Klarinet Archive - Posting 000222.txt from 2002/04

From: Mark Gustavson <mgustav@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Clefs
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2002 09:07:30 -0500

I learned alto and tenor clef because I wanted to play string quartets at the
piano from score in order to learn them, for example, all of the Beethoven
quartets. At first it wasn't easy but I improved by doing it. If I'm dealing
with all the clefs all the time, I see them all in the same way. If I'm not
using alto and tenor much then I will find my eyes scanning for the c line.
However, I find transposing Schoenberg's bass clarinet in A parts more
difficult than reading alto and tenor clef.

Tony Pay wrote:

> On Fri, 05 Apr 2002 10:46:45 +0100, I asked:
>
> > How do you introduce different clefs in your own teaching, Anna?
>
> ....but I should have looked in the archives:
>
> http://www.sneezy.org/Databases/Logs/1999/10/000563.txt
>
> I notice there too a young (1996) Dan Leeson saying he always uses clefs
> rather than shifts to transpose.
>
> Interesting that you learnt the alto clef in the way you describe
> (not so muddily!) there, hanging things initially off 'the three B
> naturals' that 'become' C's on passing from treble to alto clef.
>
> It seems to me that whatever process you use, part of it must be to do
> with building a sufficiently rich system of associations for yourself in
> the clef you're learning. For example, there's a haze of
> piano-left-hand associations for a note read by me in the bass clef.
> And my wife, a 'cellist, says that middle line in the tenor clef, A, is
> for her 'obviously' an open string, which it isn't for me.
>
> Do you practise reading individual clefs on the clarinet? Is it then
> different when you read them on the piano?
>
> Another thought: the Kodaly method builds a representation of each note
> independent of any particular instrument. I wonder if that makes
> learning clefs easier? Or playing in clefs on different instruments
> easier?
>
> Or both?
>
> Tony
> --

--
Mark Gustavson

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