Klarinet Archive - Posting 000330.txt from 2001/09

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: [kl] One setup
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 00:05:11 -0400

<><> Tina=A0Holmes-Davis wrote:
Do you think that one setup can be right for all clarinetists?

Tina, some of the people who have answered you are clarinetists of
substance, and all of them have been "gentler" in their statements than
necessary. Perhaps this is a problem because the claim (as you have
stated it) is flat-out wrong, and you may be wondering if perhaps the
claim is "mostly correct" or something similar.

What _is_ true is that a competent clarinetist can make acceptable music
on just about any mouthpiece. An analogy would be that Babe Ruth could
hit a a few home runs with any baseball bat, or Van Cliburn could play a
passable waltz on an upright piano. These examples do not mean that
Babe Ruth's bat would've been "right" for every other baseball player,
or that Van Cliburn's concert piano would be "right" for Dave Brubeck.

Bottom line: Has there been a miscommunication? At the grad student
level, I think most of us are wondering if the instructor truly meant to
convince you that "one mouthpiece and reed is best for all."

Perhaps he (or she) meant to say only that this combination is what
works best for him, or perhaps he listened to your playing and suggested
that you experiment with something closer to what he plays?

Also --- Certainly it's true that once a clarinetist becomes used to a
certain setup, the clarinetist may stumble when asked to play something
new. The same thing happens when an instructor tries to educate you
about alternate fingerings for a certain note. Alternate fingerings
are necessary, but in the beginning they may cause you to stumble.
Changes to your breath support, embouchure, tonguing, and so forth can
also cause you to stumble at first.

What I'm suggesting here is that perhaps the instructor has good reason
to move you towards some other setup or technique (or combination of
setup and technique), and the frustration of having to undo bad habits
is causing you to misinterpret what your instructor is trying to
accomplish.

Probably you should sit down with him (or her) and have a more complete
conversation about your situation. After all, you _do_ say "grad
student". The statement that you heard doesn't really fit with the
grad student level of instruction.

Cheers,
-Bill

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