Klarinet Archive - Posting 000171.txt from 2000/08

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Is playing sax detrimental to clarinet playing?
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 17:26:52 -0400

Sheryl L. Katz writes,
>...[W]hen I started to practice sax a lot I found that almost everything
>I did was directly applicable to clarinet and my clarinet playing improved
>considerably as a result of practicing the sax. The sax embouchure is
>slightly different from clarinet, but practicing the sax strengthened my lip
>overall, gave me more endurance and made me more aware of using my lip >and
adjusting my lip for changes in pitch and tone.

I think sax playing has improved my clarinet playing, too, for similar
reasons. My favorite sax is a bass, so the embouchure difference is *huge*,
literally, but for me that's actually a good thing. The instruments all feel
so different from each other that I rarely confuse which one I'm playing.
Even though the soprano sax and the soprano clarinet are close to the same
length and use a similar embouchure, they're not much alike. That wide,
brass body feels too thick and heavy (not to mention metallic) compared to a
thin, wooden clarinet in my hands for me to forget and switch fingerings.
The instruments even smell different when they're warmed up.

I think that staying aware of the differences has kept me more alert,
generally, and that better concentration has improved the quality of my
practice sessions since I started doubling. (B-flat clarinet was my first
wind instrument.) I don't "vague out" and go on automatic pilot when I'm
practicing as much now as I used to. Learning about the differences has also
taught me more about how wind instruments work. Then, too, music is music --
the theoretical study of scales, chord structures and so forth carries over
from one instrument to any other.

Kenneth Wolman writes,
>>But didn't Eddie Daniels begin with the sax and move to
>>the clarinet only later? Or am I dreaming?

I don't know about Daniels, but in his autobiography, _The Trouble with
Cinderella_, Artie Shaw describes how, as a kid, he taught himself to play
the sax, before the clarinet. He was mostly self-taught, on both.

Lelia
~~~~~~~~
Time flies whether you're having fun or not.
~~~~~~~~

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