Klarinet Archive - Posting 000982.txt from 1999/10

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] re: Blowing with no fingers
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 15:01:11 -0400

On Sat, 30 Oct 1999 08:40:09 -0400, reedman@-----.com said:

> BTW, pretty strange feeling when the Clarinet is turned around, and
> the student is only blowing, but not fingering - they can feel the
> vibrations of the reed much more clearly on their lip.

I had a 'cellist friend, Chris van Kampen, (sadly, he died the year
before last) with whom I played for many years. One day, we had a
chamber music rehearsal together after a gap of several months of not
seeing each other. It seemed to me that his playing had changed in some
way -- it was freer, and more vibrant.

He told me that in fact he had been thinking differently about how to
hold the bow. Apparently he'd heard the double-bass player Gary Carr
saying that one of the great pleasures he got from playing his
instrument was feeling the vibration of the bow in his right hand.
Chris realised he'd never thought about this, and tried it out. The
result was perhaps to change ever so subtly his address to the bow, and
thus to all of his playing.

This explained to me something I'd always been puzzled by. I could
understand how it was difficult to make a good instrument out of modern
materials, but it seemed to me that we ought to be able to copy an
excellent bow.

*But not if it vibrates!* Then, there are just too many subtleties.

And I tried this out for myself, on the clarinet. Indeed, you can feel
the vibration of the aircolumn through your fingers, and the vibration
of the reed on your lip. Concentrating on these sensations seems to
move your address to the instrument in the direction of *letting it
vibrate* rather than blowing it -- which is what you want, of course.

Students report that they find it helpful, too.

The effect that David reports above -- that students feel the vibration
on their lips more when they don't have to finger -- is also
interesting. Perhaps it's a special case of the notion that when you do
something out of its usual context, you tend to bring a different sort
of awareness to the situation, and so aspects that were just 'normal'
before tend to jump out at you.

A good example of this for me is the experience of playing the clarinet
in the low register with right and left hands reversed. The instrument
seems to sound completely different!

And better!

Try it:-)

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

... Let's organize this thing and take all the fun out of it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org