Klarinet Archive - Posting 000173.txt from 2003/10

From: Richard Bush <rbushidioglot@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] [clarinet] reeds for beginners?
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 19:00:53 -0400

Thanks for your thoughtful response. I do agree with what you are
saying here.

My contention was solely addressing the very beginner's needs. This
would be a student with up to maybe one year's worth of playing under
his belt. Maintaining a consistent reed strength is very important
during this time.

The person who suggested Legere reeds had it totally right, in my
opinion. She did the best job of any of us at answering the original
question. Sorry, can't remember your name, my dear, and I cleaned away
all the previous messages....please forgive.

RB

On Tuesday, October 7, 2003, at 04:42 PM, Ormondtoby Montoya wrote:

> I wrote:
>
>> encourage students to **experiment** on their
>> own as well as to listen to the instructor's
>> advice
>
> Richard Bush wrote:
>
>> I see no possible good coming from allowing
>> a beginner to start experimenting or sampling
>> different brands of reeds
>
>
>
> Part of the discussion depends on what you and I mean by "beginner".
> This is why my post included: "Imo, once beginners reach the point
> where
> adjusting a reed makes a reproducible difference....". That is, I
> noticed K. Brannon's statement that she regularly adjusts reeds for
> students, and this implies to me that the students' techniques are
> sufficiently stable that adjustment of a particular reed produces
> stable
> (repeatable, reproducible) results. If a student simply can't sound
> the notes at approximately accurate pitch, then something else is wrong
> and adjusting a reed won't help.
>
>
>
> There is something else to consider --- namely, beginners commonly
> blame
> their equipment for their problems. "It's the ligature's fault", blah
> blah blah. I've made such claims myself, and my teacher's response
> was: "OK, the shop has 6 different ligatures on the shelf out there.
> You should try them and buy the one that you like best, and next week
> we'll listen to you play this same music." Of course, I made the same
> mistake with every ligature, and finally it sank in that something was
> truly wrong with my own technique. I still have several unused
> ligatures sitting in my drawer.
>
> I witnessed one such episode at a masterclass by Fred Ormond. The
> student, who *was* quite advanced, stopped in mid-performance to change
> reeds. I don't remember Fred Ormond's reply verbatim, but it amounted
> to: "For crying out loud! Pay attention to what you're doing, it isn't
> the reed!"
>
> My point is that encouraging the student to try alternatives and to
> 'face the music', as opposed to leading a student by the hand in a
> spirit of absolute authority and omniscience, is perhaps the better
> teaching method.
>
>
>
> I suppose I should conclude by acknowledging that no single method
> works
> best in every case. Certainly a beginner can feel overpowered if
> offered too many variables all at once. But on balance, the final
> goal
> of instruction is to leave the student with the ability to make
> effective decisions about music as they play, and students need
> 'decision-making practice' just as much as they need 'scale practice'
> and 'fingering practice' and 'rhythm practice' and so forth. Hence
> encouraging them to experiment on their own is a good thing (a
> necessary
> thing) so long as the instructor doesn't see them becoming overpowered
> by the huge variety of choices or by an unwillingness to accept advice
> when advice is truly appropriate.
>
>
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