Klarinet Archive - Posting 000209.txt from 1996/03

From: "Chan, Jeff" <jeff.chan@-----.COM>
Subj: Simple Instruments (was Cleveland Teacher)
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 13:44:05 -0500

Hi, Claudia (and others on this list) --

I am having an ongoing discussion with my wife, who is a pianist,
regarding the relative difficulties of our respective instruments.
She recently stated that she thought the clarinet was a harder
instrument to play than the piano. I brought up the issue of the
multiple musical lines, but she countered with the sometimes awkward
finger movements in some musical lines, the constant battle with
reeds, the need to be able to play two, three or more instruments
(B-flat, A, E-flat, bass) in one session, etc.

Are there others out there with thoughts on this subject?

Jeff Chan
(Jeff.Chan@-----.com)

On Wed, 6 Mar, Claudia wrote to the Network:

>My mother is a knowledgeable classical music listener. She took
>piano lessons as a girl and resumed them for a while recently,
>finally giving up because she found the technical challenges of
>multiple musical lines too frustrating.
snip
>My mother has been thinking about trying a simpler instrument, and
>she has picked--guess what--the clarinet!