 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: LeWhite
Date: 2003-10-23 04:21
Hi guys.
I've got my recital coming up in about 2 weeks, it's a 25-minute program. I've got Osborne Rhapsody for solo clarinet, Cavallini Adagio e Tarantella, and 2nd and 3rd movements of Weber's Grand Duo.
I had a rehearsal with the pianist and my teacher yesterday. It didn't go too well.
First of all, I don't really like what I'm playing (it was chosen for me), and especially don't like the idea of simply playing to a panel of about 3 people. I'd prefer to perform, to an audience, and I feel like I won't be able to get into the right frame of mind in a room with 3 people behind a desk.
Secondly, the music just isn't 'sitting' in my mind. Probably because I don't like it. In the rehearsal, all my teacher did was tell me how he wants it played, how it 'should' be played. He didn't like the way I am playing it. I decided to just shut up and do what he says, because he's the one marking me on it. This is very unlike me; I love to do things my style and rarely conform to conservative ideas, especialy when someone TELLS me what to do.
Is it just me, or is this whole situation just wrong?
I have to do a convincing job, not for the panel, but for myself. But I'm just not enjoying what I'm doing at the moment. And as a product of this, it isn't sounding too crash hot.
I don't know what to do to get myself into a better frame of mind. I've had 1 hour with the pianist, and I have only one more 1 hour rehearsal left, after which I have to pay for it, which I can't afford.
How do I turn things right again?! Help!
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2003-10-23 13:18
I now understand the reasons behind the comments on the set up thread about teachers. It may not have occurred to you but your teacher is suggesting a program that is suitable for the recital you are doing and suggesting an interpretation that will get you through. As I am not hearing what you are playing or what your teacher is suggesting I wouldn't try to enter the wrong vs right argument. I hope that the criticism is constructive and that stress only is causing you to have these feelings. Remember that you control the actual performance and you live or die by your own performance. Hopefully the motivations of your teacher are the right ones.
Professional players of whatever genre, as opposed to those that just teach, live this nightmare regularly. It is called an audition. Audition, recital, whatever, they are always nerve wracking and it is never a comfortable experience.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2003-10-23 14:06
It's simple economics....cost vs benefits...you have to decide...
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2003-10-23 14:24
'...and rarely conform to conservative ideas...'
what is wrong with conservative ideas?
anyway, that is a part of the reason why i stopped playing classical music. i think it is more for the audience than for the player, classical music that is.
if you want to do things you like, you must also do things you don't like. at least at first. i am sure EVERY proffesional musician have played many pieces they didn't like. i am sure that bach did a lot of annoying homework, and bethoven played a lot of pieces he hated. usually it is worth it.
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2003-10-23 15:18
A 'workman-like' attitude is important in slogging through less interesting charts... you think that it's a chore now!
My favorite players in the area are side men, mostly.
They are easily good enough to play in a major orchestra, but those seats are already full. They just go to their 'happy place' when this sort of thing
lands on the stand.
This whole business of scoring results from performance is what got us into the debacle with the French ice skating judge.
May I suggest the approach, MSO*....
*minimum standards only
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2003-10-23 15:31
I think that after a certain point of months of practice and working alot on the same material most clarinetists reach a sort of precipice where they are bored stiff by no matter what they are playing...
the essential key is to feel motivated to even perform HIckory Dickory dock better than any one ealse on planet earth. Why is this? essentially great players can take the worst stuff and make it all their own, and I really think fostering this relationship with performing is the true test of a real clarinetist.
I also feel that some teachers are a little too much on the control freak side as well. This works well for some and badly for others. The key is to understand that the teacher also wants you to play the music as well as you possibly can ...
and may not seem to have your best interests in hand, but they are trying to get you to interpret the music in such a way they are giving you the technical tools to be successful....
However, I have had teachers who I have left due to control freak issues...
I also feel the finer the person the better the teacher.
