The Clarinet BBoard

Nature or Nurture, Take 2

Author: ohsuzan  Date:   2004-11-29 12:36 OK, here's the situation: My dear husband, who sorta kinda learned to play the clarinet back in Jr. Hi, has taken it up again (47 years later), because he wants to be able to play in the bands and ensembles that I enjoy so much, and he wants us to be able to play duets. He has a truly GREAT music-consumer's ear. He adores grand opera, knows and recognizes singers, arias, roles, knows libretti backwards and forwards. Likewise, he is a walking compendium of symphonic music knowledge, and recognizes composers, periods, styles, etc., after a moment's hearing. He quickly learned his clarinet fingerings accurately, all the way from bottom to top, and he has no problem at all recognizing notes and note values on the staff. When playing, however, he seems not to be able to tell whether he is on pitch or miles away; nor can he "hear" what others are playing and match pitch or find his place in the score if (when) he gets off. Most distressing, however, is the fact that he just plain cannot seem to take or keep a beat. He can beat "1 - 2 - 3 - 4" (or whatever meter) adequately, and then will make his entrance as if he were playing something entirely different. He will look at at score where he has, say, three bars of rest followed by an entrance on beat one of the fourth bar, and invariably make his entrance on beat three or four of the third bar. He consistently shorts half notes and other long tones, fails to count rests, and drops beats willy nilly. No sense of heading for the downbeat, or how what he is playing fits in with what others are playing. I just don't understand how someone who is so sophisticated as a listener could be so truly hopeless as a player. He works and works and works at it, but never gets past the point where his success in playing seems more than random. He's a very, very bright person -- an M.D. (surgeon) with a systematic mind. He clearly understands the "math" of music. He just can't play it. I don't know how to teach him. I don't know if he can be taught. Can any of you offer experience or suggestions? Susan

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Re: Nature or Nurture, Take 2

Author: ohsuzan  Date:   2004-11-29 17:06 Thanks for your helpful comments and suggestions. Maybe it's not quite as hopeless as I thought. Even though I've taught the fundamentals of music to literally hundreds of children and adults, sometimes (as John S. says) I do have a difficult time being patient with those who have a steeper learning curve. Especially if the learner is a relative. <<My problem was that all three excerpts sounded EXACTLY the same>> That actually doesn't seem to be his problem. In fact, as a listener, he has an exquisitely well-developed ear. Which frustrates me all the more, because I simply don't understand how someone who is that adept a listener can just not get it as a player. <<If he can hear an 8 bar phrase coming to an end, or hear where the music sounds like it's going to resolve, that may be his entrance and it might help>> Aye, there's the rub. This is precisely the sort of thing he does not seem to hear. Maybe he's not listening or not really engaged with anything except the note that he is supposed to play next -- pushing buttons, as someone recently wrote on another thread. <<Many players become careless with rhythm in their desperation to get the right pitch.>> Amen to that. He seems to have this notion that music = a correct succession of tones (or at least, plays as if this is what he believes). I have, thus far unsuccessfully, been trying to convince him that music is AT LEAST as much about rhythm as it is about pitch. I've tried to convince him it's OK, even desirable, in practice, to play through tonal mistakes, in the interest of not making rhythmic mistakes, but he gets too thrown by missing a note to continue. We have a metronome, and he tries to use it, but can't/won't stay with it. I wonder if one can put earphones into a metronome, so that he hears the beat almost "inside his head"? Same issue with the tuner. He can light it up, but doesn't seem to generalize the sensation of "being in tune" past that task. <<He's probably trying to advance too quickly without getting the basic fundamentals down pat.>> This may, in fact, be the crux of the issue. But how to tell him he needs to take baby steps, when he wants to fly? He's highly motivated, but he's STUBBORN. Get him another teacher, I think . . . Thanks for your help! Susan

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Re: Nature or Nurture, Take 2

Author: Steve Epstein  Date:   2004-11-30 05:02 "...He has a truly GREAT music-consumer's ear. He adores grand opera, knows and recognizes singers, arias, roles, knows libretti backwards and forwards. Likewise, he is a walking compendium of symphonic music knowledge, and recognizes composers, periods, styles, etc., after a moment's hearing...When playing, however, he seems not to be able to tell whether he is on pitch or miles away; nor can he "hear" what others are playing and match pitch or find his place in the score if (when) he gets off...Most distressing, however, is the fact that he just plain cannot seem to take or keep a beat..." Sounds like he's chosen the wrong vocation. He actually has the skills of a music critic. Steve Epstein

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Re: Nature or Nurture, Take 2

Author: ohsuzan  Date:   2004-12-02 02:40 Hi Jimmy -- I don't know what others will say, but to me, there is tapping, and then there is TAPPING. I generally have some part of my body pulsing with the beat. It is often not a visible part. And one doesn't want to wiggle around too much, for reasons of playing efficiency as well as decorum. But wind playing is, after all, a physical experience. It seems to me we can "internalize the beat" somewhere other than in our heads only! Susan

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