Klarinet Archive - Posting 000376.txt from 2002/04

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] Workability
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2002 17:11:21 -0400

On Fri, 12 Apr 2002 10:22:00 -0800, jalguire@-----.net said:

> Sometime earlier this year there was a post that said, in effect,
> 'forget the search for a perfect mouthpiece until you can play well
> enough to tell the difference.' Ah, I should have listened.

I think the best way of describing our search as players, at any level
of proficiency, is that it is a search for 'workability'. Because that
description captures what professionals do just as much as it captures
what beginners do.

In your development as a player, you'll come to want more from your
playing. So at various stages of that, something that 'worked' before,
won't seem to 'work' now, because you're wanting more.

You fill in the gap between what you can do and what you want to do both
by practice and by changing other things -- altering your choice of
reeds and mouthpiece is a common change of that sort. Having a balance
between the two is something you learn by experience.

What's pretty about thinking in terms of workability is that it
undercuts the whole idea of a 'perfect' anything. Because what's
'workable' depends on what work *you* want done, and so your attention
is thrown both outward and inward simultaneously. Of course, your
teacher can help by pointing out things you may not be seeing, in both
directions.

I'd ignore physical mismatches between bits of your equipment. The
important mismatches to notice in detail are between what you do and
what you want to do.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

..... The older you get, the better you realize you were.

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