Klarinet Archive - Posting 000141.txt from 1997/07

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: clarinet playing
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 21:32:01 -0400

On Fri, 4 Jul 1997, Nicholas Yuk Sing Yip wrote:

> > Well, anyway, I have been playing the clarinet for the past nine - ten
> > years. For the past five years I have been taking lessons with four
> > different instructors and they seemed to have many different perspectives
> > on how to play the clarinet. For instance one of my instructors thought

I can't tell from your message whether you have had four different
instructors in succession in a relatively short period of time, or whether
you have been trying to study with more than one instructor at the same
time, or whether your study has been irregular and you have had occasional
lessons on an irregular basis with various instructors. In any event,
studying with more than one teacher at a time, or with several in close
proximity is very difficult to do, and usually results more in confusion
than in progress. So, my immediate suggestion would be that you try to
find a competent, knowledgable instructor and stick with that person for
regular lessons on a fairly long-term basis. Try to follow that teacher's
suggestions and methods as completely and as faithfully as you can. Try
not to have mental reservations about what the teacher is telling you.
When he/she makes a suggestion, don't measure what you are being told on
the basis of what you remember some other teacher saying.

Eventually, you will change to another teacher, and then you must adopt
the new teacher's approach and methods in the same way. Ultimately, you
will gain a broader perspective, and by picking and choosing those things
that work for you from what you have been told by various teachers, you
will develop your own personal style.

Let me give you a personal example. I had the opportunity to study for a
while with Bernard Portnoy, who had previously been a member of both the
Cleveland and the Philadelphia orchestras. You probably have seen
advertisements for Portnoy mouthpieces, ligatures and reeds. When I began
to study with him, the first thing I did was to get one of his mouthpieces
and ligatures and a couple of boxes of his reeds, because I wanted to
adopt as much of his approach to the clarinet as I could. I wasn't trying
to ingratiate myself to him, but after all, what he had to teach me was
the way _he_ played the clarinet. I couldn't expect him to teach me
someone else's way of playing.

Today, I don't use that mouthpiece or ligature, or that type of reeds.
But still, I feel that I learned a lot from him about music and about the
clarinet, in part because I tried very hard to "pick his brain" on these
subjects. If I had been resistant to his methods, perhaps insisting on
retaining some things I had learned from other teachers, I feel certain
that I would not have learned as much.

Now, I feel in a much better position to evaluate what he told me and to
use those things which seem to "click" for me. I don't feel guilty about
not continuing to follow his methods completely, because I don't think it
was ever his intention to turn out carbon copies of himself (not that I
would ever have been able to be his equal).

I have occasionally had students at the University level who can never
quite bring themselves to change those things they were taught by previous
teachers. When I make a suggestion, I can see in their eyes that they are
measuring it against what they think a former teacher would have said
about the technique I am suggesting. I think they feel that it would be
disloyal to play something in a way that varies from what they have
already been told. This situation pretty much ensures that the student
will not learn very much, and that my job will be much more difficult and
frustrating.

So, to summarize, try to find a teacher you trust, perhaps one who is
recommended by other players whose playing you admire. Then, stick with
that teacher for a significant period, trying to learn all you can of what
that person has to teach you. When you do that, you are not necessarily
making a life-long committment to utilizing every technique that teacher
does. In the long run, you are going to make those decisions for
yourself.

Ed Lacy
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Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
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