Klarinet Archive - Posting 000218.txt from 2002/04

From: Karl Krelove <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Clefs
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2002 06:13:30 -0500

Without denying the usefulness of clefs, I really wonder for how many people
trying to "learn to read" a clef turns into an exercise that reverses what
we've been talking about. I have heard many students and even experienced
musicians who, in reading the less familiar clefs (which for most wind and
non-viola string players include alto and tenor), talk about it as
"everything is one note lower (or higher) than the treble clef" or
something similar. Unless they use a new clef constantly (as a violinist who
makes a full-time switch to viola), many people I know never quite get out
of that sort of transpositional approach into a real level of comfort
reading anything directly but the one (or two) clefs they learned as
children.

For those who feel clef substitution is a help (for transposition or
otherwise), what have been your experiences, both your own and those of your
students, with the process of learning clefs?

Karl Krelove

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tony Pay [mailto:Tony@-----.uk]
> Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 4:47 AM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] Clefs
>
>
> On Fri, 05 Apr 2002 09:01:43 +0000, acb@-----.is said:
>
> > Glad to hear Sean mention the benefits of clef reading as a
> > transposition technique. I have found it immensely useful in teaching,
> > as well as in playing.
>
> What I'm about to post is very obvious and elementary, I know, but it
> constituted my fundamental realisation as a child that 'funny' clefs
> weren't as mysterious as I'd previously imagined. (Nobody bothered to
> point it out to me, or perhaps I just wasn't listening!)
>
>
> Given that the Treble and Bass clefs are:
>
> _
> ------------------------------ I
> ------------------------------ I
> ------------------------------ I TREBLE CLEF
> ------------------------------ I
> ------------------------------ _I
> ----MIDDLE C---- _
> ------------------------------ I
> ------------------------------ I
> ------------------------------ I BASS CLEF
> ------------------------------ I
> ------------------------------ _I
>
>
> ...then for example the ALTO clef is just:
>
>
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------ _
> ------------------------------ I
> ------------------------------ I
> ----MIDDLE C---- I ALTO CLEF
> ------------------------------ I
> ------------------------------ _I
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
>
>
> ...and the TENOR clef just:
>
>
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------ _
> ------------------------------ I
> ----MIDDLE C---- I
> ------------------------------ I TENOR CLEF
> ------------------------------ I
> ------------------------------ _I
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
>
>
> How do you introduce different clefs in your own teaching, Anna?
>
> Tony
> --
> _________ Tony Pay
> |ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
> | |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
> tel/fax 01865 553339
>
> ... Set phasers on tickle!
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>

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