Klarinet Archive - Posting 000091.txt from 2008/01

From: Margaret Thornhill <clarinetstudio@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: legato, myths, creeds
Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2008 20:43:22 -0500

Finally, responding to Tony's fine post from Jan. 4:

>> The usefulness of the 'slow finger' legato teaching metaphor has nothing to
>> do with how the action of the finger affects legato. That's very much a
>> second order effect. It is simply a psychological device to distract the
>> attention of the player from his or her airstream, so that that can
>> continue through the change. ..
>

Excellent commentary here--obvious that I learned something from Tony's
post last year, and then forgot he said it.

I agree that it's all about finding metaphors to suit the needs of the
person we are teaching in that moment (it's only in the next generation
these solidify into creeds) and I love Tony's reminder that what is
important is bending teaching to the student, not vice versa:

>Because, I think it's important to make the student at least
>*potentially 'bigger' than the advice, even if I might demand of a
>student that theypractise one particular exercise that I can see
<applies to their case
>

But is the following truly an "American" thing?

> So I sometimes say, do you know that some American teachers
approach the idea> of minimising mouth-resonance (small cavity) by
>talking about using 'fast> air' --

Like Karl K., I never heard the term "fast air" until a few years ago,
and then from some same-aged colleagues (baby boomers) who also teach.
This metaphor is not how I construe support,but for some students it
seems to be very powerful. ("Fast" air might work better as an image for
teaching powerful dynamic changes, though.)

I also don't really talk about tongue position;I think it can be very
misleading, particularly to people who know anything much about
classical singing. I prefer to talk (metaphorically) about the oral
cavity being arched or rounded or narrowed, about the palate rather than
the curvature of the tongue, since I have yet to read anything on this
subject from the clarinet community that convinces me as fact.

About these and other things,it seems to me most direct to work
backward from what teacher and student are actually *hearing*, since
most of the time students can adjust spontaneously to modify the tone in
the direction you want to reinforce. (Though recently, an adult student
of mine had a breakthrough because he read some articles about tongue
position online that made sense to him but not to me. Approaching this
first from the direction of sound just didn't work.)

> Why most people fail to have an effective legato is that they change
>the airstream between one note and another, thinking that they have to
>*create* a legato.

Yes. This is my problem with Jonathan's original post. Most of the
players I work with desperately need more consistency in their tonal
controls. So what helps them as an icon of consciousness while playing?
Surely not envisioning playing as a series of tiny adjustments such we
sometimes make for slurring large intervals, or fixing pitch, or
balancing tone in the throat notes. These mostly unconscious or
automatic (sound-led) adaptations might be even less than 1 percent of
what we do or think about while playing.
I also don't believe that continual support *is* a myth. It's absolutely
the way I play and teach--beyond metaphor.

Margaret

Margaret Thornhill
http://www.margaretthornhill.com

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