Klarinet Archive - Posting 000629.txt from 2001/06
From: "Gene Nibbelin" <gnibbelin@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Thumb and Wrist, Breathing, Print, Composing Problems.
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 15:57:54 -0400
Tony -
"sitting up straight, with my back firmly against my chair" I use a
secretarial type chair (no arms) with a lumbar supportive back rest. Just
good posture, not rigidly straight like a military school cadet.
As far as breathing goes, educate me. I learned diaphragm breathing from my
clarinet teacher in the late '30s and have breathed this way since then,
even during the long time that I was not playing clarinet. Thus, my
shoulders do not move at all when taking a deep breath, my upper chest and
back move very little but my abdomen expands a lot. Long phrases do not
bother me in spite of my age.
My question is: How will bending forward and compressing my abdomen help my
breathing?
In short, I don't follow your logic.
Regards,
Gene Nibbelin
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Wakefield [mailto:tony-wakefield@-----.net]
Subject: [kl] Thumb and Wrist, Breathing, Print, Composing Problems.
From: "Gene Nibbelin"
> For example, as I sit here practicing (sitting up straight, with my back
> firmly against my chair) I am resting my Bb about 5 inches above my knee.
> My A rests at about 3 inches above my knee.
Should you not be sitting with your bum only at the back of the chair, and
then sit with a forward posture to facilitate efficient breathing? :<)
Don`t forget that when we breath in, it is not only our chest which expands,
but our upper back also. To sit with our back against the back of the chair,
will impair breathing in. There are some long phrases out there - - -
I came across a band clarinet part which a student brought in to her lesson
on Monday. It was composed by an English writer who writes primarily for
brass bands. He has become very, very successful thru`out the whole world.
Whether it was this same person who then transcribed it for wind band I`m
not sure, but the part is astonishingly impossible to play. 100`s of very
fast continuous 16`s running line after line without room to breath. Not
only that, but the bars (measures) are printed too close together to be able
to see clearly, and on top of that, the staves also are cramped together so
closely that stems down are right next to stems up on the staff underneath.
A most atrocious display of the publisher (and composer) not <giving> a damn
about how the player is going to cope. Bad composing, bad orchestration, and
bad printing are much too prevalent these days. The fact that we have always
had this problem is <not> justification to continue. We have wonderful
technology to give us good print, even if we will always have to cope with
bad everything else. I do not think musicians voice their discontent as
often as what they should. Otherwise publishers, (and the composers) will
continue to give us crap like this in future.
I intend to contact the composer to ask him what this is all about. I`ll
keep you informed.
Now - - breath in, breath out, calm down Tony. I`m very serious tho`.
Best,
Tony W.
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