Klarinet Archive - Posting 000063.txt from 2002/02

From: "Karl Krelove" <kkrelove@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Stiff Finger joint
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 20:39:01 -0500

You know, sometimes it isn't the teacher who makes the choice of instrument.
You can guide a young prospective player to an instrument he or she is
*best* suited for physically, but you can't, in any environment in which
I've ever taught, dictate the final choice. If the child is enamored of the
sound or the look of a specific instrument, there are those of us who, your
anger and whatever we were told in college notwithstanding, would rather
have him(her) try the instrument of his choice (if it isn't physically
impossible) than force him into a playing experience we choose for him
because of the length of his fingers (or arms, etc...).

I have a 9th grade private student whom I've taught since last summer. He
has an abnormally short right hand ring finger. When he started studying
with me he was struggling to play anything technical. His short fourth
finger made it impossible for him to cover the G/D hole and still get his
5th finger on the right hand E/B or F/C keys without opening the first
finger (Bb/F) hole. The contortions he was going through were unbelievable.
He is now playing very fluently and has become a very good player. It was
*impossible* for him to play the clarinet as he bought it, so I contacted
Mike Hammer, who is an excellent repair tech in the Philadelphia area, and
asked if he could provide any mechanical help. With an (admittedly
expensive) bit of key work it became *very possible* for this young man to
play excellently. Would he have been as good on any other instrument that a
music teacher chose for him in fourth grade? If he had stuck with it, yes,
absolutely. But *he* chose a clarinet for some reason and has been willing
to struggle with it all this time even without the benefit of the mechanical
accommodation.

My college roommate is something like 5'4" or maybe, tops 5'6" and was a
very successful trombonist for several years. He used an instrument with an
F attachment and just didn't use 7th position.

I understand that some children (and grown-ups) are physically better suited
to certain instruments and ill-suited to others. I don't understand your
righteous anger at anyone who would put pedagogical "wisdom" above a
student's inspiration and interest. We weren't all "sleeping through
college," nor were all of our colleges "inaddiquate." Sometimes we just
choose to take different directions.

Respectfully,

Karl Krelove

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Bush [mailto:rbushidioglot@-----.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 1:05 PM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: Re: [kl] Stiff Finger joint
>
>
> When I read something like this I get mad. Why wasn't this person
> properly screened when she started? We shouldn't have very short people
> with short parents start trombone---no seventh position, even when they
> grow up. We don't put kids with course, shredding lip tissue on flute.
> We don't (or shouldn't) put kids with very double jounted conditions of
> their thumbs on clarinet.
>
> Were these music teachers sleeping through college, or were their
> colleges so inaddiquate that they didn't teach these BASICS to their
> music ed students?
>
> JMarioneau@-----.com wrote:
>

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