Klarinet Archive - Posting 001001.txt from 2000/01

From: Mary Driver <to3456@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: Why?
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 21:06:51 -0500

Bryan Cholfin wrote:

> I'm 35 years old, I have a decent job in the book
> business, and a
> couple of months ago I bought a clarinet. Kind of
> on a whim. After a
> little while of practicing scales and finger
> exercises and so on, it
> became clear that there was more wrong with the
> horn than just my
> technique (a cheap plastic clarinet bought used).
> So I took it down
> to the local repair guy, and while he's working on
> it, he asks me,
> What on Earth possessed you to try to teach
> yourself clarinet?
> <snip>
> But I think the question, or part of the question,
> I actually want to
> ask here, is was there a particular player whose
> music was
> inspirational to your deciding to be a clarinet
> player?
> <snip>
>

I can't help but reply to this one because the ideas
in it are so
close to some of my experiences I've had since I
started playing the
clarinet.

First, since you asked, my favorite clarinet player
and inspiration is
Pete Fountain. I have not heard his equal anywhere,
although I am
sure there are many that I have not heard. My
second favorite is
Benny Goodman.

Now, here are some comments on learning the clarinet
without a
teacher. Actually, there is no doubt about it a good
teacher would be
a big help. There are so many things to learn. So
many tricks of
the trade. But, lessons are expensive. When you
have a wife and a
family and if you have no intention of becoming a
professional those
lessons can really bite into your budget. Back
somewhere in the
beginning of my clarinet experience I telephoned a
teacher. I said -
I don't need a lesson every week, all I want is
maybe one lesson a
month to get advice and see if I'm heading in the
right direction. He
said "Sorry, my schedule is built around weekly
lessons". So I gave
up on that.

I went to the library and found the book by Pino.
Then I went to
Barnes and Nobel and ordered the book by Keith
Stein. Then I found
sneezy.org and the clarinet list. I read and
re-read the books and
read everything on sneezy, I experimented and after
a lot of
learning and re-learning I think I'm doing pretty
good. I guess
the point I am trying to make is - you can learn to
play the clarinet
without a teacher but its going to take longer and
be lots of work
and you probably won't ever be rich and famous but
its still fun if
you enjoy making music.

Oh, by the way, I originally intended to buy a
saxophone but the
saxophone was too expensive so I bought a clarinet.
Since then I've
decided I like the sound of a clarinet better
anyway. I played the
saxophone for about a year in school but I can't say
that anything I
learned on it helped much on the clarinet except
that I did know how
to read music.

On a slightly different subject but still related:

I just bought a Legere read and I am really excited
about it. I have
been using Mitchel Luries and Van Dorens. I have so
many problems
with humidity changes and warping. Every reed
requires a different
embouchure. With a regular reed, if I have trouble
with a certain
note or range of notes I don't know whether to blame
it on the reed
or my embouchure. The Legere plays the same at
every practice
session. If a note comes out bad either the reed
needs to be
readjusted on the mouthpiece or I need to work on my
embouchure.

Richard

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