996/01

From: Jacqueline G Eastwood <eastwooj@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: those darn 'A'clarinets
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 14:00:04 -0500

The painful realities of life offer a couple of suggestions, but none are
probably what you'd really like to hear!! After all, we can't persuade
the strings to transpose everything by half steps either, so we can play
our written parts!

Suggestion #1: Look for a used A clarinet. Ask your teacher(s) for
possible contacts. I actually bought my A from my own teacher (it was an
old one that he didn't use) and I still use it because it is such a
wonderful sounding old horn!

Suggestion #2: PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE your sight-transposition!!
I know others on the list have heard me say this before: it is
absolutely invaluable to be able to do this! Half-step transposition is
often easier than whole-step (like transposing C parts). Try very hard
NOT to write in a bunch of notes in your music; only the spots that give
you trouble repeatedly or are visually difficult. It IS difficult at
first; I went through it with youth orchestra (I didn't get my A until
9th grade, and by then had had to play two or three pieces in A,
transposing all the way!) and still have C transpositions to worry about
with the Opera. You never know when one of your horns might crash and
burn during a concert, leaving you with only your BB or only your A.
It's a little embarrassing to have to say, Oh, my horn's broken and I
don't know how to transpose so I guess I can't pley the rest of the
concert. Remember, the more you can do, the more opportunities there
will be for you!!!

Good luck and have fun in orchestra.

Jacqueline Eastwood
University of Arizona/Arizona Opera Orchestra
eastwooj@-----.edu

On Tue, 9 Jan 1996, Jennifer
Pepin Northampton HS 98 wrote:

> greetings from the land underneath eighteen inches of snow!
>
> hi, my name is jennifer. i'm a highschool clarinet player, and this year
> i've been playing with a youth orchestra in springfield, MA. last semester,
> all our parts were written for Bb clarinet, so everything was hunky-dory.
> however, this year, they arn't.
>
> so my question is this: is there an easier way? this half-step thing is
> nuts, esp. if your sightreading. buying another clarinet is totally out of
> the question (we're touring england this spring...) and actually learning to
> sight-transpose would be too logical, with way to many benefits in the long
> run (i'm a teenager...:) and brilliant insights from anyone would be
> apperciated. thanks a million! jennifer.
> --
> ooo
> jpepin@-----.edu (O O)
> +-------------------------------------------oOO-(_)-OOo------------+
> "Never judge a book by it's movie."
>