Klarinet Archive - Posting 000089.txt from 2008/01

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] warm-cool/fast-slow
Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2008 19:18:01 -0500

On 6 Jan, Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.org> wrote:

> 1. The air temperature does NOT change based on its speed.
>
> That's another example of why metaphors in teaching music are often
> the source of misunderstandings and confusion for students.

I suppose the warm/cool air distinction for someone with little or no
scientific background or interest comes to the same thing as the AAH/EE vowel
distinction as far as tongue position is concerned. So the misunderstanding
and confusion generated by the metaphor as stated is misunderstanding and
confusion about the science rather than about the clarinet playing.

Though I don't talk about it in this way at all myself, it seems to me that
the situation is probably saved by talking about a tongue position generating
a blown airstream without the clarinet that FEELS cool rather than about a
tongue position generating a blown airstream without the clarinet that IS
cool, so that both scientists and non-scientists can be happy.

That doesn't resolve the problem across the board -- it's always going to be
difficult for people with different backgrounds to share insights, as Keith
has pointed out. In the opposite direction, I once heard someone's claim
that you can think of 'using arm weight' in order to bow a string instrument
in a more relaxed way being mercilessly pooh-poohed by one of the most
eminent viola players and teachers in the world. "If you use arm weight,
look, the bow just falls off the string!" he said, 'demonstrating'.

Of course, anyone with a smattering of high-school statics immediately
appreciates the fact that applying a varying torque at the wrist effectively
*does* allow the 'transfer' of arm weight from the grip to the point of
contact of the bow with the string.

But the Maestro hadn't taken high-school statics...

On the whole, borrowing Keith's distinction, I suppose it helps clarinet
pedagogy to present the metaphors in the most 'simile-like' manner possible
-- and helps the world in general to keep the explicit science as accurate as
possible.

Tony
--

_________ Tony Pay
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