Klarinet Archive - Posting 000929.txt from 1998/05

From: exner@-----. Exner)
Subj: Re: [kl] Orchestras which sing
Date: Sat, 16 May 1998 23:13:08 -0400

On Sat, 16 May 1998 01:07:18 -0500 "Carl Schexnayder"
<carlsche@-----.com> writes:
>
>>> >I think if you can sing it slightly helps your instrumental
>abilities
>.....
>>>
>
>I think, if you can play, it very much helps your singing abilities,
>(not to
>mention the fact that you will also be able to read music). I
>remember when
>I was in college, when it was time for the vocal people to sight-sing
>in
>theory class, they always did so with such beautiful voices and such
>WRONG
>pitches. I also remember walking down the halls where the practice
>rooms
>were and watching them hunt and peck at the piano with one finger to
>learn
>the pitches. Then, I noticed what prima donnas they were and thought
>how
>they actually thought they were musicians. I know that this is
>certainly
>not true for all singers, just many of them!
>
>I agree--but I've never been able to figure out why this is so. In
college, the instrumentalists were the stand-outs in our eartraining and
sight-singing classes (our voices might not have been as beautiful, but
we could hit the intervals). One day my theory teacher, knowing that I
played clarinet and piano, asked me which instrument I "played in my
head" when I heard music. It startled me that I hadn't even realized
that I *did* "play" either the melody on the clarinet or the chords on
the piano--in my head! Maybe vocalists don't do this.

Jill E.
Georgia
>
>>> Oh, yeah! Correct breathing is important to a wind instrument
>player, but
>>> it is VITAL to a singer. Learning to sing, after many years of
>being
>afraid
>>> to try, has improved my breath control on clarinet and sax
>considerably.
>>> And I learned something else I'd never thought of. We fuss a lot
>about
>>> reeds and pads and the virtues and vices of instruments - or so it
>seems
>>> from this list - but a singer IS her or his instrument, subject to
>moods,
>>> fatigue and illness. Nervousness, tension or momentary loss of
>focus can
>>> ruin a performance.
>>>
>>> With this new-found empathy for them, I have learned to love
>baritones
>and
>>> altos, and I'm working on tenors and sopranos. (Basses are
>generally so
>>> laid-back and cheerful that I've always found them likeable.)
>>>
>>> Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.net>
>>
>>----------------------------------------------
>>Craig Countryman
>>cegc@-----.net
>>http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/YPP/Craig.html
>>----------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
>
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