Klarinet Archive - Posting 000867.txt from 1998/11

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] "Should I ...?" "You should ..."
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 14:46:29 -0500

I was well into Tony Pay's absolutely right-on note about the kinds
of dogmatic responses that one reads on this list (and often from
people not yet qualified to be giving this kind of technical advice)
before I realized it was from Tony. It was a long note and his name
was on the bottom.

I was very much excited by the note even before I knew that Tony
was writing it, because it is one of the weaker and "needs to be
fixed" elements of this list.

There is a great deal of the dogmatic in clarinetists. "Play this
and only this instrument to the exclusion of all others ..." or
"Use this reed" or mouthpiece or fingering or interpretation
or state of mind.

And much of it is simply uncritical repetition of what that person
heard from his or her teacher, or else belongs to that element of
clarinet playing called "lore."

I generally shudder when I see it but don't respond, hoping that
the person who asked the question will not take the response as
a definitive answer. The problems of clarinet playing are tough
enough without having to deal with the fact that much said about
clarinets and clarinet playing is a result of the transmission of
lore about the instrument that was of questionable scientific
authority when it was first said ca. 1910 (and even earlier).

So I add my support to Tony's very well said comments, though I
do so in a cowardly fashion; i.e., after Tony stepped forward
far more bravely than me, I then come forward and say, "Me too!"

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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
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