Klarinet Archive - Posting 000772.txt from 2002/04

From: "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Embouchures in general
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 12:43:34 -0400

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Pay" <Tony@-----.uk>

> <large snip>
> Essentially, therefore, what's required is real time control of
> (2), so that it can vary from moment to moment.
> <snip>
> Now, obviously we haven't a hope in hell of controlling all of that
> consciously. But we can learn how to have it under our (unconscious)
> control by practising in the understanding that both flexibility and
> feedback are required.
>
This touches on a problem I've always felt as a player. When I practice I
am, since I'm playing alone, able to hear - the feedback I assume you're
referring to - and react to everything that comes out of the clarinet. When
I am playing in a small ensemble, I can hear most of what I'm doing enough
to be able to react nd adjust. Playing principal in an orchestra, I get less
aural feedback though still quite a bit, playing second even less, and so I
must rely increasingly on tactile/kinetic feedback to achieve any level of
control over tone or anything else. Playing in a band brings the lowest
level of aural feedback and requires me to try to react almost exclusively
on the basis of "feel." Am I alone in finding that my tactile
(auto-kinetic?) sensitivity in ensemble situations is often completely
unreliable? Sometimes what I'm doing "feels" fine until my part is suddenly
exposed and a quick adjustment of my pitch or tone becomes necessary. I
don't "feel" rhythm in my fingers nearly so accurately when I can't also
hear the result. As a consequence passages that I can play perfectly
competently when I can hear them can become befuddling and hard to control
when I can't hear them through the din around me.

What are other players' experiences with this? I don't remember ever having
discussed it before on Klarinet.

Karl Krelove

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