 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2008-07-25 02:45
Tonight, 33+ years after putting the instrument away, I played my first concert, 19 months after starting practicing again. It's a high, let me tell you. I feel like practicing into the night.
The band I played with is a community band in its 131st consecutive season. They play outdoors in an old fashioned circular band stand. The conductor knew me back in the day, and after fixing my A clarinet for me, he talked me into playing. Lead first to be exact. There were three other clarinetists in the band this evening.
The program was mostly marches, and some of those were pretty hard - Royal Bridesmaids, Boston Commandery, a raft of Sousa marches, etc. A couple ofther things as well. About half the program was sight-reading for me, and the rest I hadn't seen in over 35 years.
And, I hit some clunkers, but not very many. More practice sight-reading in high registers seems indicated. Kept up with the key changes ok, but repeats were wierd - I took the second ending first one time, yikes. Counting worried me, but the longest rest in the whole program was about 4 bars.
Intonation - I seemed flat compared to most of the group. Everything pushed in, so I kept lipping up - but not enough. Tuning got worse as the concert went on, but that seemed global - too bad we didn't retune part way. Maybe I need a shorter barrel? But first some sessions with a tuner seem in order. I'd thought in practice I play reasonably in tune, but tonight raised doubts.
Having to travel for my work on short notice sometimes, I've held off joining any of the local groups for fear of being a chronic no-show. But jumping in like this wasn't bad, nobody seemed to mind. It was a delight to be sourrounded by musicians playing their parts, easing back here, stepping up there. I've really, really missed it. Now my head is full of three different pieces at the same time, and the sensation of having been almost intimate with a couple dozen humans, and I just won't be able to sleep.
So, more work to do, lots more. And part of it will be to play with others, like tonight. In 19 months until now only one other person has heard me play at all, a retiree pal who loves music. It's like getting back in the saddle.
Sorry for blabbing on, but there's noone else to tell.
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Author: weberfan
Date: 2008-07-25 02:56
Inspirational.
Thanks!
A year from now---give or take---I hope to have the same good fortune.
Congratulations.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2008-07-25 03:04
Your story was wonderful - congratulations !
I often get called to play a concert with the local community band(s) as a last minute "ringer". It is always inspiring to watch musicians from ages 16 through 90 all performing strictly for the love of playing music with other friends and fellow musicians.
Stick with it and savor the experience- it will get easier and even more rewarding the longer you do it...GBK
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Author: William
Date: 2008-07-25 14:25
You wrote that you sounded "flat" and had to "lip up, but not enough" most of the concert. If, as you also wrote, the clarinet you had fixed up was an *A* clarinet, that would be the intonation problem. Most concert band parts are written for the Bb clarinet and should be played on such--unless you are a viruosic transposer. If you instrument IS a Bb, and not an A, than perhaps all you need is a shorter barrel--but if it is an A, you need to join an orchestra or/and get a Bb clarinet to play band music--again, most, written for the Bb clarinet.
Nevertheless, congrats on your musical return--and don't forget those repeats.
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2008-07-25 14:51
Great story. As far as the intonation issue is concerned, I'd blame it on the trumpets. But then, I like to blame all intonation problems on the trumpets.
Best regards,
jnk
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2008-07-25 17:06
William, thank you. I was using the Bb! (Hey, are you a service technician?) As you say, all the band parts were for that instrument. They used my concert pitch (clarion C!) to tune the band, and a lot of instruments were higher than me - but not a half step. A few were at the same pitch - including the lead trumpet.
Once we got playing, it quickly became as though we hadn't tuned at all, and it drifted worse from there. It was confusing, and I may have been compensating, ah, ineffectually.
I'd like to think I can detect intonation issues in my own playing - and I do at least some of it, but again, it's time do some work with a tuner.
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Author: Nessie1
Date: 2008-07-29 14:42
Well done on getting back playing! I'm sure I'm not alone in meeting many lapsed players who don't have the confidence to take the first step back to taking part in a group or the dedication to practise back up to their previous level.
It sounds as though you have a pretty good idea of what's what and the kind of things you need to do to get back to your previous standard.
As far as the intonation thing is concerned, it may be that some other members of the group did not have sufficiently developed technical skills (embouchure etc. depending on instrument) or aural skills to keep in tune when they were actually playing a piece and not just a tuning note, so don't think it was just you. Also, of course, we all know that almost all wind instruments will get sharper after playing for a while but not necessarily at the same rate!
Well done again though!
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2008-07-29 21:02
Oddly, the tuner I used (Chromatia) indicates that my warmed up Bb instrument is around 5 to 7 cents sharp against the A440 baseline virtually throughout the range. Yet the problem at the concert, where they used my pitch to tune, was that I was surprisingly flatter than a number of the other musicians. It's like they were used to A445 or something.
The young lady sitting next to me had just purchased a used wooden Yamaha for $75, and she was using it for the first time. She said it played much better than her former instrument. When I expressed admiration for the bargain, she mentioned that the top and bottom joints were from two different models of Yamaha. Could that odd match create an instrument out of tune with itself?
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