Klarinet Archive - Posting 000178.txt from 2004/10

From: Allen Levin <alevin@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Clarinet popularity
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 13:24:55 -0400

I've had similar experiences. About 20 years ago I was asked to "sit in"
on community band rehearsals. I was reluctant to do that, so I agreed to
fill in at 2nd and 3rd parts, as needed.

Week 1 - 2nd chair 3rd
Week 2 - 1st chair 2nd
Week 3 - 2nd chair 1st
Week 4 - solo and assistant director. What happened then was that the
section froze for a while. Nobody who was good enough to progress did
so. I finally forced the issue by faking illness or a loose pad just
before rehearsal of one piece or another - forcing everybody to move up one
chair without being able to think about it. I chose to direct pieces with
challenging clarinet parts for the same reason. There were some shrinking
violets - but fewer than before. And (I must admit) a couple of players
stopped attending rehearsals because they didn't want to be challenged. I
still fret about that. I didn't want to take away the fun.

I left the group after several years because of schedule conflicts. The
clarinet section has barely shifted since.

At 09:44 PM 10/5/04 -0700, you wrote:
>Tim: I'm also section leader in a community band with
>the same mix of issues - no auditions, radically
>different skill levels, various perceptions of skill
>levels, continual flux in numbers.

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