 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Irwin
Date: 2001-04-01 02:58
I had my first lesson tonight with the principal clarinetist of the Florida Philharmonic. He was wonderful, and I thank everyone who gave me the suggestion to call local colleges and symphonies to find a qualified teacher. I'm looking forward to a long relationship with him.
My teacher immediately identified the reason why I have problems with 16th note runs. He says I'm trying to read individual notes instead of seeing the runs as pieces of various scales (major and minor) and that I won't be able to do that until I learn the scales cold or, as he says, put them in my back pocket. And, the only way to do that is take those scales and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. So, that's exactly what I'm going to do. He's happy to have a student for a change that doesn't complain about constantly running scales and technique - most of his students want to play music instead of practicing the basics. I told him I get plenty of music playing in my community orchestra and doing the basics is just fine with me.
So here I am at 46 doing what I never had the chance to do all through grade school - the basics. I played in 7th and 8th grade, then never played again until I was 44. Anyway, I'm going to religiously do everything he says and strive to be a better player. As they say, better late than never.
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Author: Dee
Date: 2001-04-01 12:39
Your experience is a very good example of the benefits of having a teacher. You had posted your problem on this board and people had offered suggestions. However none were the right suggestion as we could not see and hear you play and could not see precisely the type of music that was giving you a problem. The instructor was able to immediately diagnose the problem where the "remote" diagnoses from this bulletin board missed it. Don't get me wrong though, this bulletin board is a great resource and has indeed helped many people with many problems.
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Author: Adam
Date: 2001-04-01 14:42
Yeah, I also the one who quited learning and pick up again this year.
It's great! and I found that I learn with much passion than when I learnt at the secondary school.
Better late than never !! Keep going ! Irwin.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2001-04-05 00:43
Irwin -
Scales are indeed the answer, but it's not the most fun in the world. I laid out a method that worked for me and is recommended by many teachers in my posting at http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=24907&t=24731.
For the process of learning to play several notes at a time, see http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=34003&t=33834,
Finally, this is something you have to keep at more or less forever. See http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=38862&t=38845.
The point is that you don't learn efficiently simply by going over and over the same thing. As I describe in the first link above, you must learn to learn to even out the easy and difficult parts by isolating and learning individual transitions from one note to the next. The really important thing is to start dead slow, so that you learn to do each thing perfectly. Any other way just teaches you to repeat your mistakes.
Courage. Everybody goes through this. When you get it right, you'll join the truly great society of musicians.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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