Klarinet Archive - Posting 000140.txt from 1998/09

From: Dodgshun family <dodgshun@-----.nz>
Subj: Re: [kl] Children and Clarinet Playing
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1998 04:25:14 -0400

At 08:52 PM 3/09/98 EDT, you wrote:
>
>
>
>Well, last year (6th grade) I played the bass clarinet for 6 months in our
>school band. It was VERY easy to pick up after playing clarinet for almost 2
>years. The only thing I found difficult was getting the high notes to sound
>right the first couple of times, and figuring out how to get it to play!! But
>after fiddling around with it for a couple of rehearsals it was going fine. I
>think it's easier to play the way you would a saxophone.....depending mostly
>upon the neck strap and not the metal rod at the bottom to hold it. Tell me
>what you guys think about this......
>

I picked the bass up at the beginning of last year. Like you, I initially
had some problems with the high notes, but I managed to sort them out and
find reasonable solutions, but anything above high E was out of the
question. But this year I changed clarinet teacher, and my new teacher has
done a lot of bass work, so I decided to ask her for some pointers. Well,
that was the best move I ever made. She has completely revolutionised my
bass playing; I am now getting a much cleaner sound; all the high notes
(right up to high Bb) work beautifully and I've also got some useful little
tips about alternate fingerings etc. My orchestra just bought a 5 year old
LeBlanc to replace the 15 year old Bundy which I had been having to put up
with, and that's made a gigantic difference as well. I would suggest that
having lessons on bass is a good idea - I did OK without them (when I began
bass I had 9 years of clarinet playing behind me) but no-one can believe how
much better I am playing now.
I tend to use a neckstrap and peg in an orchestral situation, but I leave
the neckstrap off if I'm doing a show - gets tangled with my alto and bari
sax straps.

Anna

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