Klarinet Archive - Posting 000984.txt from 1999/03

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] You would understand
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 19:13:03 -0500

Dr. David McClune waxed on about a terrific student, and asked:

<<<The quandry is, does the world need another great saxophonist? I thought
through the lesson, that with the natural embouchure, etc., he could become
a great clarinetist or oboist. I do not intend to be a saxophone smasher,
but there are just too few sax jobs.>>>

Ah, the saxophone--a/k/a the "Golden Viola." It gets no respect.

Now, please don't get this wrong--I LOVE saxophones. Ask my wife--every
time I buy a new one she rolls her eyes. We have one in every closet in our
house. I have a drawer full of sax mouthpieces. I play in a sax quartet
that bills itself as "Group Sax." You get the point.

With that said, I feel your pain. I would never, ever start a student on
saxophone--switching to clarinet is so much harder than the other way
around, and if they do want to do this for a living, they will likely need
to play both anyway. When I was teaching privately, it never took me more
than six weeks to get a clarinet kid to play sax as well as they played
clarinet. I have never met a "saxophone player" who was able to get a good
clarinet tone, even after years of study. So, IMHO (and if you can), get
this lad on a clarinet ASAP. Explain to him how cool doubling is (marital
strife notwithstanding)--that clarinets get the cool parts in band, but lead
alto is nifty too--and that he is more likely to get both if he works on his
clarinet chops. Oboe and flute he can pick up later.

I firmly believe that clarinet doublers make the best saxophone players
anyway. The clarinet embouchure is like weight lifting--even if you don't
do it in public, you get stronger.

All IMHO, of course.

kjf

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