Author: Steven Epstein
Date: 2000-01-31 16:09
I wish I had learned to play clarinet this way. Then I would be capable of jamming with my string, piano, and accordian playing friends, instead of feeling left out,because they decided to play something without "charts". But like most people, I learned in school. First, on the Flute-o-phone, that simple recorder-like instrument, an instrument designed for playing simple tunes by ear, I do believe, but, no, we were taught to read right away. If you couldn't read well, you didn't get to play a "real" instrument. Then elem. school band, then private lessons, then jr high and high school concert and marching bands, with a few quite successful tries at jr All State and Regional All State, or whatever it was called. But for what? I wasn't going to be a pro classical clarinettist. I had some talent but didn't like to practice; it wasn't the music I wanted to play, the music my guitar - playing buddies played. That's why Turtle Island String Quartet can make a hit recording Jimi Hendrix; you never learn to play this stuff on orchestra and band instruments, so it sounds humorous. Same with "Toccata and Fugue in E-Minor" played on electric guitar. I only played because my parents, like most middle-class parents, believed in "exposing" their kids to music for "culture" and "well-roundedness" (on college applications). God forbid, however, you should ever want to make music a career:-). My parents, like most, never played (although my dad had a few trumpet lessons as a kid), so my "exposure" was totally in the hands of the educational system, a system that takes what ought to be hobbies and recreational activities and transforms them into competitive events. That's who I blame, not my parents, who couldn't have known better. It's amazing I never wound up hating the clarinet and wanted to pursue it again as an adult.
Ah, I'm done venting now....
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The Clarinet BBoard
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