David Dow
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Author: theclarinetist
Date: 2003-10-23 15:35
I can agree with not wanting to conform to "conservative" standards... I peronsally don't try to be a non-conformist, but there are many times when I want to play something differently. I've had luck most of my teachers in that they allow me to pick my own music (of course, I'm pretty familiar with the rep and I usually pick appropriate pieces).
Realize that your teacher probably has good reason for making suggestions and you should consider everything and not just "do it because you were told to". I've had situations where I was given a suggestion I didn't totally agree with, but after considering it and trying it out, I came up with a new approach that would satisfy the teacher's wish and my own "artistic" desires. There is no right way to perform any piece, and getting/honestly considering as many opinions as possible will only strengthen your ability to interpret the piece, so take the criticisms as positively as possible.
That being said, in a universal sense, you can do whatever you want and play however you want. BUT -- this recital is apparently for a grade. So you have to decde if getting a good grade is more important than being a "free spirit". Mostly likely, with some careful consideration you can be a (relatively) free-spirit with your playing and please your judges. The first step is to not see things so black and white.
Don Hite
theclarinetist@yahoo.com
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Author: Renato
Date: 2003-10-23 15:36
Maybe you could, if possible, try and exchange more ideas with your teacher next time, so the same situation won't happen again (you feeling bad about what you are supposed to play, and risk doing it in a half-hearted way).
Music is about communication, conveying something, and the first stage in this communication process should be between teacher and student.
I'm a flute student and I've had the same problem and similar feelings (as for the clarinet, I've been studying by myself, so it's a different case).
When I played stuff I didn't really like, I noticed my playing was more "stiff" and I felt more nervous than usual, with the clear feeling I was playing only for the others, a feeling of obligation and of being evaluated.
About the recital at hand, I suggest you "embrace the cause" of playing for their sake, not yours, and try to do your very best, maybe find what those pieces "want to say" and convey it the way you can. Add a slight personal touch if you can.
As for your teacher, I must say there is a huge lot of clarinet repertoire to choose from, and there must be something, no, not something, many pieces that both you and your teacher will find interesting, fruitful and pleasant.
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Author: allencole
Date: 2003-10-23 17:46
Playing things that you don't like, in a style that you don't like--or even get--and having to make it come across. Sounds like prime training for a professional career in any style.
Is this a collegiate situation? Are you grad or undergrad? If you have this much friction with your clarinet teacher, have you considered another institution?
I don't know if I would've survived the process of chasing a symphony seat, but even in pop and jazz the truth is essentially the same. Your employability as a musician comes from being able to adapt yourself to the situation--not adapting the situation to yourself.
Try to step back and look at your situation in broad terms. Maybe you need to fight it, maybe you need to adapt yourself, or maybe you need to seek a new situation. Analyzing all of your options might make your current one look a little more attractive.
Allen Cole
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Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2003-10-23 23:14
The best Clarinet teacher I ever had.was the same person who tried to teach my son bassoon. Unfortunately, my son (an excellent player) wanted to do everything HIS way, and he was in a constant battle with the teacher about how things should be done. Eventually, he quit playing the bassoon (and almost everything else, although he picks up an oboe now and then, presumably playing it HIS way).
He now says he wishes he had done it in the standard, plugging-along way, as he now understands that one must have an infallibly solid background in "silly" fundamentals before one's own personal standards can be developed.
By the way, do you know anything about Cavallini? Weber? You must, otherwise you have not a prayer of understanding what you are doing. And that understanding might actually develop in you some interest and a desire to do a good job.
Play well. You, we, your teacher, and Cavallini and Weber are depending on you.
Regards,
John
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Author: LeWhite
Date: 2003-10-24 07:17
hehe thanks guys. I had quite a frank discussion with my teacher today, and it was good to get it off my chest, I think it's what I needed to do the most.
We came to a conclusion very similar to 'alencole's; that I should look at this situation in a broader sense, keeping in mind that this is only my first year recital, and that I have so much more time to learn the 'silly fundamentals' before I am in a position to play everything 'my way'.
