Klarinet Archive - Posting 000151.txt from 2001/11

From: Virginia Anderson <assembly1@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: clarinetist's block
Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2001 18:12:58 -0500

on 3/11/01 9:15 am, "jess crawford" <akane12@-----.net> wrote:

> Hi all--
> I'm experiencing an interesting phenomenon that I know is altogether normal
> but still frustrating: I have hit a plateau and I appear to be stuck. I am a
> college student, a junior, and my sophomore year was a huge year for me as a
> musician-- there was just so much growth! and now. ..

You've had a lot of good advice from other listees - all of which will
provide a change of pace, which is what it sounds like you need. Have you
just got through your junior recital? (or do you have one?) Is a senior one
on the cards? If not, you might need to set up a project, as people have
suggested. How about a recording project, in which you record some of your
repertoire in anticipation of audition tapes for post-grad or jobs?

This will sound a bit "old hippie" but you might try thinking in terms of
the archer. You are setting the arrow back in the bow, making it ready to
fly again (and no smirking in the back, you 1970s people, and no, I didn't
talk like this all the time to my students). Progress comes in spurts -
just think that your plodding along doing technical exercises will never be
a waste.

You might try to keep up the assigned work while trying out possible music
for your senior recital, if you haven't chosen it all (thus getting in sight
reading and also anticipating performance). If it ever gets to be too much,
a great leap will often occur after a rest - say, a non-clarinet vacation -
but most of the perceived leap will be in getting back to where you were
before you took the vacation. But sometimes this is necessary for the
psyche.

If you've chosen the senior recital programme (the Berg in there?) then try
for smaller successes in your practice - say, a small phrase or a few
notches up on the metronome per day (sometimes for me, it's just getting a
little more accurate on the same notch!). There's always a little sticking
point that will eventually come unstuck....

> (on a good note, and thanks to some advice from this list: I can now flutter
> tongue! [there was much rejoicing!]. Vier Stucke, here I come!)

as you've found with the Vier Stucke. Go for it!

Cheers,

Virginia
--
Virginia Anderson
Leicester, UK
<vanderson@-----.uk>
Experimental Music Catalogue: <http://www.experimentalmusic.co.uk>
...experimental music since 1969....

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