Klarinet Archive - Posting 000396.txt from 1998/01

From: Neil Leupold <nleupold@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Liking jobs...sidenote
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 10:02:54 -0500

On Thu, 8 Jan 1998, J. Shouryu Nohe wrote:

> I plan on being one of those 'orchestra players' one day...and I don't
> plan on hating my job. While 3-4 hours of practice a day may not be fun,
> a good performance is always worth it...

It's kind of a humorous notion -- that there might actually be people
who make it part of their career plan to hate their job over time. One
thing that can be said, though, is that you had better already really
love playing the clarinet if you plan on making a career of it. As
far as the necessary practice that goes with the aspiration, I found
myself deriving enormous pleasure from practicing in college the more
I improved as a player. It's like a free energy machine. The more
you practice, the better you get, the more you enjoy it, the more
you practice, and so forth. Most fulltime professional players
cease to have 3-4 spare hours a day to practice (you know how it
is -- life, family, etc.), but that discipline was absolutely
necessary in order for them to reach their level of excellence.
If you talk to any of those players, most of them wish they still
had the time to put in the consistent hours of daily practice that
they used to -- not just because they wish to be extra prepared
for the next concert, but also because practicing is still playing,
even if it's not on stage, and they love it that much.

Neil