Klarinet Archive - Posting 000259.txt from 2003/12

From: tuneup@-----.net
Subj: [kl] Bravo, Patricia!
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 11:33:34 -0500

If any of you have been priviledged enough to hear David Niethamer's recordings with the Richmond Symphony in past years, you will hear a rare command of pitch (under some pretty challenging situations!). He really knows what he's talking about.

Working with clarinet teachers around the country with Tuneup, I have become more sympathetic to the challenge the instrument poses to play in tune. Nevertheless, fine intonation is as much a part of fine musicianship as playing accurate rhythm or with a great tone.

It's great to hear this discussion!

Steve
--
Stephen Colley
www.tuneupsystems.com
> David Niethamer wrote:
>
> >I know lots of players who can "stop the needle" on a tuner who can't play in
> tune to save their lives!! The rep said they were working on this as a feature
> for some future edition of SmartMusic.
> >
> >I know this is a tangent to the current discussion, but I thought it was
> important to mention it.
> >
>
> David,
>
> though you address this as a tangential issue to this particular
> discussion, I'd like to start a discussion concerning THIS issue.
>
> This was an issue for me nearly the ENTIRE time I was in Navy music. I
> think I I EVER have to play for another damned tuner, I will take the
> thing and stomp it to pieces.
>
> I have seen too many people - sometimes ENTIRE BANDS! - that could play
> Bb whatever dead on, then manage to play an entire concert as a band SO
> OUT that I thought my ears would shrivel in disgust. It is, in my
> opinion, more about listening and adjusting as we go along, rather than
> putting a needle dead on, and keeping that pitch all the way through.
> IMO, heat, moisture and a number of various other factors are going to
> alter pitch in minute and even quite broad ways and we have to be able
> to adjust to those and to each other as we go through a concert.
>
> Too many people get one pitch inside their heads, and cannot make the
> adjustment to what is going on, pitchwise, around them. This does not
> mean I think that bands or orchestras should allow themselves to go WAY
> sharp or flat. Not at all. That is also horrible sounding. But with
> extremes in temperature that do happen sometimes (if the heat goes out
> in a building where a performance is already in progress, for example),
> one has to make adjustments and live with them, rather than stubbornly
> staying at one's place, regardless of what other instruments around one
> are doing. I played in some horrid instances, on some dreadful
> instruments (plastic Bundy screamer on a pier near saltwater, anyone? It
> was fun, I must admit, but I am not going to insist that the trumpets go

> flat for me. They simply won't anyway.)
>
> Maybe I'm out to lunch here. If so, I'm sure plenty of people will be
> more than willing to say so! :D (dons flame retardant suit, ready for
> onslaught)
>
> Patricia Smith
>
>
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