Klarinet Archive - Posting 000308.txt from 1996/05

From: frank madison <frankm2@-----.COM>
Subj: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly(Tonal Concept)
Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 05:51:33 -0400

Hi there! I am new to the Klarinet list and having read the entire
database in the last two weeks I have learned alot about clarinet
playing and the clarinet itself. It is thank's to the good will of
those who wish to share want they know about the Clarinet that makes
the Clarinet World a better place.

In the same spirit I would like to share my experiences with you all.

Starting out first with Tonal Concept.

I have heard that it helps to know what you want to sound like when you
play Clarinet. Well that is fine and dandy with me but to this day the
how to go about developing a Tonal Concept still remains
elusive.Hmmmmm Maybe!

I beleive that developing a Tonal Concept must be treated just like
developing your ears to hear intevals and chords. We folks call it ear
training but I like to call it Fear Training... anyway. Here is the
formula.

1. Get as many recordings of the Brahms Sonata for Clarinet as you can.
2. Make sure that they are by different Clarinetists from Cioffi to
Wright.
3. Record the first 30 measures of the 1st movement for each
Clarinetist. Record them on a casette tape.
4. You should have 10 to 20 Clarinetists one after the other playing
the same 30 measures of the Sonata one after the other.

Now you have Tonal samples to use for your tonal training.
The reasons for just recording 30 measures per Clarinetist is that the
ears will become Tonally Numb if they hear 60 minutes of one player
then another. Just like wine tasters sip a little bit of wine so that
their taste buds stay sharp. Or if your smell the same thing over and
over the strength of the smell feels less and less. This results in a
sensory overload that will prevent you from noticing the difference
between two different wines.

Now at first the Clarinetists may sound similar and you may not notice
anything really different between their sounds. But after hearing them
over and over for a few weeks or days you will begin to hear
differences that you may describe as bright, airy, dark etc....

Now every time I hear the word dark I remind myself that my definition
of what is dark differs from everyone else and that to lable or
standardize Clarinet tone qualities is complete madness because it has
a semantical problem. My definiton of dark is my very own and during my
lifetime the definition of dark will change for me. So keep your lables
of clarinet tone qualities to yourself.

Now that you can hear the differences in sound from all these
Clarinetists how does knowing this help us develop a tonal concept.
Knowing what you want to sound like is the first step and I have found
that if you have trouble finding out what you want to sound like then
there is a backdoor for you.

P.O.E.@-----. It is easier for me to know what I
don't want to sound like than to know what I want to sound like.By
avoiding the things that I don't want to sound like it leaves me with
what I may like to sound like.

After deciding what you do want to sound like the next step will be
choosing the equiptment that will get you there.(Tonal Concept) By the
way it is not necessary to get 10 -20 Brahms Sonata recordings to
develop a tonal concept but it is the ideal way. One could use what
they have around the house and record 30 measures of any piece with a
clarinetist and it works just fine. I have 5, 90 min cassettes full of
with 30 measure samples of 250 different Clarinetist. I listen to them
constantly to stay in shape.

Anyway Till Next Time.....

P.S. Since I am a fanatical Star Trek fan I am happy to see Voyager's
Harry Kim's character playing on a 24th century Buffet. heheheh...
, Also did ya know that Sean Connery and Tele Savalas (Kojak) were the
finalist for the part of Capt.Picard of The Next Generation...hmmmmmmmm