Klarinet Archive - Posting 000658.txt from 1999/11

From: Dan Sutherland <dsuther@-----.ca>
Subj: Re: [kl] How young to start clarinet?
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 21:12:05 -0500

Some time back this topic generated a great deal of response. My
beliefs tend to fly in the face of traditional wisdom and my experience
with extremely youthful players is anecdotal ie. my own children. [The
paying customers usually start around age 10]. My eldest son began at age
3. My subsequent daughter began slightly later. My current youngest is 5
and I have yet to impose my will, clarinetically upon him.
Some may remember the "Behind every succesful pro musician or athlete is
an insanely driven parent" essay.
Go ahead. Let the child play clarinet. The shared experience will be a
treasure regardless of the ultimate outcome.
Any clarinet will do. Set it up to blow easily [I find the M13 Vandoren
an excellent choice if you don't mind flat pitch, B44s are excellent too
and play higher]. Allow the child to sit while playing, supporting the
instrument any way they can. Don't look too closely at embouchure. If the
child double lips there is little chance any dental considerations are in
order. Even with single lip the amount of time spent playing will be short
and therefore not much of a factor dentally. Consider what thumb sucking
does and the amount of time it takes to do it.
Listen to what the child sings or dances to. Write it out on enlarged
manuscript [scrawl the 5 lines yourself about 3/8 inch between lines]. Put
it in any key signature that will use the left hand only including trill
keys. Something like "twinkle twinkle" can start on D if you use trill keys.
Make playing clarinet part of your child's daily routine.

Dan

Life without music is empty

At 23:44 14/11/99 EST, you wrote:
>Thanks, Avrahm Galper, (15-11-99) for noting the BBC Music mag article on
>Julian Bliss who started clarinet aged FOUR (!) and was "not from a musical
>family" (which in some people's opinions, mightn't preclude possible
>descendency from Sir Arthur Bliss (1891-1975 Master of the Queen's Musik,
>1953-).
> My own 3-year who fancies himself as a "performer" (=likes an audience) on
>(my) clarinet when he can get hold of it without my noticing. (He can
>actually manage a decent open "g"). Conventional wisdom here (Austyralia)
has
>it that you shouldn't start children on brass/wind instruments until they
>have permanent teeth and that the intervening time is better spent learning
>(e.g.) keyboard and music reading skills.
>However, (depending advice which I may receive other from Klarinet listers),
>I'd like to give him a chance to try to learn early, before he gets to
school
>and becomes motivated only by peer-group pressure.) This might also resolve
>whether (a) he's genuinely keen to learn or (b) whether it's the show-off
>aspect that's the real attraction. (Presently I suspect (a) is true,
>strongly motivated by (b).
>So, I have two questions:
>(1) How young to start clarinet? - Assuming that a child is really
>interested? (mine's not interested in preliminaries such as learning the
>recorder).
>(2) Where does one obtain a suitable instrument (e.g. "plastic Lyons C
>clarinet with fewer keys but authentic sound" mentioned in the BBC
article).
>Any advice on either topic would be welcome.
>Thanks in advance
>Tim Shaw.
>
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