Klarinet Archive - Posting 000872.txt from 1998/11

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Should I..? [No, you shouldn't.]
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 14:46:34 -0500

On Mon, 23 Nov 1998 09:05:04 -0600 (CST), nleupold@-----.edu said:

[snip]

> Personally, I feel it is inappropriate of any member to complain and
> pontificate about -- much less prescribe - how other members should
> express themselves on the list. Feel free to do so further, as you
> have already done, but thankfully it won't make a difference. The
> reason people stay with Klarinet for so long -- and volunteer to be
> civil and tolerant -- is that all members are allowed to be themselves
> without reservation. If you wish to limit that remarkable dynamic
> with parameters of discourse, I have a suggestion of my own to offer:
> start another forum and moderate it to your liking.

I thought of myself as just presenting an argument, not as wanting
anyone not to be themselves. It wasn't intended to be a meta-post,
though I see how you could see it like that. Its intention was rather
to address the content of what people post, which is surely what we are
here for.

Admittedly it was attacking what I see as the general misapprehension
that you can give technical advice independently of the context of the
music, the student's physiological makeup, the instrument and so on, and
it's true that the giving of such advice does usually characterise a
rather opinionated style of post -- but it wasn't the opinionatedness
that I was attacking. There are plenty of things about which
opinionatedness does no harm whatsoever.

I just think that it would be rather hard work here to challenge all the
definite statements about what is and is not the way to play -- where
you 'should' put your teeth, how you 'should' keep your throat open, and
so on, and I was putting forward the notion that it was a Good Idea to
have a sort of mental alarm bell that would go off whenever you start a
sentence that contains a 'should'.

Particularly if you're giving advice to an inexperienced player.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE
tel/fax 01865 553339

"...his playing soars so freely, one is aware of witchcraft without
noticing a single magical gesture."
(C.D.F.Schubart on the harpsichord playing of C.P.E.Bach)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------