Klarinet Archive - Posting 000616.txt from 1997/11

From: Dirk Kussin <dirk@-----.de>
Subj: Top line modell for beginner?
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 09:01:18 -0500

I have some questions which could be answered by clarinetists with
longer experience and teachers.

The question is the question in the subject. But I will explain a
little bit (I apologize for my poor english, I hope you will
understand what my intention is):

I'm 30 years old and started playing the clarinet 10 month ago. I
bought a plastic B-12 clarinet. Now I plan to buy a wooden clarinet at
the end of this/beginning next year.

I'm still beginner. Because of my profession I had some longer breaks
in practising (and this will be so also in future). But my tone has
improved considerably in the last months. But I have to admit that my
level is not far away from the beginners level (and, of course, I
could not learn as fast as a kid, have not too much time practising,
so it is clear that I will never be a world class player). On the
other hand I'm now sure that I want to lear the clarinet further-on.

My plan is to buy a top line instrument (e.g. Buffet RC or even
Prestige) for the following reasons:

-- it was clear for me from the beginning that I buy the B-12 only for
testing out if my ambition (and my ability) is big enough

-- I'm sure that I will have more fun with a finer instrument since I
can evaluate tone quality and a fine tone is important for my
motivation; also aesthetical reasons (wood, silver ...) etc.

-- I'm not a kid, I know what I do (ok, I do not mean that kids do
never know what they do)

-- I'm not rich but I have the money and I'm ready to spend it

-- why buying a middle line instrument, and then later a top line
instrument? (Of course, I will keep the top line instrument for the
rest of my live or at least for decades.) (The alternative for me
would only be to buy a middle line and never a top line instrument.)

Why my question? I'm sure that there are counter arguments against a
top line instrument for a beginner and I would like to know them (but
keep in mind that I'm not a kid). So, if there are pedagogical or
other reasons, please let me know.

I mean: Perhaps a good instrument makes it too easy for me so that I
do not learn solving the problems. Or a trivial reason: A beginner
frequently emits to much saliva (at least this is the case with me,
but I have improved), so because of this or because of other reasons
the high quality instrument perhaps will be damaged. (If this is true
then I would find it a very strong argument.) Or...

Hope my questions do not sound stupid. I saw that there are some
people on this list starting the clarinet in "later" years (and I'm
happy that I'm not the only one). I think those other guys could also
be interested in these questions. Also, it would be interesting to
hear from these people what they think.

Thanks

Dirk

--
Dirk Kussin dirk@-----.de
Fachbereich 17 Mathematik Raum D2.323
Universitdt-GH Paderborn Tel. (+49) (5251) 60-2636
D-33095 Paderborn --------- http://www-math.uni-paderborn.de/~dirk/