Klarinet Archive - Posting 000422.txt from 2003/01

From: "Kimber" <wolfcry01@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] High pitch (was: [kl] Funny story of the day...)
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2003 00:14:03 -0500

In my band, we are now playing Block M concert march. It is pretty
difficult, considering it is in cut time, and that's about as high as I can
go. I'm only in eighth grade, and I am now the only first clarinet. Not like
first chair, but what it says on the piece of music. We had three this and
last year. But Jack quit, and Chelsea has cnaker sores and is going to quit.
Most of our band is quitting...and if too many more quit, they're going to
throw out our music program. Anyways, the pitch is incredibly high for jr
high, and as of late our flutists have stopped playing and so have the other
clarinetists. So it's me and the saxs and the bass. Yikes! How many pieces
go higher?
Kimber the Wrestler
----- Original Message -----
From: <LeliaLoban@-----.com>
Subject: [kl] High pitch (was: [kl] Funny story of the day...)

> I wrote,
> >One reason I sound bad on E-flat itty-bitty clarinet is because
> >I really don't enjoy high pitch. What many people hear as
> >exciting brilliance, I hear as unpleasant shrillness.
>
> Nancy Buckman wrote,
> >>I like playing all the clarinets in the family, but I can't seem to
> >>get past this feeling that the lower ones just aren't a challenge.
> >>The parts, most often, aren't difficult and I find my mind
> >>wandering.
>
> That was certainly true of the alto clarinet parts I played in the junior
> high school band, but sitting surrounded by the sound in the middle of the
> band was an exciting enough experience even though I didn't have
challenging
> things to do; and nobody forced me to practice those parts exclusively.
> Discovering I liked the instrument a lot more than the available music, I
> started borrowing my mother's vocal scores early on. I preferred tenor
> arias on alto clarinet. Today, as an amateur, since I don't have any gigs,
I
> hardly ever play music intended for the alto clarinet. Most of my alto
> clarinet repertory (transposed as necessary) comes from music written for
> other instruments, particularly for voice.
>
> Allen J. Levin wrote,
> >>>Get rid of the cat and your tolerance for high pitches
> >>>might come back!
>
> LOL! You understand that if I were to perceive any truth to that comment
> (not that I do, mind you!--oh, no, of course not...), I would never dare
to
> say so in front of anybody with little gray furry pointed ears . . . very
> alert little pointed ears that just swivelled in my direction....
>
> But I think I do instinctively prefer low pitch, though not quite to the
> degree of fanatacism expressed by . . . somebody with pointed ears. The
> sound of a thundering big pedal rank on a pipe organ grabbed me and held
my
> attention even when I was a baby (says Mom); in pre-school, it bothered me
> that I couldn't sing bass like my uncle (who wickedly told me that my
voice
> would get lower as I grew up--at age three, I believed every word, and
kept
> my hopes up for *years*!); and apparently when I got my first recorder
soon
> afterwards, I ungratefully complained because it wouldn't play lower
notes.
> The bass notes, along with the chance to play counterpoint, attracted me
to
> the piano. I've met a number of people who play tuba and other seismic
winds
> who tell me they naturally gravitated toward low-pitched sounds. Probably
> some ancestor got scared by a cat and peed in the gene pool.
>
> ;-)
> Lelia
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>

---------------------------------------------------------------------