Klarinet Archive - Posting 000234.txt from 2005/06

From: HILARY NICHOLLS <hilarynicholls@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Bounced babies
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 16:20:29 -0400

Perhaps students should practise their scales walking
around
I have read about 17th century Italian music schools
where the students did this
I find walking on the spot - shifting weight from one
foot to the other - helpful too
--- Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org> wrote:

> On 12 Jun, "Geoff & Sherryl-Lee Secomb"
> <gsecomb@-----.au> wrote:
>
> > With regard to teaching INNER PULSE to those who
> don't have it: I have
> > spent much time teaching clarinet to lots of kids,
> and inevitably one
> > comes across those who haven't a rhythmic clue!
> >
> > One approach I have used to start the process is
> to get them walking. How
> > often have you seen anyone who can't maintain an
> even step when walking?
> > It seems to me that everyone has the ability to
> maintain an inner pulse -
> > you see it as soon as a baby starts to crawl with
> any consistency in that a
> > natural rhythm develops - but that when we ask
> some people to apply this
> > natural pulse to something less physical and more
> abstract they have
> > trouble. And so getting a child (or an adult for
> that matter) to go for an
> > extended walk and asking them to pay attention to
> this evenness of pace has
> > been for me a worthwhile place to start in the
> process of teaching a sense
> > of beat.
>
> Sounds good to me. And, the sensation of weight
> falling on each foot in turn
> has just that combination of vagueness and precision
> that I was describing as
> a feature of my own inner pulse.
>
> I wonder whether this aspect of pulse isn't one that
> we'd be better off
> building as a possibility into the other sorts of
> representation we have.
> Obviously you mostly can't walk while you play, and
> ordinary metronomes are
> so insistent. How about including a sound that
> could go, schooh, schooh,...
> etc, or sschoohh, sschoohh,... etc, or ssschoohhh,
> ssschoohhh... etc, in
> various settings?
>
> I posted here before about my idea for a visual
> 'metronome'; but it seems to
> me that a metronome of this simpler sort would be
> much less intimidating than
> the ones we currently have, for people already a bit
> tense and worried about
> their playing.
>
> [snip of 'movement' method]
>
> > I should say, though, that I don't think I would
> have used this method in
> > more than about 5% of students, because the
> majority have not needed it at
> > all, and for many with whom I have used it, it has
> been more to take the
> > guess work out of syncopation and dotted rhythms.
>
> Another difficulty is that it involves extra
> physical movement by the player,
> which in general is worth avoiding, if possible.
>
> Tony
> --
> _________ Tony Pay
> |ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd
> tony.p@-----.org
> | |ay Oxford OX2 6RE
> http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
> tel/fax 01865 553339
>
> ... Never eat more than you can lift.
>
>
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Hilary Nicholls
103 Cheadle Road
Cheadle Hulme
Cheshire
SK8 5DQ
0161 485 3844

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