Klarinet Archive - Posting 000220.txt from 1996/03

From: Ginny Lyons <lyonsva@-----.NET>
Subj: Re: Simple Instruments (was Cleveland Teacher)
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 22:48:28 -0500

Although I've posted one or two comments to the list, which I've been lurking
on for almsot a year now, I've never properly introduced myself. I'll do
that now, and then add my 2 cents worth about clarinet versus piano.

My name is Ginny Lyons, and live in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. I learned to
play clarinet in high school, and it wasn't until my second year of
university (as a math major) that I decided to take private lessons. As a
child I'd always wanted piano lessons, but my parents couldn't afford a
piano. I taught myself a little on my Grandmother's piano. My parents
finally did get a piano when I was in Grade 12, and I continued to teach
myself on that instrument. When I decided finally to start music lessons, I
decided to concentrate on clarinet. (I play Buffet RC Bb & A instruments,
and a Buffet Eb that isn't an RC.)

I've been an active member in community bands and orchestras, and also play
in Wellington Winds, a semi-professional wind ensemble. I play my little Eb
in Wellington Winds. I've been attending CAMMAC music camps for a number of
years, and am also active in chamber music. I've also started playing
bassoon.

When I finally graduated from University, and began living on my own, I
bought my own piano, and finally started piano lessons as well. My teacher
became seriously ill 5 years into my lessons. I stopped lessons (at a Grade
9/10 level), hoping my teacher, whom I really liked, would get better, but
unfortunately she never resumed teaching, and I haven't had time to search
out a new teacher.

Which leads me into my own peronsal experiences between piano and clarinet. I
feel that every instrument has aspects that easier than other instruments,
and aspects that harder than other instruments. For years my clarinet
teacher did his best to teach me how to play "musically", all the things that
you need to do beside play the right notes in the right rhythm - you know,
phrasing, rubato, dynamics, style etc. I worked hard at it. Then when I
started in on piano, my piano teacher was thrilled - she said I played so
"musically" and was one of only a few of her students who "breathed" with the
music! Obviously the breathing came from my wind instrument background. But
the "musicality" was everything my clarinet teacher had already taught me,
and what I found so much easier to do on the piano than on the clarinet. On
the piano I found I could concentrate on the musical line much easier because
I only had my fingers to worry about, a reed and worrying about the proper
breath support to make the kind of sound I wanted weren't there to get in my
way.

On piano, I was able to memorize just about everything I was given to work
on. Sometimes I had the piece memorized before I could play it! On
clarinet, I have never memorized a thing - I'd have to work very hard at it
to do this, and I've never really *had* to have something memorized. I could
memorize piano pieces because I memorized with my ear and my eyes (i.e.
watching my fingers). On clarinet it would have to be with my ear only,
since I can't watch my fingers. With piano I was memorizing a tune and the
accompaniment complete with chord progressions, the multiple lines made this
easier for me as it gave me a context for the tune. As a result, memorizing
one line, a subset of the whole as clarinet often is, was harder for me -
since I didn't have the luxury of always having an orchestra or piano always
there with me when learning a piece.

However, on the flip side, I was always far more nervous performing on piano
because if something went wrong on me the results were worse than something
going wrong on me when performing on clarinet. This was because I had to
move my hands all over the place on the keyboard! If I overshot my
destination, chances are a whole bunch of notes were wrong (at least one for
each finger!). On clarinet each finger only has a couple keys to play.

My piano teacher found it difficult to stump me on sight reading rhythms -
all those years of complex rhythms on a single clarinet line made the simple
rhythms my piano teacher gave me to sight read pale in comparison. That is,
until she asked me to count out loud while clapping a rhythm. Seems my mouth
was just to used to doing the rhythm rather than the beats!

That about sums up my experiences re clarinet and piano. I guess it was more
like $2 worth! Bassoon is another whole new ball game for me - my thumbs
have never been so busy - but I won't get into that now!

Ginny
(lyonsva@-----.net)