Klarinet Archive - Posting 000313.txt from 2003/08
From: "Wendy" <bosma@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] SPOZED to? Was "The Lure of Certainty"
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 08:19:20 -0400
Ooh, ooh!! Me! Me! I have a perfect example of this physical limitation
affecting how you're SPOZED to do stuff. When I was just a lil tyke my
hands were really, really small. They still are, but at least nowadays
they're proportional to the rest of me. anyway, when I was little I
couldn't really reach B with my left hand so I learned to typically play C
on the left and B on the right. It wasn't until I started studying with Mr.
Krive (oop, I mean Kent-someday I'll get this first name basis thing) that I
learned you are SPOZED to do it the other way around. I still do it "wrong"
but I've been doing it for so long that it no longer negatively affects my
playing. What about y'all? anybody else still doing things "wrong"?
Have a Nice Day!!
Wendy :)
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Pay [mailto:tony_pay@-----.uk]
Subject: [kl] The Lure of Certainty
I regret writing in a previous message: "Why do women always fall for
precisely
the men that treat themn BADLY?" because although it's a good example of a
particular circumstance in which someone -- the man -- who behaves very
clearly
and definitely may be attractive, regardless of what he actually *does* to
you,
it's so fascinating in itself that we lose sight of the general problem.
And I wanted to stick with the general problem and the clarinet stuff,
really.
So, let me put it this way. Imagine that Ralph McLane (we now know he
didn't,
but for argument's sake, suppose he did) actually required all his clarinet
students, regardless of their physical makeup, to use double lip embouchure.
If you prefer, let's change his name to say, 'McDonald', and imagine that
this
fictitious McDonald required his students so to do.
Now, someone responding to this 'McDonald' here commented on his insistence
on
double lip for all his students, regardless, by saying "I guess he was
serious."
What that means is that this person was actually applauding McDonald's
behaviour. He believed that McDonald *really knew*, you see, what you
SPOZED
to do to be a REAL clarinet player. What you spozed to do is what he said
you
spozed to do, namely use double lip embouchure, and then EVERYTHING ELSE
WILL
JUST FALL INTO PLACE. You do have to ignore all the people who for one
reason
or another can't use double lip embouchure (I happen to be one of those
myself)
-- but that's just tough on them. And anyone who is already a successful
clarinet player, but who doesn't use double lip embouchure, just doesn't cut
the mustard, really, because they ain't doing what you SPOZED TO DO.
And remember, this guy is from CURTIS! (No, sorry, it's 'CURTAINS' where
*McDonald* teaches. I forgot.)
CURTAINS!! WOW!! I want some of that!!!
Now consider some of what *I*, and many others, want to say to clarinet
students. I want to say that playing an instrument is a complex,
multidimensional activity, which you can go about in many ways. At least a
part of it is unconscious, so you're never going to actually *fully
understand*
what you're doing.
You can be limited in various ways by your physical makeup, and it's very
probably going to take you a long time to come to express your full
potential.
Nevertheless, it's essentially quite a simple thing, and we all do something
that's rather similar when we read a bedtime story to a child. You may in
the
end come to the conclusion that professional clarinet playing is not for
you,
but you can still enjoy yourself in many ways nevertheless while you're
finding
out.
You do need an intelligent an flexible teacher, or a sequence of them, able
to
respond to the particular problems you'll encounter. A 'manual', however
detailed, is mostly not reliable enough.
Now, who do the students believe? Well, if they're sensible, they'll
believe
me, won't they?
But are they sensible?
I think there are a lot of people who respond far too easily to 'the lure of
certainty'. It's so wonderful to be told simply what you spozed to do.
It's really rather frightening, when you come to think of it, that anyone
here
was prepared to believe in, and celebrate, the existence or past existence
of a
'McDonald' at 'Curtains', which is clearly what they did. So I'll have to
continue to be prepared to say that I guess that McDonald, if he exists or
existed, is or was an arrogant prick.
Still, he doesn't exist.
Does he?
Do you remember that psychology experiment where people were persuaded to
punish experimental subjects who gave wrong answers to a series of
questions,
by giving them increasingly severe electric shocks? The subjects were
actually
actors, miming their pain, but still, a rather alarming degree of
conformance
with the experimental protocol was demonstrated by the 'punishers'. Some
people actually believed their victims were on the point of passing out, yet
still continued to increase the voltage.
They thought they were SPOZED to, you see.
Tony
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