Klarinet Archive - Posting 000457.txt from 2010/09

From: X-C-UH-MailScanner-r.n.taylor@-----.uk
Subj: Re: [kl] Improvising in Mozart's clarinet music
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:54:39 -0400

I'd say many people who might feel that they can't improvise would, if they were in the right mood, have no trouble singing in the bath, making up little tunes and maybe adding silly words, just for the sake of it. Or maybe you might be walking down the street humming a tune that came into your head and you realise that you just made it up. Or maybe you just got some good news and you do a little jig on the spot. All of that, of course, is improvisation - a kind of innocent and unselfconscious play activity. I personally don't quite believe in 'learning to improvise' because we can do it already. We can, however, practice it: all it takes is to overcome that inhibiting feeling that you are 'doing it wrong'. You can't really 'do it wrong' because there's no one to say what is right - no-one except you, that is. So if you practice doodling around just making noises for your own pleasure, and you persist until you are 'singing in the bath' - using the clarinet instead of your voice - you've 'learnt' to improvise. And from there on in - it's just about doing it again and again, getting better at recognizing the little impulses you might feel in your body or hear in your head as you play, and getting more & more accurate in your execution of those responses.

Maybe this seems a long way from a Mozart cadenza - I don't have enough expertise to address that issue - but I would imagine that someone who was a fluent at improvising with their own voice who was also a fluent and knowledgeable performer of Mozart's work would have the perfect tools to be able to make a great cadenza. I can't help thinking though, that simulating an improvisation by learning a few embellishments and twists is not at all in the spirit of things. The real challenge, surely, would be to dare, for a few seconds, to be Mozart - or at least, to take him on in a dual at his own game. Trade licks with him. Just for the fun, just for the pleasure, of singing in the bath.

Noel Taylor

-----Original Message-----
From: Jennifer Jones [mailto:helen.jennifer@-----.com]

What if one approached improvisation by marking out the chord
structure and some key land marks and played from that like many jazz
musicians do?

One thing my clarinet instructor said regarding being concerned about
getting all the notes was to stay within the key signature and you
will be in pretty good shape. It was funny, as an uptight person, I
ended up with a rather flamboyant, almost flippant instructor. Of
course I went through the whole thing with complete seriousness. I
guess I mostly ignored what I considered flippant frippery; "*I* was
above that stuff" (chocolate covered nose in the air...) It didn't
even bother me when a family friend commented that the fellow
(instructor) made him (the family friend) feel he wanted to shoot the
instructor in the knees. I mindlessly repeated that on a couple
occasions. I suppose to see what sort of reaction I would get. I
never did get much. Perhaps b/c I never gave much reaction...

C'est la vie. I really need to sleep. Good night!

-Jen
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