Klarinet Archive - Posting 000920.txt from 1997/02

From: R Tennenbaum <rtenn@-----.COM>
Subj: Mea etcetera
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 17:27:14 -0500

As I've said, on the list and in at least two private postings, I'm
sorry for the response I gave to Ken yesterday morning. Who knows,
maybe it was a good thing in the end, since it really seems to have
got everyone worked up into a state of righteous indignation about
what a wonderful thing the Klarinet list, how terrible it is that a
beastly ogre like me would impinge on some poor kid's need to learn,
etc. What can you do?

In fact, as an amateur clarinetist in the best and worst senses of
the word -- I enjoy reading the responses to people posting who are
thinking about picking up the clarinet for the first time, or the
first time in a long time. I don't believe I ever said or suggested
otherwise.

While the tone and perhaps the content of my message were
ill-advised, underneath these there were some essential points which,
unfortunately, I managed to ruin. Again, I don't much relish
downloading an avalanche of threads with my silly post appended to
them beneath a chorus of "right on!" or the like, so let me ask that
before we all get into that again, you perhaps stop and consider what
happened.

I most certainly would never have posted if it hadn't seemed to me
unfair in the extreme that Ken should have reposted someone's private
message (not mine). I don't believe I have ever said or thought that
the list is or should only be for smart people, professionals, etc.
I do, however, believe that if people take the list for granted, so
much the worse for the list. The disregard for fundamental rules of
netiquette -- whether it's reposting private messages, or people
saying, "Get me off the list!" when they ought to have read the
instruction card -- or even found another more polite way of making
the request, or ahem, reposting vast, irrelevant sections of prior
messages -- are just a few instances. Failure to search the archives
is another; then there are the excessively long or potentially
inflammatory taglines, which alas, seem to have driven off one of the
list's most valuable, albeit sensitive, members.

To me, trivial -- no, not ignorant, or indicative of beginner's
ignorance, or amateur status -- but trivial inquiries, or ones that
indicate a slavish devotion to the clarinet list at the expense of
all the other resources in this great big world of ours -- well, I
would feel it's a damned shame if a person never gets out and
explores these, and yeah, even if what I said to Ken was wrong, I
agree with the fellow who emailed him in the first place. Living
here in New York City -- which, if I'm not mistaken, is where Ken
makes his home, unless I've misread his messages, and he actually
lives in Deaf Springs, Ark. pop. 342 -- it's hard *not* to find a
place to find valuable answers, and not simply three- or four-line
answers -- but complex and multifaceted and textured THINGS, which if
I'm not mistaken are the stuff not only of clarinet-playing, but of,
er, life. I can go around the corner to Fischer and chat for five
minutes with someone I found lurking in the jazz improv section and
get his opinion of the best study books. I can spend an hour trying
out that A I'd really like to buy at Rod Baltimore, and just watch
the repair techs at work. I even hesitate to go to the Performing
Arts Library at Lincoln Center, because when I go there I fear I'll
never get out, there are so many resouces at hand. Hell, there's a
pro hangs out at my favorite tavern who doesn't mind talking
single-lip versus double lip (he plays soprano single, bass double),
althought I wouldn't suggest that Ken meet me there for a beer until
he's old enough. And I'm not even a student, with access to
teachers. The more you know, the more you know how little you know.

What's the point? If anyone cares to hear what *I* make of the list,
behold: There are no answers here. (Well, not with Leeson gone,
anyway.) Ok, jump down my throat, make me the Klarinet Pariah. But
that's the bottom line, to me.

RT