 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: vials
Date: 2008-11-29 13:45
What are your opinions on studying with a teacher who plays brands of clarinets, mouthpieces, reeds, etc that are different from yours? For example, do you think it in any way would be a disadvantage to go to a music college where the clarinet teacher plays selmer clarinets and rico reeds, while you play buffet clarinets and vandoren reeds?
Post Edited (2008-11-29 13:47)
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Author: Ed
Date: 2008-11-29 13:54
Is the teacher a good player, good musician, teacher? That is what matters. I don't think it matters what they play on. The equipment is just a tool.
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2008-11-29 14:00
To each his own. My teacher was a B* player yet he found my Vito and then the Amati "more than adequate".
If s/he's worth her/his salt the only concern equipment-wise should be that your instrument is in proper working order and that the two of you can play in unison.
--
Ben
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Author: NorbertTheParrot
Date: 2008-11-29 14:21
When in the earlier stages of learning - but maybe not at the level Vials is at - I think there may be a benefit in having a teacher with experience on many brands of instrument. Someone who has long played a particular brand may be unwilling to believe that different instruments have different peculiarities.
A clarinet teacher recently commented on my use of the Eb/Ab key to bring altissimo notes up to pitch: "Why do you do that? Shouldn't be necessary..." Actually, I had thought it rather common practice, and preferable to voicing the notes upwards. He plays 10-10s; maybe that is the reason he doesn't find it necessary.
I have had a similar experience with a brass teacher: "Why are you playing that note on the sixth partial rather than the fifth? It should be perfectly well in tune on the fifth." Well, not on my Yamaha it isn't. He plays Conn.
In both cases, I'm assuming that the teacher would have been quick to react if I had simply played the notes flat.
.................
Of course, some teachers may be dogmatic in their choice of instruments. We all know of the Buffet mafia, and their insistence that nothing else will do. That sort of teacher is best avoided for other reasons, I think.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2008-11-29 17:12
It kind of depends upon your (plural: teacher and you) attitude toward equipment.
I've known teachers with very set ideas about what makes a proper set-up, and who are not even willing to consider the production variations in say production mouthpieces.
NOW, on the other hand, I was using a clarinet with such terrible tuning that it was painful (even for me) to play at the same time as my teacher. Switching to a clarinet that matched his/him made life wonderful --but that was the elimination of bad instrument, not (totally) a match-up of instruments.
A couple of weeks ago, he borrowed my (now back-up) horn at a lesson, and it was still miserable --although HE could make up for most of its vagaries.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2008-11-29 20:31
No, not at all a problem unless that teacher insists that you use the same equipment as they do, in other words being closed minded as some teachers are. An opened minded teacher will guide you to use the equipment that best suites you, not them. This is especially true, in my opinion, of mouthpieces, ligatures and reeds. I've heard of one teacher, no name mentioned here, that wouldn’t even accept a student that doesn't play the same brand instrument as they do. I do not understand that at all. I play both Selmer and Buffet clarinets and have students that play both makes. None of my present students use the same type of mouthpiece as I do, though some have successfully in the past. And I have them try different brands of reeds to find what works best for them. I truly hope I am not an anomaly in this respect. I suspect I am not, though I do know of teachers like that. ESP www.peabody.jhu.edu/457
Listen to a little Mozart, live performance.
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
Post Edited (2008-11-30 16:47)
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