Klarinet Archive - Posting 000188.txt from 2001/11

From: Virginia Anderson <assembly1@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: clarinetist's block
Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2001 10:12:19 -0500

on 4/11/01 9:15 pm, Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay) wrote:

> What I remember of my early days of playing the clarinet was the joy of
> reading through wind quintets with friends on Sunday afternoons; of
> bashing through the cl/pf repertoire after school with my schoolpal (we
> got as far as the Ireland Sonata eventually); and playing in local
> orchestras, Gilbert and Sullivan, and so on....
>
> In the end, I practised only in order to be able to *play* better. And
> that wasn't demanded by anything other than that the music just didn't
> sound good enough, to me and other people, if I didn't.
>
> I still don't practise very much unless I have to play something. You
> might be the same.

But Tony, I bet you also passed your Boards to grade 8 or so, thus ensuring
that you had worked out proper fingerings and appropriate solo literature
and sight reading in a systematic fashion early on when muscles are easily
trained, and thus ensuring that you technique would only have to be sped up
and refined at university. I'd imagine that David and other American
teachers find such rigorous programmes necessary due to the chaotic American
musical education (often lack thereof) before university. There's a steep
learning curve for talented students whose only education consisted of
marching and concert band music.*

Having said this, I can't imagine such a routine would give a student a
renewed love for the instrument, nor is it always the way to progress
technically. I agree with your suggestion for Jess to "do it" - it's just
that I can understand why some people don't.

Cheers,

Virginia

*Yes, there are good band directors out there who encourage students to take
lessons and require scale and arpeggio studies as part of progress in band.
Most of the band and orchestra directors on this list are here because they
maintain an interest in music education, but there is no system to ensure
such responsibility at all schools. Since the British music programmes were
taken from the education authorities some years ago, more and more students
here will fall through the cracks as well.
--
Virginia Anderson
Leicester, UK
<vanderson@-----.uk>
Experimental Music Catalogue: <http://www.experimentalmusic.co.uk>
...experimental music since 1969....

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