Klarinet Archive - Posting 000481.txt from 2003/02

From: Karl Krelove <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Legere Quebec Style Reeds
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 11:00:13 -0500

> -----Original Message-----
> From: CBA [mailto:clarinet10001@-----.com] - Kelly Abraham
> Subject: Re: [kl] Legere Quebec Style Reeds
>
>
> But a 5RV Lyre doesn't work for everyone. You could be taking a
> setup that isn't great, and moving them further away from how
> they want to sound, or away from a setup that marginally works
> to one that doesn't work at all.
>
> I don't EVER dictate what works for my students. I go with them
> to try out mouthpieces and give opinions, but take the primary
> reason for buying the mouthpiece as it makes playing easier and
> more productive for them, which only they can tell.
>
Kelly, I think you're being too sweepingly universal in the approach you've
described. The problem (as you even hint in your final paragraph) is that
many students, especially young intermediate or elementary level players,
don't yet have a clear idea, or sometimes even a half-formed one, of what
they want to sound like. Nor, even if they think they know what they want,
do they necessarily have enough experience to give them a useful frame of
reference within which to base their choices.

It isn't that the equipment should *make playing easier* but rather that it
should *make achieving a player's musical goals easier.* Most students below
a reasonably advanced level don't really know what their goals are beyond
playing the right notes and accurate rhythms. They don't want to squeak and
they know there shouldn't be fuzz in the sound, but matters of flexibility,
subtlety of articulation, ease of legato, dynamic control (beyond medium
loud and not as loud) - all the things that equipment is designed to
facilitate - are beyond the scope of what the average non-advanced player
has internalized. In a real sense, the process of teaching is the process of
exposing a student to these higher conceptual areas and giving the him or
her the means and the opportunity to internalize them. When that part of the
learning process is well underway the development of musical individuality
begins. "Dictating" a setup to a student who really doesn't know what's
possible, much less what he or she wants, can be the most efficient way of
simply making sure the equipment is not an impediment to developing a level
of technical accuracy needed to build toward the more interesting process of
truly musical conceptualization.

I frequently have students who come to lessons playing on reeds that are
much too soft and easy-blowing. They're happy (and not as comfortable with
the contrast when I substitute a slightly heavier reed), but they are
unbearably flat above clarion G, scratchy and thin in the lower chalumeau
and can't play anything but an anemic mezzo-something. They haven't yet
learned to expect dynamic contrast, don't know what is in tune and what
isn't, and think that because the right notes are coming out, the clarinet
sounds OK. My job, over a very extended period of time, is to try to broaden
their concept of what is musically "right" or important to think about, and
as that image develops, to show them what they can do to produce results
that approach their increased awareness.

> Putting all of your students on a 5RV Lyre is reminiscent of the
> thread we have had time and time again about the band directors
> who blindly put all of their clarinet students on B45
> mouthpieces, because it is a popular mouthpiece, and they
> recognize the model. Usually, these teachers are not
> clarinetists, but occasionally they are.
>
That thread was, as I remember it, initially prompted by a complaint about a
teacher who was a trumpet player requiring a setup simply because someone
else had recommended it. It is very different from a private clarinet
teacher, who is being paid for his or her expertise as a clarinetist,
"dictating" (or, more mildly put, strongly recommending) equipment that
(s)he knows to be a basically responsive and non-interfering. At the very
least, the teacher can then discount certain equipment characteristics as
possible causes of problems in the student's playing during a lesson. The
equipment a teacher will recommend is going to be something he or she is
familiar with.

By the way, I accept, although I suspect not all teachers do, that the
student still has the final choice. If he comes to a lesson with something
completely different from my recommendation because it was cheaper or
because he took a store manager's recommendation over mine, I will grumble
for a few seconds and then go on to other things, assuming what the student
ended up with actually works.

> Why not let your students try out multiple brands and models and
> let them decide what works for them?

This is fine IF they have a clue as to what they're looking for. "What works
for them" is not necessarily a good test (reference my first paragraph) if
all they are looking for is something that's "easier to play."

> Do they also HAVE to play
> on Buffet clarinets? Most of mine do not, because they choose,
> and I let them find out what works best for them. I give them
> parameters to look within, and they can choose from a list of
> clarinets including Buffet, LeBlanc, Yamaha, Selmer, Patricola,
> Rossi, Howarth, etc...

This may indicate the level of student you have in mind when you take the
position you've taken. Many of my students play on "beginner" rental level
Yamahas and Buffets. I assume from the other names on your list that the
Yamahas and Buffets you're talking about are better quality instruments than
that. This suggests a fairly accomplished student, which makes a great deal
of difference in this whole discussion.

> I believe that requiring a single model mouthpiece for all of
> your students will be detrimental to at least part of your
> students. I used to play on a 5RV Lyre and loved it. I can't get
> the same sound out of it, nor do I want to anymore, because my
> tastes changed, and so has my embouchure. I would be a student
> of yours that would NOT progress if I had to use the 5RV Lyre.
>
I think you've hit an important nail on the head here - "dictating" a setup
is not necessarily a good approach with a student who is advanced enough to
be able to make independent choices. That you don't think you could progress
on a 5RV Lyre is really not a good test, because you know what you're trying
to accomplish when you put a clarinet to your mouth, and a 5RV Lyre makes it
harder for you to do it. I currently teach a student who is auditioning for
some very high level college programs right now and she and I have both
already gotten really enthusiastic feedback from the teachers for whom she
has already auditioned. She plays on a mouthpiece that, before she showed up
with it at a lesson, I had never heard of. I have tried it and, to be
honest, I'm not nearly so fond of it as she is. But she has tried my
Gigliotti mouthpiece and prefers hers. She sounds very good, plays very
musically, and is all-in-all an excellent player for her age and experience.
I wouldn't dream of even trying to force her to switch. I have other
high-school aged fairly advanced students who have largely chosen their own
equipment. They represent a different situation from the girl or boy who
comes to me with only a year or two of school lessons and the original
rental setup he or she started with.

Karl Krelove

> --- Bill Semple <wsemple@-----.com> wrote:
> > You pose an interesting thought. Some of my students come with
> > such bad
> > setups that I wonder they play at all. Generally, I convert
> > them to a
> > VanDoren V12 and a 5RVLyre because I know this setup.
>

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