Klarinet Archive - Posting 000553.txt from 2000/04

From: "Patricia Smith" <pattiesmith@-----.net>
Subj: Re:[kl]motivation
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 13:19:58 -0400

Someone wrote:

"Buried in this thread is the concept that music isn't pleasurable unless
you can do it right. If I were an instructor, I hope that I could avoid
this fatal trap. Why do people sing to themselves even
though the best they can muster is a monotone or a screech? Because they
don't enjoy it?"

Bill Hausman wrote:

"You can enjoy making music regardless of how bad you are. The difference
is, if you are good, OTHER PEOPLE will enjoy it, too!"

For me personally, I felt the way Bill describes: I wanted for other people
to enjoy my playing as well. That was, and still is a motivation for me to
play my very best - that and the fact that I demand a lot of myself. On the
other hand it doesn't mean I don't enjoy my music making process. I enjoy
the process of working up a piece of music and honing it, much as one would
craft a fine sculpture. I can sense when I am close to what I want the
music to say, and what I also want to draw out of what is on the written
page. (These two things must be kept in balance, IMHO).

I think it is important not to fall into the other trap of not asking enough
of ourselves. I explain to my students that, the better they play, the more
fun it gets, because there is more music available to them for playing
around with. Let's face it, most of us do like to play high, fast and loud.
And to be able to do that and sound good is quite an accomplishment. One of
my favorite things to do in high school was to show off to my friends with
the most technical passages I could find. Did I have an ego problem?
Probably. Maturity and growing up is the cure for that. But I also
discovered that I play for the physical feeling of playing the horn, and no
one can ever take that away from me. Clarinet, unlike the men in my life,
is a lifetime love.

Patty Smith

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