Klarinet Archive - Posting 000723.txt from 2002/04

From: MVinquist@-----.com
Subj: [kl] memorizing: suggestions?
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 07:44:01 -0400

Paolo Leva asked:

> I am quite frustrated by the difficulties in learning by memory my
> clarinet music. It is very easy for me to learn by heart my piano
> music, I do not even need to try, if I study a piece for some time
> than I suddenly *know it*. But with the clarinet this does not happen.
>
> I believe that the differences are in the fact that in the piano
> playing I can use my viusal memory and I find it much easier to
> identify clusters (chords, patterns..) even in the melody.
>
> Do you have any suggestion how to *intelligently* develop my memory in
> my clarinet playing?

I think the answer is contained in your question. You memorize tonal music
by seeing and recognizing the chords and patterns. Since your visual memory
is good, try working on the solo part using the piano score or full score,
keeping yourself aware of the chords and patterns as you play the clarinet.
(It's something you should do anyway. If you know only the solo part, you
know only half the music.)

I also find that I develop a kinesthetic sense of a piece. That is, I get
the feeling of sequences of finger movements and play longer phrases as
single physical gestures. For me at least, this comes from having gone
through Baermann III many times, getting the scales, arpeggios and other
tonal patterns burned into my muscle memory. Then, seeing a scale or chord
pattern, I play something I already know and string together groups of things
I already know.

As I work on a piece, I find that my auditory memory recognizes the
underlying chords and patterns, so that I can feel them "working" underneath
the clarinet line, providing a skeleton or framework that determines the
shape and impetus for my line. One way to think about it is that the harmony
like a roller coaster framework and track. You ride the melody over that
track, which determines where you go. Sometimes I think Tarzan-style,
swinging the phrases on the harmony-vine from one resting point to the next.

Tony Pay takes this further. In his wonderful article "Phrasing In
Contention," he talks about playing both with and "against" the harmony. His
point is that you recognize the harmony first, learn to hear it as you play,
and then decide, based on musical taste, when to go with the harmony and when
to balance off against it.

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

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