Klarinet Archive - Posting 001503.txt from 1999/03

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Deep understanding
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 18:13:27 -0500

At 09:52 PM 3/31/99 GMT, you wrote:
>On Fri, 26 Mar 1999 11:04:08 -0600, rgarrett@-----.edu said:
>
>> Deep understanding of any subject takes patience and constant
>> attention to achieve. Deep understanding of how to express musically
>> in front of others takes the same kind of patience and determination.
>
>You use here the word 'deep' as though it were the end result of a
>process of continued refinement of peforming skills.
>
>But I would rather say that what is truly 'deep' is the understanding of
>musical expression that comes *before* such refinement. And it's the
>sort of 'deep' that human beings find natural, even if it's very
>sophisticated in actual fact.

Yes, I did use it that way, and I believe that knowledge of how to project
something that is already deeply understood and internalized is a continued
refinement of performing skills - as a way of realizing what is
internalized. That you feel it should happen before is contrary to what I
believe. My experience with young students and developing students is that
they don't really achieve the level of musical expression/understanding you
describe UNTIL they learn to project it through their instrument. It is
the same concept of not waiting to learn the notes and rhythms before
projecting expression musically - it should all be developed simultaneously
- in my opinion of course.

I really don't want to argue with what you believe vs. what I believe. I
also don't intend to get into any kind of dialogue regarding why I believe
what I believe with you. You understand that I disagree with
you.....therefore, you are free to say what you want regarding such.

>Now, I suggest that at a very fundamental level, children who play music
>understand the sorts of story that there are to be told, if we don't
>get in their way too much. There's this piece of music, and it's
>pretty, or sad, or cross, or playful, or....whatever. And because the
>audience *can't read it* (why else do we read bed-time stories?) we have
>to tell it to them.
>
>And that is the basic model of what performance is all about.
>
>The rest is just refinement.

In my opinion, it depends on what you are using as a vehicle for teaching
that understanding of expression to "children" (a term that you don't
define in terms of musical learning on an instrument - say, perhaps, the
clarinet). I define a child learner as one who is around age 11 or 12 and
has played between 0 and 3 years. If you mean expressing half notes,
quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter notes in easy diatonic literature
that doesn't go over the break, I would agree that it is as simple as the
"refinement" you discuss. A difficulty level beyond that and I would say
that the "refinement" describe is simplistic and unrealistic. Again, that
is only my opinion based on my teaching of such children and observing the
teaching/learning process with others.

I'm not sure I have much more to say about it!
______
Roger Garrett
Professor of Clarinet
Director, Concert Band/Symphonic Winds/Titan Band
Advisor, Recording Studio
Illinois Wesleyan University
Office: (309) 556-3268
Fax: (309) 556-3411

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