Klarinet Archive - Posting 000680.txt from 2001/10
From: rgarrett@-----.edu
Subj: Re: [kl] Beginners and Chalumeau (was If you are interested)
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2001 12:12:08 -0400
At 11:27 AM 10/21/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>It's always appeared to me to be the case that the longer young students
>remain exclusively in the chalumeau register, the longer they remain able
>build embouchure habits that make anything higher impossible for them to
>produce. Maybe it's because I'm not meticulous enough with young students
>who, in general, only do things "because I told them to" rather than out
>of any internalized understanding of what they're trying to accomplish.
>But I find that the chalumeau is so much more forgiving of inefficient
>"addressing" (as you frequently call it) of the mouthpiece/reed/instrument
>that it isn't until they get to the next set of twelfths that they begin
>to have a reason to do basic things efficiently. In other words, they can
>"get away" with much more below the break and have no intrinsic reason to
>change anything until the sound won't come out or is so ugly that they
>can't stand it.
Karl,
Your post was very interesting - and provocative in terms of thinking about
how students may develop...............I'm posting only because I have a
strong interest in beginning students and (of course) the overhaul of "bad"
habits in non-beginning students. And I wanted to give a personal
perspective. I hope you don't mind the jumping in to the discussion -
albeit briefly.
I haven't had any personal experience with the negatives you describe in
terms of leaving students in the low register for weeks or months. In
fact, I have had quite the opposite occur. Of course - there are always
the ends of each limit that can cause the most amount of trouble for
beginning students - either staying too long in the chalumeau or moving too
quickly to the clarion. In the US, I have observed students being asked to
learn the clarion within days of being started - much, much too soon. I
have never observed the reverse - although I have former students teaching
in Texas who describe programs in which the beginners remain in the
chalumeau for months on end. They report favorable results.
Teaching beginning band was one of my favorite things to do in the whole
world, and I miss it more than I care to admit. I would gladly change out
conducting such wonderful band masterworks by Holst , Vaughan Williams,
Hindemith, Ticheli, Bach (transcriptions of course), Stamp, Ives, Grainger,
etc. with a university band (and a pretty good one too) to teach a well
setup beginning band class again. Motivating youngsters is so much more
appealing sometimes (notice the qualifying word there). They are like huge
sponges - and they have less excuses! They are so moldable (is that a
word?) - anyone with strong teaching skills, a good approach with young
students, and a good sense of humor will always enjoy teaching beginners.
Until last year, I still taught beginning students - for much lower rates
than jr. high, high school, and adult students. It was a mission - to get
them started correctly and hope that clarinet playing in our city remained
at a high level. I finally stopped taking additional private students (I
now only teach those who remain) because of the enormous time commitment
(my own boys are 11 and 13 - and playing viola and cello in a large number
of endeavors now) and the continued conflict with "saving" the public
school band directors from their misplaced directions in music teaching
(marching with a jr. high and, in some cases elementary band? Ye
Gads!). At any rate - I say all this because I am one of those who firmly
believes in keeping a student in the chalumeau until they demonstrate
appropriate habits related to:
Embouchure - formation and use of
Air - getting air in and blowing it out effectively
Aural placement - tongue position - front and back/combined with use of air
Hand position - no sense moving up until they stop pulling off holes
and holding the instrument with the trill keys!
Endurance
Once these tikes are able to do most or all of the above reasonably well
(notice the qualifying words there!), I move them up. How we do that is
critical by the way. For me, I move them up to the clarion in a way that
doesn't allow them to move a darn thing (embouchure, tongue, etc.) - I have
them close their eyes while playing a low A and give the cue to the student
next to them to push the register key. It is rare not to experience 100%
success in popping up to the clarion E - in tune and with a pretty decent
tone.
I have not seen that waiting a month or two to move them up has ever been a
problem. It was not unusual for me to keep students to be in the clarion
in public school for three months. Two months was the general period of
time when studying privately - although it could go as long as three or more.
>Am I missing something in Ettlinger's approach, or is he dealing with
>significantly different students at Guildhall than I do here in
>Pennsylvania, USA?
Obviously, I am not addressing Ettlinger's approach at all - rather, I'm
supporting the notion that we leave students in the chalumeau longer - for
firming up of habits related to the list above. I would like to know more
about Ettlinger and his teaching mentods............
Best wishes,
Roger Garrett
Illinois Wesleyan University
PO Box 2900
Bloomington, IL 61702-2900
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