Klarinet Archive - Posting 000860.txt from 1998/02

From: "Gene Nibbelin" <gnibbelin@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Introduction
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 00:56:59 -0500

Kenneth -

As I've mentioned several times before, I returned to playing 2 years ago
after having "retired" from music in the early 1950's.
So WELCOME BACK from another retread.

In getting my technique back, in addition to long tones, scales, thirds,
arps, inversions, augmented and diminished arps and inversions, I found
that my old Langenus Part 3 (particularly the first 45 pages) and the Fritz
Kroepsch 350 Exercises as revised by Simeon Bellison were the most valuable
in getting back to and exceeding what I remember my earlier abilities were.

In order to increase the incentive to practice, I suggest that you join
whatever amateur groups that may be available in NY - there should be a lot
of them.

My incentive was playing 2nd Clarinet in the newly formed (in 1986) Gulf
Coast Symphony Orchestra. I wanted to be ready in the event that the 1st
Clarinetist didn't return the second season. She didn't and I was ready
(well almost). Now in our 3rd Season, I'm handling the Principal Clarinet
post fairly well, for an amateur orchestra.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that practicing 2 to 4 hours a day will also
help a great deal in getting your "chops" back. I'm retired, except for
multiple duties with the Gulf Coast Symphony, so I can make the time on
most days. I don't skip many days.

Again, WELCOME BACK !!!!!

Gene Nibbelin

----------
> From: Kenneth Wolman <kwolman@-----.net>
> To: klarinet@-----.us
> Subject: Introduction
> Date: Saturday, February 21, 1998 12:09 PM
>
> I'm going to be doing a lot of lurking here, but I thought I would put a
> foot forward and introduce myself.
>
> I am coming back to playing the clarinet for the first time since I
started
> college in 1961. I played--reasonably well--through Junior High and High
> School, then gave it up for a whole bunch of probably neurotic reasons.
I
> was surprised to discover I can still produce a pretty nice tone on the
> instrument I've got (more below), and I remember just about all the
> fingerings, but need to get my wind back, or really, I've got to relearn
> how to breathe with respect to the instrument. Of course I've also got
to
> get back into the whole world of technique.
>
> First instrument I owned was some brand I don't remember that I don't
think
> was real wood. Then in about 1991, a co-worker asked me if I'd like to
> inherit her brother's clarinet. Huh? Her kid brother (age 36) had died
of
> a brain tumor, a really sad situation. She brought the instrument in for
> me to look at: a Selmer Q-series Centered Tone, made as I learned, in
1957,
> and that some dealer had valued at about $1300 back around 1989. I was
> flabbergasted. I didn't remember much about playing at that point, but I
> DID remember that the two great names in professional-level clarinets
were
> Buffet and Selmer, and that this was one of those top-of-the-line
instruments.
>
> She was giving me the instrument because, she said, she could not bear to
> sell it and wanted it to go to someone who might appreciate it's
> non-monetary value.
>
> The instrument needed work that I never gave it: it had a really
> tubby-sounding middle register, probably because the keys and pads were
> shot, but I couldn't be sure. Finally, over Christmas, I brought it to a
> repairman who charged me $138 for new pads and a thorough cleaning and
> adjustment. I went into one of the practice rooms and the tone that came
> out of this thing was unlike anything I'd ever heard outside of a
> recording. NO problem with the register break between Bb and B, a
seamless
> tone.
>
> So I figured "This is a sign." So was buying Stoltzman's "Aria" CD: I am
> serious opera freak. So now I'm back, 2 days short of turning 54, to
doing
> kid-stuff: scales, arpeggios, relearning the fingering chart, playing
some
> of the arias *I* remember just to reconnect my ear (which is still pretty
> good) to fingerings that are coming back.
>
> Big danger...I work right around the corner from remaining music stores
on
> West 48th Street in Manhattan. Lead us not into temptation:-).
>
> Love it!
>
> Ken Wolman
>
>
> "The East River. But it was not a river at all. Merely a column of
water
> connecting the upper harbor to the Sound. Yet everyone called it a
river.
> They chose not to think about it. They clung to the surface of things."
> --Peter Quinn, "Banished Children of Eve"
> Ken Wolman kwolman@-----.net
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/1649