On a side track, my teacher told me today that once I develop this fundamental technique and can develop and mature my ideas, he thinks I'll probably have a lot to say!
And on the bright side I'll probably get a really good mark if I do it his way...!
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2003-10-24 08:15
I think that doing it "someone else's way" is key to understanding music. Western tonal music has been in development for hundreds of years, and each person along the way has a slightly different interpretation of it.
When you do it someone else's way, you see what you like and don't like about doing it their way. Often (and you don't realize this until later), there is something in that interpretation that you would have never thought of. Regardless, when you are playing, there will always be lots of "you" in it. When you study with different teachers over the years, each imparting some of "their way" on your playing, and you pick what you like about each of their styles, you have finally defined yourself.
Bear with me as I was philosophical (and feel free to criticize if I'm rambling incoherently)
The development of a sort of personal musical dialect makes music a sort of oral tradition. Music does not exist in a vacuum. When playing music written by someone that lived perhaps 200 years ago, it is invaluable to have 200 years of performance nuance handed down to you on a silver platter for you to mold into your own interpretation. Nobody who has ever heard "classical" music will ever do everything their own way. You have already been influenced by someone else's performance of it, and you know what tonal music is "supposed" to sound like. The very fact that you didn't write the piece means that someone else's (the composer) way of doing things is hard-coded into the music itself, and that composer was influenced by all the composers and performers that came before him. Without that, there wouldn't be nearly as much worth in music today.
There is very rarely one right way to do anything. Perhaps the important thing to realize is that this adage also applies to "your" way. You will always know how to play it your way. When you know how to play it someone else's way, then you can move forward.
As with anything, the important end result is balance, in this case a balance of everyone else's style and a part of yourself. I'm highly imitative, so I make a point not to listen to a piece for at least a month after starting to study it, lest I just copy the person on the recording. (Opposite ends of the spectrum, I suppose, LeWhite... I have trouble getting enough of MYSELF in)
On a side note, I've found that the more I learn about the clarinet, the more fun I can find in the pieces I don't like.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: Brenda
Date: 2003-10-24 15:08
I suggest buying the relatively inexpensive computer program called SmartMusic (easily looked up with a Google search). This is an accompaniment program that will help you polish up you piece before performance. You'll have accompaniment any time of the day or night, and the cost is comparable to about 1 hour with your real live accompanist.
This program is extremely flexible. You can adjust the tempo at any measure. You can have the program follow your speed, or - more safely - you can tell it to ignore you and just keep going. After playing with the program a few times you become comfortable with the accompaniment. Then when you return to your real live accompanist you feel so much more confident.
The drawbacks are obvious - you have to sometimes fight with the quirks of a computer program; the accompaniment isn't as flexible as a person would be. So I wouldn't allow a student to use it too early in the preparation of a piece. However, as a learning tool, it's an amazing program for the price!
Another note: I just did some research on one of my past exam pieces. The original hand-written composition doesn't include some of the currently accepted notations in it. So if I had known this before and decided to play the piece the way the composer had actually written it, the examiner would have had a bird! As it was she didn't like some of my interpretation - so there you go, a lot of this is subjective. So just play to suit your audience. Right now your audience is this group of stuffy-shirt "experts", but the next time your audience will be a hall full of thrilled concert-goers.
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Author: Renato
Date: 2003-10-26 10:44
Yet, the difference between an artist and a bureaucrat is that (hopefully) the former really enjoys what s/he is doing, an the other leads a pale existence. So one must strike a balance between doing what one likes and what one needs. And don't adhere exclusively, or too fast, to the second.
There's a big repertoire around, pieces that can be as useful in terms of learning and as enjoyabe, or more enjoyable than Weber or Cavallini.
And there's nothing wrong with finding any of the "masterpieces" boring or unattractive. They're not sacred, you know.
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