 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Randy
Date: 2001-09-18 12:39
I was just wondering about some of us older retread clarinet players ... why did you quit in the first place and why did you start to play again? I played for about 8 years and quit in junior high cause I hated marching band and I just could not find any clarinet players in any rock bands so.....I Quit. 35 years later I still wouldn't want to be in a marching band But I dont care about clarinets in rock bands(guess I grew up :( somewhere along the way) since my tastes evolved to blues and jazz.Now I take lessons and play for my own relaxation. I play a B+H 2-20 w/a link 5 mp please tell me why you quit, started back up, and what you play. Thanks
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Author: Lisa
Date: 2001-09-18 12:55
I started playing in 5th grade and LOVED it. I must have practised for 2-3 hours every day for the next 4 years. Then came high school. Between concern about being "cool" and parents who were more interested in sports than music (they never came to a concert but somehow managed to sit through countless swim meets), clarinet just lost its appeal.
Fast forward 16 years and add a baby daughter to the mix. My husband decides he wants to relive his college glory days and starts a rock band with some buddies. I decide if he's getting out of the house one night a week, so should I! I open the parks and rec guide and there's a blurb about the local community band.
Fast forward 2 more years and I'm now in 3 local groups and am taking lessons to learn how to "jam" with my husband's band on my new alto saxophone. I'm having such a ball and my 3 year old daughter is convinced that she's going to play clarinet just like her mom.
Ain't life grand!
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Author: beth
Date: 2001-09-18 13:24
Ok, I bite. I started clarinet in elementary and played through 1st 2 years of High School. I stopped playing clarinet in HS because the band director had a dictum that all band members HAD TO march or they wouldn't be allowed to play in orchestra or symphonic band. I HATE marching but played his game for 2 years because I loved orchestra. Then I hit my limit and realized his dictum would never change, so I did. I made the switch to alto and tenor recorders and joined the madrigals. I continued with my early music through college and beyond, never giving the clarinet a second thought.
25+ years later, a community band starts up and my daughter wanted to play with them and she wanted me to come with her. So I purchase another clarinet (my 1st one long gone...) and started practicing and we started playing with the band 8 months ago. Since then, I've made the jump to bass clarinet and love it! Seems the parts are better suited for my "slower moving fingers".
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Author: William Hughes
Date: 2001-09-18 14:44
I played until the end of my freshman year at college. That was in the 60's and band seemed terribly irrelevant for some reason. Now I have picked up a contra-alto and I hope to play in a community band. I can sure relate to the "slower fingers" fear. I am also a bit concerned about breath. I did quit smoking 17 years ago, but it's still not the same, is it? I am very encouraged to hear of so many others who have come back to playing.
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Author: Joe
Date: 2001-09-18 17:49
I started playing clarinet when I was in the 4th grade. Along about my Soph year in HS, I picked up an alto sax and palyed in both the band and dance orchestra. I did enjoy orchestra, disliked band because of the tyranical instructor! Everything was carefully put away when I went into the service, then sold as the family grew. Now, 56, (yes, thats fifty-six), years later, the bug bit badly .... again. Playing a rental now, and negotiating for a good horn right now, as we speak. Yes, the lungs aren't what they used to be and the fingers are slow and HUGE ...... so, what else is new? :-)) ENJOYING EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!
Joe. (Retreaded & Patched!)
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Author: Bb
Date: 2001-09-18 22:45
my story is kind of different,
I started with the alto sax, I simply loved it, I played it for like 4 hours everyday, that was last year(i was 13). But then, 6 months later i changed school, and in that school, you had to be in band or chorus(i'm still in that school)so I joined band. there was a begginers and an advanced, so I joined the beginers with the clarinet, and I loved it. About 6 months later, the band director saw that I was good enough to join the advanced group with BOTH instruments on both bands. It was fun in the beggining, but then, oh!!!!! I started to get tired of having band everyday. But I liked to play the clarinet better, not because of the instrument, burt because there was a girl I liked that played the clarinet(hey what can I do??? I'm 14 yrs old!!). So I stopped playing the sax. Plus, I play in my church, there were 4 saxs, incluiding me, and 3 flutes(boring)" we needed a different instrument", I thought. So I started to bring the clarinet to both band and church, I had a sax teacher, he did not want me to play my clarinet, plus he wanted to teach me clarinet!! He played HORRIBLE!!! ( believe me , I heard first timers play better). Plus he was a show-off, PLUS, he kept asking me if he could borrow my clarinet( buffet E11) so he could learn how to play it so he could teach other people, can you believe that??? PLUS, my clarinet is wooden, he never swabed the clarinet, oh!!! I got so mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!he does give classes, I don't know WHAT he is teaching his students. so today I play the clarinet, I love it, oh and my band director told me that I"m good enough to join the band in the high school that he is also a band director, cool huh???? i would recomend to anybody, NEVER QUIT THE CLARINET!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2001-09-18 23:06
What a story Bb!! While at 82 I feel like a retread, my only gap was in the '40's, otherwise steady cls, saxes and oboe/EH playing of all kinds of music in many groups, a great part of my life! Don
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Author: John O'Janpa
Date: 2001-09-19 00:40
I started playing in the 5th grade and did very well until the 7th grade when I became last chair in the 1st section of our HIGH SCHOOL!orchestra.
The director emphasized speed which is important for 1st section clarinets but wasn't my strong point. He had speed contests and I kept getting rated as "baby" in front of the whole orchestra. My response was to quit playing. About five years later some of my friends started a rock and roll band. They also covered everything else.I found that I could play enough sax and clarinet to help them out on Night Train, Tequila, polkas etc. My clarinet then went into hibernation when I moved out of state in 1976. Now 25 years later we still bring our axes and jam on the rare occasions that we end up in the same state. I started playing in a church orchestra about 5 years ago and with practice and some mouthpiece and reed changes am now faster than I was in 1958, although I still don't have blazing speed. Luckily I'm playing 2nd clarinet now and like it just fine.
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Author: Marcia Nottle
Date: 2001-09-19 01:28
I started playing in grade 8 and played through high school and one year of college
till I was old enough for nursing school. I continued for six months, then shift work and the continued pursuit of a career brought it to an end. After working, travelling, (from Canada to Australia) continued shift work, marriage, two children, I finally had time to think about it again. After an absence of fifteen years I picked it up again and joined a community orchestra. That was my first orchestra experience, having played in school and community bands prior to that. It was there I met Chris Ondaatje who occasionally contributes to this BB. Moved back to Vancouver in 1990 and promptly koined a communiyt orchestra, later a community band, later still a woodwind quintet, and most recently a clarinet quartet. I still work full time but the children are big boys now, and my shift work is minimal. Why did I take it up again? Because music is my passion!
Marcia
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Author: willie
Date: 2001-09-19 02:06
I started playing in 7th grade and quit when I joined the Coast Guard. With no bands to play in (CG units are small) and needing at least one hand to hang on with (N. Atlantic is rough), it sat idle for over 20 years. When my daughter started beginners band a few years ago I drug it back out, overhauled it and haven't stopped since. I also found out my wife played flute and she started up again too. Now we all play in two different community bands.
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Author: kenabbott
Date: 2001-09-20 15:09
I played extensively in HS and college. I have been a Wall Street guy for 18+ years. I started playing seriously again a couple of years ago when I started collecting horns. Now I play for local theatre groups. Having fine instruments makes you want to play better.
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