Klarinet Archive - Posting 000752.txt from 2000/07

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Dental Work - and Other Physical Limitations
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2000 12:47:10 -0400

If you're in dental pain whilst playing - fix or quit? I vote fix.

First off, teeth are important. Aside from the considerable joy involved
from playing the clarinet (which alone could justify the expense) most folks
need their choppers to eat. As for me, I like eating. Do it most every
day. Not eating makes me crabby.

Should one quit clarinet (or any similar joy-producing activity) because of
physical limitations? I'll have to give a resounding "no" to that one, too.

All of us our bounded by our physical limitations. I will never, ever hit a
golf ball like Tiger Woods, or dunk a basketball like Shaquille O'Neal, or
smack a spheroid like Mark McGwire. No one would expect me to - I'm a short
bald guy. For much the same reasons, I'm not ever going to have Stanley
Drucker's or Larry Combs' technique. Ain't gonna happen, no matter how much
practice is involved - my fingers just don't work that well. If I had
practiced 12 hours a day for all these many years, it still wouldn't have
happened -- I just don't have the talent to get the Big Gig. A large part
of the talent deficit is physiological; the tongue moves only so fast and no
more, the fingers only so smooth. Should I quit?

. . . well, I didn't. Good thing, too, 'cuz there are only about 2
activities that I enjoy more than playing. While listening to Brahms or
Mahler is great, it pales in comparison to the absolute gas of playing them
in the flesh. (Face it--the clarinet chair is the best seat in the house.)
This is aside from the other ancillary benefits of being a band rat all
these years.

Is my orchestra as good as Chicago? No way - I play with people who are as
limited as I am. We revel in our mediocrity. Should we all quit?

My advice to our dentally impaired listmate is to go for it (preferably with
as much nitrous oxide as possible). The clarinet playing of each and every
one of us is limited by our physical capabilities -- from [insert name of
famous player] to me to the middle school special-education student using
clarinet as a music therapy tool. Some of us are more limited than others,
true -- so what?

If you think that it's worth the hassle, it is. IMHO, anyway.

kjf

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