Klarinet Archive - Posting 000227.txt from 2004/07

From: howard klug <hklug@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Bumblebee2
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 08:59:09 -0400

This might be time to weigh in with some supportive thoughts to what Tom
has so succinctly laid down in his post about college auditions, as well
as Tony Pay's apt closer, "Hacking through it doesn't hack it."

My guess is that CC is totally working on his own, without the necessary
assistance of a fine teacher. I don't believe that a "good for you"
teacher would ever suggest the Bee as an appropriate audition vehicle.
High school clarinetists are most often coming from the "more is better"
school of playing, in which notes per square inch take the place of the
things they should be pursuing....beauty of tone, control of technique and
rhythm and an attractive musicality. This is the time in their lives when
a 17 year old clarinetist must demonstrate (to a college clar. prof. or
audition committee) quality rather than quantity. Typically, a young
hotshot from a high school program has achieved their name/reputation
through an ability to play lots of notes....that kind of approach is
quantifiable (you know where the mistakes are) and it impresses the local
folks. At the next level, however, the thing that separates out the
hotshots, one from the other, is their control and command of the
instrument, relative refinement of musical taste, etc. I have been
listening to students like this for 30 years (at the current rate of 100+
a year), and it is truly amazing how many choose audition pieces (or their
teachers do) that showcase their weaknesses rather than their strengths.
If CC wishes to play the Bee in a September audition, two months of
preparation are hardly adequate, and, as so many others have already
indicated, the choice of piece gives a very negative impression of one's
seriousness to the art. Is the Bee a good piece....absolutely! (I've
played it many times)....is it a good piece for an audition? (no) In the
same vein, the Debussy Rhapsodie can also be a bad choice (the students
rarely grasp the necessary musical subtleties), as can the Poulenc Sonata
(I don't like being nailed against my file cabinet by an overly aggressive
and edgy altissimo register). Choose pieces that you have some hope of
understanding and delivering (others have already mentioned the Weber
Concertino...to which could be added the Con. #1 and the Krommer Eb
Concerto) and present music in which you are FULLY IN COMMAND. The 85%
accuracy rate for your local situations won't wash at the next level.
I would also suggest that it is a waste of time to try to anticipate
what a particular college or clarinet professor wishes to hear in terms
of musical style, tone, whatever. Just work for control and command, and
seek out the best instruction during your high school years that you can
afford.

As long as I'm on a roll here, let's reiterate Tom's suggestions:

1. Know ALL of your major and minor scales (YES, they're good for you,
YES, we're going to ask them). Every year I'm stunned at the ability of a
minor scale request to stop people in their tracks. You only project a
lack of seriousness to us by your inability to produce them.

2. Play 2 Rose studies for us....1 fast, 1 slow. (You'll spend most of
your time practicing the fast etude; we'll do most of our evaluation of
you on the slow etude.)

3. 2 to 3 pages of a standard solo (see above).

4. Sight reading. Work on it daily....it tells us alot about you.

5. Ear test and rhythm test. (these separate out those mechanical
learners...the so-called "one trick ponies"...from the real musicians)

And lastly....hand the audition committee your typed resume, shake their
hands if possible, smile and be pleasant, and give them an understanding
that you are serious to your art AND to their insitution.

The thing is, there are no "bad" students....only "bad" teachers. Kids
will only do what their teachers encourage or allow, and clearly the kids
don't have the experience to sort out the quality of the instruction they
are receiving. Every year I see many tragic cases of really good kids who
have been given the wrong information (or no information), and whose
hoped-for careers are in jeopardy because of it. I wish I had a solution
for that problem. In CC's case, I fear he's working on his own, as I
don't believe that a responsible teacher would suggest the Bee to him.

CC...trash the Bee idea as an audition piece (but do work on it as there
is much of value to learn)...and try to head off in a more traditional
direction to better showcase your abilities.

Good luck..

Howard

On Tue, 6 Jul 2004 Tski1128@-----.com wrote:

> Ok after one wakes up from the fantasy that you will somehow find the hidden music in Bunble Bee, and that upon hearing you the head of the woodwind dept will offer you a full tuition schoolarship, and you really figure out what the goal of an audition is, here is some advice.
>
> 1. know your scales, slow clean with out mistakes, with a beautiful sound
> 2. walk into the audition with a list of the things you've been studying for the last 2 years
> 3 pick 2 contrasting rose etudes, a nice slow one and one from the back of the book with some notes and some articulation
> 4. Play these 10 -20 times aday, try to memorize them. use the music for the audition
> 5. play them for your friends, parents and your present teacher, if you don't have a teacher get one!
>
> 6. understand that what you are after is this teacher accepting you into his or her studio.
>
> When we used to audition clarinetists for the US Army Field Band, that prepared solo told the committee what you thought you were good at. Our next thought was what can't they do?
> If some walked in playing Brahms or slow without any stacato passages, that's the first thing we ask from the prepared list, if we had a Neilson cadenza freak, we'd hit em with the slow over the break solo form " Force of Destiny". If a kid walked in to my studio for an audition playing the "Bee", I'd reach for rose 40#1. I most likely would win a bet that they would be sight reading. I have a problem with people graduating with Degrees in clarinet that haven't played through some of the etudes that are a must. And yes I find this is happening at Uof MD!
>
> If you are lucky and get in to the teachers of you dreams studio. try this:
>
> Shut up and do everything that person tells you to do. twice as long as they tell you to do it. I was lucky enough to study with the legendary Iggy gennusa when I was but a wee lad, if he told me that rubbing peanut butter on the reed was the key thing to sound like he did, I would have bought one of every brand, i would have rubbed over the reeds I would have done exactly what he told me. I wouldnt have try to tell him that it doesn't work, if it was something he did. I don't know how many times I've had a student tell me that something I'm asking them to do, isn't right, or won't work. BEFORE THEY'VE TRIED IT!
>
>
> Sorry about the rant!
>
> Tom Puwalski, author of "The Clarinetist's guide to Klezmer", former clarinet soloist with the US Army Field Band, Clarinetist with Lox&vodka and clarinetist with the hotest new klezmer band out there " The Atonement"
>
>
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