 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2003-01-15 12:35
How do i explain to a 13 year old w/ 2 years playing experience why she plays a C scale when the band director says to play a Bb concert scale? How do i put it so a child will understand?
thanks - JL
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Author: Lori
Date: 2003-01-15 13:14
The way I usually explain it to my 1st year students (I teach band) is that all the instruments are built differently, for reasons I'm not going to share yet (makes things more complicated).
Then, I ask them all to play a C. Their own C. I pick a C because within the 1st few weeks, everyone has learned how to play a C on his/her instrument. Obviously, it sounds pretty bad!
Then, I assign them their notes for a Concert Bb. If I'm lucky, it sounds better (1st year students are sometimes so out of tune that it sounds wrong even when they're all fingering correctly).
I then explain how concert pitch is a way to get all of our instruments to sound alike. I'll also play a Bb on the piano and have people from each section play their note so students can hear how it matches.
Since you don't have a whole band to demonstrate this, use a piano. Have your student play a C. Play a Bb on the piano. Believe me, she'll be able to hear that they sound alike, as opposed to when she plays HER Bb against the piano Bb.
Hope this makes sense, it's 6AM, and haven't had coffee yet. Good luck.
-Lori
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Author: William
Date: 2003-01-15 14:35
You can also explain that when any instrument plays the note C, it sounds the note it is named for. Example: when an Eb alto sax plays C, it sounds Eb; when a Bb clarinet plays C, it sounds Bb; As part of the explanation, simply say that the clarinet, etc, are "transposing" instruments. You can relate this to "translating" english into spanish, if you think it might help. But the simple explanation given above usually helped my beginning band students understand.
BTW--this only applies to treble cleff wind instruments--the bass clef ones sound the pitches they read. Example: the trombone is a Bb instrument, but reads and sounds Bb.
BTW (2)--I wish that I understood, fully, why all instruments shouldn't read and play concert pitch. Playing a transposing instrument can be a real issue with someone blessed (or cursed) with perfect pitch. One of my good friends with perfect pitch was an orchestral clarinetist and has spent her whole life transpoing A & Bb parts back to concert pitch to avoid driving her "perfect pitch" senses crazy.
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2003-01-15 14:44
William wrote: "I wish that I understood, fully, why all instruments shouldn't read and play concert pitch"
If that was the case, it would make it very difficult to switch between Bb, A and Eb clarinet, for example. I understand it creates difficulty for the few people with "perfect pitch". But for the rest of us, it makes things a LOT easier!
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Author: bob gardner
Date: 2003-01-15 14:45
william: if your friend had played a C clarinet would it have been in "pefect pitch"? Or to put it another way does the C play in perfect pitch?
bobn
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Author: Walter Grabner
Date: 2003-01-15 16:15
Explain to your 13 year old that clarinets are made in many sizes and that the different sizes, due to varying lengths of bore, put the clarinets in different keys.
Explain how it is simply a convenience for the player that a "C" is a "C" on every size of the clarinet, making it unnecessary to learn different fingering depending on the size/key of the instrument.
It helps to have several clarinets of different sizes available to do this. It gives the student a "visual" perspective on the problem.
Also, you can explain how this WASN'T done on the recorder, and that on alternating sizes of recorder (C and F) you have to have different fingering for the same note.
Walter Grabner
www.clarinetxpress.com
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Author: Mike
Date: 2003-01-16 17:31
Distinguish between "play" and "sound." My teacher used to teach me transpositions of C-clarinet or A-clarinet parts by making a little grid. To "sound" a C, I need to "play" a "D."
The trick I always use when I have to play concert-pitch is to finger the scale on my clarinet and move to the second note. For example, to play the F-scale, I would go to my F-scale and the second note is a G. It works when you have to play scales quickly as in warmup.
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Author: Bill
Date: 2003-01-18 00:07
janlynn, please let me make this a whole bunch easier for you. This is so simple, I'm very surprised no one else came up with this. If your child has questions concerning music that you can't answer, then have her ask her music teacher. This is simply part of the job.
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2003-01-20 12:58
Bill - I AM her teacher . well, sort of - I'm not a professional teacher or anything - just helping the kid out a little and didnt know how to explain it so she would understand. thanks for the ideas everyone.
JL
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