Klarinet Archive - Posting 000375.txt from 1998/02

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Doubling (Was: starting on Eb)
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 21:40:37 -0500

On Fri, 6 Feb 1998, Roger Garrett wrote:

> Not all students are motivated the same way.......some are just
> exceptionally self-motivated! But a question Ed, how many years had you
> played clarinet before adding more instruments to your playing?

I don't want to set this up as any kind of ideal plan for everyone, but
here's the way it happened with me. I started on clarinet in the sixth
grade (age 11). At that time, I had a band director who was a woodwind
doubler. He was trying to build a program, and knew that he needed an
oboe player, and that I had progressed on the clarinet more than most of
my colleagues. So, only about 8 months after I had begun the clarinet, he
got me started on oboe. A year later, we were at a summer band camp, and
he called me over and said, "Here is an alto saxophone and a method book.
We are going to have concert band practice in half an hour, and you are
going to play 1st chair sax. Go in that practice room and figure out what
to do." I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to be able to do that, so I
did it. I'm sure that I did a lot of fumbling around for notes for a
while, but eventually I became more comfortable with the saxophone and
with the idea of doubling. All through high school, I was primarily an
oboist (played first chair oboe in the Kentucky All-State Band in 1953,
when I was a sophomore in high school). And, I doubled on sax and
clarinet in jazz bands, or as we called them in those days, "dance bands."

When I went to college, I was a bassoon major and a beginner on bassoon.
(That's another long story.) Then, after I played my senior recital, I
finished out the year on flute lessons.

I became a high school band director, and in my first year of teaching, I
lived in a very small town, wasn't married yet, and had little else to do.
So, I used to stay after school a couple of hours nearly every day and
practice the brass instruments, and learned on my own to get around pretty
well on the trumpet, trombone, baritone and tuba. The French horn is
still pretty mysterious to me. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that when I
first played in a marching band, I was stuck in an empty spot in the drum
rank, and I used to watch very carefully what the drummers were doing, go
and observe their sectional rehearsals and class lessons. Then I would go
home and practice everything I had seem them do, using two pencils on the
kitchen table, driving everyone else in my family crazy. Then, in my
senior year in high school and again in my last year of college, the
marching band was in need of another snare drummer, so I was the only
candidate. (Another long story.) In college, I had become interested in
jazz, and learned a little about jazz drumming.

I got a master's degree in bassoon and a doctorate in woodwind instruments
from Indiana University. There I had a chance to study with some teachers
who were exceptional, and who helped me a lot: flute with Harry
Houdeshel, oboe with Jerry Sirucek, clarinet with Bernie Portnoy,
saxophone with Gene Rousseau, and bassoon with a lot of folks, including
Leonard Sharrow and Bill Waterhouse.

For the past 32 years, I have been teaching at the college level, playing
in orchestras, and dabbling in jazz and show music. I consider myself a
woodwind doubler and primarily an orchestral bassoonist. I love to play
broadway shows which require a lot of doubles. My doubling includes, if
necessary, the piccolo, English horn, all the saxes, bass clarinet,
contrabassoon, etc. I have taught all the woodwinds at one time or
another at the college level. Now, my woodwind instruments in order are
bassoon, oboe and saxophone pretty close together, then flute, and
clarinet last. Yes, I have to confess I have let my clarinet skills slide
a little (maybe a lot) because I haven't taught clarinet in the 31 years I
have been at the University of Evansville, but I think I could get back
into pretty good shape on it if I had a month of concentrated practice.
(I also sing a little, in church choirs and such, but on the piano, I
still pretty much am worthless, as I always have been, but I can help the
pianists a little bit in the jazz bands I direct. In my next life, I'm
going to be a pianist.) ;-)

I'm sorry that this has become so long, so personal and too ego-centric.
I wouldn't have gotten into that if I had not been prompted.

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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