Klarinet Archive - Posting 000876.txt from 1998/05

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] intonation in large groups
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 11:25:36 -0400

Diane--

In the words of our President, I feel your pain.

I currently play in an wind ensemble (which is what you call a good band)
and a band (which is what you call a bad wind ensemble). Intonation on
Monday nights is fine--I use my normal A@-----. Thursday
nights, the short barrel comes out and my teeth hurt at the end of
rehearsal--esp. if I have to play Eb.

In the band, the intonation is not so good. The band contains some clarinet
players who, while very nice people, are bad clarinet players. Even more
unfortunate, however, is the fact that they have been very bad for a very
long time, and consequently have practiced their badness to a point where
nothing will help.

I spent a couple of years with a tuner and a helpful attitude (really!)
trying to get the pitch down etc. Nothing worked--some dogs don't hunt.
That's why I gave up and bought another barrel. This band will never be any
better w/o replacing people who don't want to change their bad habits--and I
don't want to replace them, because they are my friends.

I have resigned myself to the view that Thursday night rehearsal is my
alternative to bowling night. For my musical needs, I play in 2 other
groups.

kjf

-----Original Message-----
From: Diane Karius, Ph.D. [mailto:dikarius@-----.edu]
Subject: [kl] intonation in large groups

Help! Having searched the archives of both Klarinet & the community
band mailing list and come up with nothing directly applicable,
I'm going to toss this question out and see if anyone has any good
ideas:

Does anyone have some constructive suggestions regarding how to
improve intonation in a large community band setting (both within the
clarinet section and across the whole band)? As a side question - I
find that I cannot get sharp enough to match everyone else's pitch,
although I am sharp compared to A440. In the short term,
should I try some shorter barrels, even though the barrel I have now
works well both for intonation and sound.
I belong to a large community band which suffers from BAD
intonation (really sharp). As much as I hate to admit it, the
clarinet section (of which I am section leader) is among the more
serious of the offenders, and even worse, there are significant
intonation problems among the first clarinets. The band director has
talked to me about it - regarding the whole band as well as the
section. She's as frustrated as I am and wants me to help. We both
know that the problem is two-fold - the failure to tune properly to
the tuning note (the tendency is to try and adjust the embouchure
rather than pulling out/pushing in) and then the failure to adjust
tuning as we play and warm up (hence ending up seriously sharp).
When I can, I am telling other clarinet players (using my tuner to
show them) if they are sharp/flat but that has had little effect yet
- as far as I can tell they just aren't in the habit of listening to
(or really hearing) the tuning note, since they can't tell that they
are 20 cents or more sharp to the tuning note. I'll confess to
treading fairly lightly here because there is a little bit of a
problem in politics - there was some resentment when I moved into the
firsts since I was the new kid on the block and wasn't even a music
major (our section leaders are typically music major/band
directors/pros).
Sorry this went on so long, but if anyone has some good advice my
ears and our conductor would really appreciate it.
TIA!

Diane R. Karius, Ph.D.
Department of Physiology
University of Health Sciences
2105 Independence Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64124
email: dikarius@-----.EDU

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