Klarinet Archive - Posting 000557.txt from 2000/08

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: Re: [kl] taking up the clarinet again
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 13:48:32 -0400

<><> Patricia=A0Smith wrote:
One of my students plays on a YCL24 (I hope the number is correct) - the
beginner horn Yamaha makes.

YCL-20, if you mean the plastic horn.

<><> It plays fairly well, and would also be suitable if you don't
want to chunk down a lot of money at the get go.

A detail that seldom gets mentioned during these discussions is
"forgiveness" -- by which I mean that YCL-20 (and other student horns, I
assume) allow you to make slight errors and still produce a note.
I found this out at ClarinetFest this year when I experimented with
professional instruments and I couldn't play any of them above the break
very well. I focused my attention on the resistance of different bores
(French vs German, etc) and I wondered if professional horns need a
different mouthpiece, and so forth.
When I returned home, my instructor loaned me one of her
professional horns that (she said) was very easy blowing. It was, but I
still had the same problem as I moved up the scale.
It took me several weeks to understand that, all along, I have been
covering some holes in some fingerings only 98% or 99%. My student horn
lets me get away with it, but the pro horn does not.
So it's a trade-off (as I see it right now). You can start out the
easy way with a student horn and thereby not get discouraged too easily;
but this will doom you to picking up some bad habits of which you will
be completely unaware until later on, and you will have to unlearn them
later on. Or you can start out the correct way and take the risk of
feeling so frustrated that you may give up and go back to listening to
CDs instead?

However your situation, Christine, is different than mine because
you are a 'come-backer' whereas I am a true beginner. Perhaps your
previous history makes the student level horn undesirable.

Cheers,
Bill

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