Klarinet Archive - Posting 000816.txt from 1998/08

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Bad Audition (on bass clarinet)
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 10:09:25 -0400

I have to split the baby on this one--for reasons expressed below, I believe
that both Dee and Scott are "right", depending on context.

Certainly college is (or should be) a place to "explore" and "test"--the
hard scientists on the list will explain better than me that continual
experimentation is necessary for learning. This does not mean that you
should use non-standard performance practices in an audition, however.

Me, I'm a lawyer (sorry). In law school, I never passed up an opportunity
to have a creative argument with a professor, some of whom came from way
beyond left field. Never, with one incredibly important exception, the
first rule of getting any sort of GPA: "thou shalt not argue with a
professor in the blue book." In the exam, your best chance of getting the
grade you seek is not expressing originality, but telling the professor
EXACTLY what they want to hear. (This, incidentally, is how to win lawsuits
too--only it's a judge, not a professor).

Now an audition is exactly like a final exam. You win it by playing
*exactly* how the audition committee wants you to. (This is true not only
in college). Win the gig, and then you get to do battle with the conductor.
Sure, you can express your uniqueness with the audition committee--just
don't expect to win.

kjf

-----Original Message-----
From: gerhardt@-----.com]
Subject: Re: [kl] Bad Audition (on bass clarinet)

On Aug 27, 4:30pm, "Dee D. Hays" wrote:

> There is a time and place for everything in life. However, college is a
> place to absorb the great mass of knowledge available. It is NOT the
place
> to demonstrate your originality.

It is, however, a place to explore it, reason with it, and to learn to
control
it; certainly not to repress it.

> It is NOT the goal of instructors and administrators to make your life
> miserable. It is their job and duty to impart the body of existing
> knowledge so that LATER in life you can build on it and develop original
> materials.

How much later? The instant your graduation cap returns to Earth? Ten
years
after graduation? Most music students that I know are performing RIGHT NOW.
They're playing real music for real audiences who have real experience being
audiences. Many music students that I know (yours truly included) had been
playing "professionally" for years before returning to school. Are we now
required to unconditionally abandon our own experiences in favor of what
teachers--some our own age and younger--tell us? Must I really wait another

thirty years before I can begin to understand what Brahms is trying to say?

Students have ideas. They may be *immature* ideas but the ideas are not
wrong
simply because one is "student" and the one who disagrees is "teacher." WHY
it
is wrong or WHY it is right should be the issue, not simply THAT it is wrong
or
right.

Music is more than just technique. Much of it cannot be taught, it must
actually be discovered. It doesn't have to wait until school is out,
however.
Teachers can, from the beginning, give students the _room_ to make their own

discoveries, help them to _make_ discoveries, give them _credit_ for making
them, and offer _confidence_ that they can do it again.

--
Scott M. Gerhardt <gerhardt@-----.com>
5F 55 E8 3E AA 08 68 9A 58 CA 7C B1 B4 BE 24 B6

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