Klarinet Archive - Posting 001250.txt from 2004/03

From: "Gene Nibbelin" <gnibbelin@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Fun day at Festival
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 21:49:24 -0500

Kevin -

Your posting about your judging a middle-school contest reminded me of my
high school 8-hour stint as a judge's helper in a brass ensemble contest.
You can only take so many 3rds and 6ths. I don't care much for brass
ensembles to this day.

Regards,

Gene N.
-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Fay [mailto:kevinfay@-----.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2004 1:58 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] Fun day at Festival

Yesterday I had the opportunity to do something a haven't done for a few
years - work with young clarinet players. I was hired to judge a
middle-school solo and ensemble festival. Here in the US, middle schools
are comprised of children from the sixth to eighth grade, roughly 11-14
years old. Most students in this district being playing in fifth grade, so
the standard of playing starts quite low.

It was a most interesting and enjoyable experience.

Truth be told, I'm not a very stringent scorer. Lots of Is and IIs. I
figure that the best thing that I can do for a kid at that age is encourage
them to stay in the band program - I am a firm believer in the value of
music education, especially for those children who aren't destined for a
career in the opera house pit. (A separate topic).

The range of playing ability was vast. One middle-school director in a
local suburb requires all of his 7th and 8th grade pupils to play at the
festival - playing alone or in small ensembles is a required part of his
curriculum. I'd have to chalk this up as a success; his best kids were very
good indeed (more on that below). I listened to his two last-chair clarinet
players - a couple of young ladies who very clearly Didn't Want to Be There
- play a duet. Clearly they had not practiced very much, and struggled to
differentiate quarter from eighth notes. Nevertheless, they managed to blow
into the pointy end, and the sounds that came out weren't all that
terrifying.

I did not read music until the eighth grade myself, when the light bulb
finally went on and I decided to work at it. (You can get away with playing
by ear in a big Pennsylvania junior high school whose band program is
dedicated to supporting basketball games.) Consequently, I don't think that
it's my place to weed kids out of the band programs; I try to be upbeat in
event these circumstances. Boy they were surly, though. From their
demeanor, dress and attitude, I'd place even odds on both becoming unwed
mothers within five years. Sigh.

On the other end of the spectrum was a charming little boy who played the
snot out of the Stamitz third concerto. (I call him a little boy because,
as undoubtedly the shortest seventh grader in his class, that's exactly what
he was.) Cute as a button, too - the mom assisting with the student flow
positively gushed. He strode out with remarkable stage presence and just
nailed the thing. I was taken aback, not only because his tone was a clone
of Dieter Klocker's (don't change a thing!), his scaler passages were
perfectly even. How he did this was astonishing, as his hands appeared
entirely too small to reach the pinky keys or cover the tone holes. His
hand position was all gnarled up to accommodate the adult-sized keys on his
shiny new Buffet. While it didn't look comfortable at all, he sure got the
job done.

His little (and truly tiny) sister participated as a *fifth* grader. The
reed on my horn has been in the case longer than she's been playing - but
she did a fine job. At the break, I spoke with their mother. I expected a
pushy stage mom; instead she shrugged her shoulders in wonderment that the
kids are so interested in something neither she nor her husband ever took
much notice of. The only downside was having to pry the clarinets from
their fingers to get them to go to bed; other than that, she thought it a
pretty good outlet for them.

In between was the usual neat bunch of kids struggling with braces on their
teeth, some bad equipment, and a little hormonal drama mixed in. (Note to
band directors - when forming small ensembles from your band, if you can
figure out which boy has a crush on which girl and keep them separate the
performance might be better. Warming up tonguing doesn't include trading
them in the warm-up room.)

This festival took place in an affluent suburb of Seattle. About half of
the kids played on new artist-level instruments, mostly Buffets, mostly
R-13s. It struck me that us geezers on this list aren't Buffet's primary
market, these kids (and their non-clarinet-playing parents) are. This could
explain a lot, I think.

At the ubiquitous music store display, a new Yamaha Allegro was set out for
trial. It looked like a great clarinet - cosmetically indistinguishable
from my CSV, except the *intermediate* horn had gold plated posts. That
Yamaha would spend extra money on this while cheaping out on the bore I
found most disturbing - they're not doing the kids any favors here.

All in all, I had a great day. There's been much bemoaning of secondary
education on the list (and society) of late; if the kids I saw yesterday are
any indication, at least some schools are educating the bulk of their
students quite well indeed.

kjf

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