Klarinet Archive - Posting 000867.txt from 2000/08

From: EbKlarinet@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Re: singing helps playing
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2000 13:50:46 -0400

In a message dated 8/27/00 4:16:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Tony Pay writes:

<< So there's a lot to be said, in my view, for the very ancient trick of
having people play instruments the way they *sing* -- and singing
includes words, which have their own stress patterns that may or may not
coincide with the harmony. And by the way, I'm talking about *proper*
singing; that is, of songs, not operatic crap.>>

Dearest sweetest Tony-----
What have you got against opera? You knew the opera people on this list just
couldn't let that one go by, didn't you? <g>

But anyway, back to your point, which is excellent....singing ABSOLUTELY
improves your playing. One of the conductors I play under often has the band
sing their parts for various reasons, most often when he either wants them to
listen to where their note is in the overall harmonic scheme, or when he is
trying to get them to play a 'line', the same way you would sing a 'line',
freely and with support and with direction and shape and movement, etc.
Singing always brings this out in people, even if they aren't 'singers' per
se. When we first sing something, and then play it, the result is always so
much better than when we had only *played* the thing.

As an opera singer, I cannot learn my parts 'in isolation'---I MUST hear the
harmonic underpinnings of my aria or ensemble or even recits before I can
even begin to know how to sing my own notes. I tried to explain this to a
former voice teacher of mine who thought it was a crime to listen to
recordings, because that meant you would just imitate the singers you heard,
and never form your own identity.(Well, I listen to Joan Sutherland and
Beverly Sills, and sound like me, but it wouldn't be a bad thing to sound
like either of those ladies, don't you think?<g>)

As a clarinetist, it is possible to learn the parts alone, as I focus on the
mechanics of producing the sound, but if I don't know what the harmonies are
already, I will eventually make up some in my head to hear as I play (and of
course, if I do know the harmonies, they are always there in my head, playing
along). Playing an instrument is more mechanical than singing, so that the
horn can get in the way of the innate musicality that we all have, and that's
why the 'singing your part' technique should be used by everybody.

Also, Tony, the way you have your students accomplish one goal by actually
asking them to do another thing, like having them take a scale and emphasize
different notes, as you mentioned in your post, and that exercise makes the
scale more even without you just saying to them, "play that more evenly", is
one of the best ways to teach, in my opinion. The conductor I mentioned
above did that very thing last Thursday night, when he had the bass
clarinets, bassoons, and euphoniums all playing a long ascending run
together, and could not get it to balance. Instead of asking the euphoniums
to play louder (because they were just not projecting--can you believe the
low reeds covered them up?<g>), he asked the low woodwinds to match "whatever
sound the euphoniums give you", and of course, the euphoniums played louder!
This method is so good because it helps the student understand what the
overall goal is that the teacher is trying to accomplish, and doesn't just
ask them to perform a particular skill in isolation, without connecting it to
the big picture.

Elise Curran
Orlando, FL
ENTJ
Clarinetist
Coloratura Soprano

ps <g>Tony, for your operatic vocal listening pleasure, can I recommend you
start with something like "The Barber of Seville" with Sills, Milnes, and
Gedda, or perhaps "Rigoletto" with Milnes, Sills, and Kraus, or you might
like Mozart, as well? I hesitate to mention that you might try some G&S, with
the D'Oyly Carte( we all know how some Brits seem to have a curious antipathy
to their own operetta treasures). And you have to actually listen to the
singers, and not just to what the clarinets are doing! :-)

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