Klarinet Archive - Posting 000716.txt from 1999/09

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] beginning clarinet
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 09:11:15 -0400

GruvnRuvn@-----.com wrote,
>I am beginning the clarinet,, practicing about an hour a day and am squaking
up a storm,, any suggestions?? the second octave sounds squakky.... [snip]>

Oh, good, you're normal. I'm sure the professional musicians on the list
will offer you far more constructive information than I could about your
specific concerns, but here's some advice from an amateur who plays just for
fun but works at it anyway. Tape record ten minutes or so of your beginner
squeaks, squawks, hoots and bleats. Date the tape and save it, even if you
sound like a rabid rat. In a year or two or five, you'll hit one of those
learning plateaus (also normal) where it seems as though you practice in vain
and make no further progress. That's the time to get out this tape and
listen to it. As you hear how you sounded as a beginner, you'll appreciate
so much better how far you've come!

In fact, it's not a bad idea to add to the tape at different stages of your
progress. Sometimes I tape myself sight-reading a piece I've decided to
learn, so that when I get stuck in one of the "impossible" passages and feel
tempted to give up on that piece, I can remind myself of what it sounded like
at half speed with forty-seven clams. (Do I really want to waste all that
work and improvement?)

My husband, whose father (a radio announcer) owned high-end taping equipment
back in the 1950s, kept some childhood violin practice tapes. On one level,
they're a scream, but there's also something rather touching about them.
What a lot of work, how many years of practicing one day at a time, one scale
at a time, sometimes one note at a time, over and over and over, went into
making that little five-year-old, scratching away on his cheap, half-sized
fiddle, into the excellent violinist he is today.

The squeaks mean you're practicing. That means you're way ahead of the
beginners who already quit. Hang in there and best of luck!

Lelia

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