Klarinet Archive - Posting 000008.txt from 2002/10

From: "Kent Krive" <k.krive@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] RE: tunes
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 07:53:30 -0400

Gene,

I thought perhaps you were going to opine that the use of "tunes," i.e.,
melodies already known to beginners, hampers the development of note-reading
skills. I would agree with such a contention, given that the students do not
need to be thoroughly assiduous about their note-reading in order to play
what they already know (although this would promote playing by ear...
certainly a worthy objective).

Perhaps the most bothersome of situations to me, as a teacher, involved the
simplification of well-known melodies in beginning band books, "setting up,"
as it were, note-reading errors, as tunes were played as originally learned
rather than the way they were notated in the book.

For me, having students play familiar tunes in beginning band often
constituted special "fun" times which served to reward good effort on
exercises; to provide a mollifying change-of-pace after some hard work
involving the advancement and/or evaluation of note-reading skills.

Kent

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gene Nibbelin" <gnibbelin@-----.com>
Subject: RE: [kl] RE: tunes

> Neil -
>
> By "tunes" I meant "pop tunes", whatever they were in the 1930's or what
> they are now. Of course, most exercises could be called "tunes" - Even
the
> Kroepsch exercises are very melodious.
>
> And, you are correct that the Rose Etudes are important in learning style,
> etc. However, for the relative beginner, they are tough technical
> exercises. I believe that after my first solo contests were out of the
way,
> was when I started on the Rose 32 Etudes for the purpose of learning
style,
> phrasing, articulation and musicianship. I've returned to the Rose Etudes
> several times as a retread and plan to do so again soon.
>
> Currently, getting up speed on the C# Minor Kroepsch exercises (207-219)
is
> giving me fits. I've done a lot of slow practice, but maybe I just need
> more slow work before I kick up the speed. At any rate, I'm determined to
> have them up to a reasonable speed for my next lesson in 2 weeks.
>
> Pardon my ramble --
>
> Gene N.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Neil Leupold [mailto:leupold_1@-----.com]
> Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 11:08 PM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] RE: tunes
>
> --- Gene Nibbelin <gnibbelin@-----.com> wrote:
>
> > Just checked my first book, the "Imperial Method" by C.L. Staats. No
> > "tunes", just page after page of exercises, some from Klose, Etudes by
> Rose
> > and a lot of originals.
>
> > I never aspired to be a teacher and am happy that I'm not teaching
> clarinet
> > in this "have to play tunes to stay interested" era.
>
> Exercises are not tunes, granted, but you're saying that Rose etudes are
not
> tuneful? They're for technique, sure, but they're much more for phrasing
> and
> musicality. Rose wrote some truly beautiful melodies -- tunes, if you
> will --
> in those "exercises" of his. Maybe they're not generally recognized by
the
> public, but if Ode to Joy is characterized as a tune, surely the Rose
etudes
> qualify as well. Is it the "pop" nature of commonly recognized melodies
> that
> makes them tunes in your book, a la Beatles and Beethoven?
>
> Neil
>
> Do you Yahoo!?
> New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo!
> http://sbc.yahoo.com
>
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>
>
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