Klarinet Archive - Posting 000250.txt from 2002/04

From: "Terry B" <tbroyles99@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] A few newbie questions
Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2002 21:01:31 -0500

>
> Welcome. It sounds as though you have two very musical children.

Thank you, their mother and I are very proud of them.

>
> To-the-point answers to your two questions:
>
> References to a "pair of clarinets" have to do with a clarinet pitched
in
> B
> flat and one pitched in A. Most serious *orchestral* clarinetists own
at
> least these two, which are the two clarinets most commonly called for
by
> composers from Mozart to the present. You may see conversation here
about
> C
> clarinets as well. These are becoming more common among orchestral
players
> as well. They are called for by composers throughout the 18th and 19th
> centuries, but for a time (through the greater part of the 20th
century)
> players transposed C clarinet parts onto other instruments, usually
the B
> flat, to avoid owning, maintaining and carrying three instruments. So
if
> your daughter becomes serious at the college level, her set of
instruments
> may well include three, not two. BTW, band music is invariably scored
for
> clarinets in B flat, and jazz players who play clarinet play B flats
as
> well.

Ouch, I was just getting used to the idea of 2 clarinets in my future,
now 3? :)

>
> Musicians should be able to transpose as a consequence of their
musical
> skill and understanding. That your kids can both do this easily is
> probably
> a strong indicator of their talent level. That they are getting the
> opportunity to practice doing it in an "authentic" (to borrow a
currently
> popular piece of educational jargon) as well as friendly and
supportive
> musical setting is wonderful for them and will allow their natural
> abilities
> to develop. Many otherwise talented musicians don't have this
opportunity
> as
> young players and find transposition more daunting when they try to
learn
> to
> do it as adults, especially if they need to learn in order to play
some
> difficult C clarinet part in a Rossini overture.
>

I mentioned the tread about transposing to my daughter's instructor. He
also agreed that it was much easier to learn as kids than later on. We
will continue to encourage it.

Thanks for the response!

Terry B

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Terry B [mailto:tbroyles99@-----.com]
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 9:08 PM
> > To: klarinet@-----.org
> > Subject: [kl] A few newbie questions
> >
> >
> > Greetings to the list!
> >
> > I should first introduce myself; I am not a musician by any
definition
> > of the word. I am the father of two very talented teenagers whom
are. My
> > son is 15, a trumpet player, in 10th grade, plays in his high school
> > jazz band, (at 6:30am!) and the wind ensemble. He is also in one of
the
> > Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras.
> > My daughter just turned 13, in 7th grade, has played piano for about
4
> > years and started clarinet for a while in 6th grade. She started to
take
> > clarinet serious and receive private lessons at the beginning of
this
> > school year. There was a bit of confusion for the first semester, as
at
> > the insistence of her band teacher, she showed up at home with a
French
> > horn. Seems her 7th grade band had 11 clarinets, and no horns. As my
> > daughter was about 9th chair, but has a great music background, her
> > teacher thought she would make a great French horn player. She spent
the
> > first semester playing French horn in a beginning band class and
> > clarinet in 7th grade band. At home, she would practice her horn,
> > clarinet, and piano, every day, 7 days a week. At the end of the
> > semester she announced she was done with the horn. She was up to 4th
> > chair clarinet in her band class, and besides, the horn was dorky
and
> > had boring music parts, (her words) :) She now plays piano in her
jazz
> > band class and is ready to bump off 3rd chair clarinet on their next
> > chair test. I subscribed to this list to try to learn more about
> > clarinets for my daughter.
> >
> > If anyone has made it this far thru my ramblings, I have come up
with a
> > couple of questions since reading the posts the last week or so.
> >
> > I have seen several mentions have people having "a set of Buffets"
or "a
> > pair of Selmers" Do serious clarinet players need to have more than
one?
> > I asking this partly to prepare myself for when the time comes and
she
> > says she needs a "pair" of Buffet R13's for college. I've seen the
> > prices of "serious" clarinets and it makes the price of my son's
Bach
> > Stradivarius trumpet look like chicken feed. Are these "pairs" the
same
> > or different keys?
> >
> > My next question has to do with the recent thread on transposing. I
must
> > be missing something here, as both of my kids transpose "on the
fly".
> > While most parents like to think their kids are the brightest in the
> > world, I am under no such illusion. :) They both play in church,
using a
> > piano hymnal, and transpose as they play. They also play at home, my
> > daughter on the piano and my son on trumpet, and he will just read
her
> > piano music, transpose, and play along. I may be misunderstanding
the
> > thread, as it seems many musicians cannot or don't transpose?
> >
> > I'm sure I will come up with more questions later, but this message
has
> > ended up way too long.
> >
> > Thanks to all for some very informative posts.
> >
> > Terry B
> > The very proud father of Michael & Christina
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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