Klarinet Archive - Posting 001051.txt from 1999/03

From: Barry Mcginnis <bmcginni@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] doubling
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 02:22:06 -0500

Marty, Iagree with your posting 100% I am currently a doctoral student
in saxophone. I have also studied clarinet seriously for several years
and have a masters degree as a woodwind specialist. To assume that a
saxophonist can never get a "good" sound on clarinet, as someone else
suggested is ludicrous. As far as the lack of saxophone jobs that are
available, I will admit that there are limited opportunities. However,
I have also noticed that there are a limited number of clarinet jobs
available. The trend seems to be towards hiring someone who can teach
or perform several instruments. For the past four years I have been
employed as a woodwind instructor at several small colleges. My duties
there have included applied saxophone and applied clarinet(as well as
double reeds and flute).

As far as if the world really needs another good saxophonist, I pose the
following question to the list for. If a student wants to play the
saxophone, the clarinet, oboe, or sarrusophone, is it our job as
educators to convinve them to play a different instrument than the one
they have chosen? Imho, we should do our best to teach them MUSIC in
the hopes that it will enrich their lives and hopefully produce a
supporter of the arts in the future. I do not think that a seventh
grader should be switched to a different instrument just because there
MAY be more jobs available for that instrument in the future.

Barry McGinnis
Instructor of Woodwinds
Piedmont College

Mar 1999, Marty Marks wrote:

> Kevin - I have to disagree with a couple of your statements.
> To say that a saxophone player cannot play clarinet even after years of
> study and that a clarinet player can play saxophone after studying for six
> months is just not true. I played saxophone for a couple of years before
> picking up the clarinet. I did study clarinet seriously for many years as I
> am still studying now. When I play clarinet I sound like a clarinet player
> and when I play saxophone I sound like a saxophone player. It is extremely
> rare for a clarinet player to play saxophone well after only six months.
> Usually they think that they can play saxophone with the same embouchure as
> they have used on the clarinet and they sound like clarinet players trying
> to play saxophone. I, and I am sure many others would even argue with the
> premise that the saxophone is easier than the clarinet. It requires the
> same dedication to play saxophone at the performance level that is expected
> of the other woodwinds. It is " easy " for a clarinet player to play
> saxophone poorly. It is "easy" for a saxophone player to play clarinet
> poorly.
> Marty Marks
>
>
>
>
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