 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: RosewoodClarinet
Date: 2005-05-21 19:46
Hello,
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=61055&t=61037
I was searching previous threads about what makes better playing. This is one of the threads, which I found last week, and am so amazed about Stanley Hasty's idea about the connection between one's brain and one's "physical structure, choice of tongue position, embouchure style, etc, effects a good 90% or more of how someone ultimately sounds.", which Greg Smith, CSO Clarinetist mentioned in the first post.
This is creatainly fabuous and is something that I am supposed to learn. Also, I tend to forget this important thing because I am too busy to think of or so cautious with my equipment v.s. how I am playing.
I am so glad that I found this thread and appreciate that Greg Smith brought this issue years ago. I feel like I got the guidance from the masters in the past and at present.
Thank you, the masters.
RosewoodClarinet
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Author: contragirl
Date: 2005-05-23 01:58
It's funny. I have never considered myself to be a great clarinetist (but I never considered myself to be all terrible either :P ), but one thing I could always do was to have a good sound. And ppl thought I was great for it. But my technicality and speed was never really good. I can't count all that well (I like to go fast) and sometimes my 16th notes don't come out evenly, etc. While my fingers can be tamed, I can still get away with sounding good just cuz I would always concentrate on my sound quality. Does that make sense?
I mean, I have heard ppl that have great technical ability, and can go really fast, but their sound is horrible. I think a lot of people don't realize that the sound quality is also what is considered to be the most important, not just how fast and exact your fingers can go.
--Contragirl
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Author: RosewoodClarinet
Date: 2005-05-23 03:19
Contragirl,
I really understand what you mean. However, there are clarinetists who gained both the beautiful sound and the technique.
Many people like my sound, darkness, eveness, beauty......whatever. But technical fruency is now a big issue for me right now. I have to "master" the virtuoso technique.
RosewoodClarinet
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Author: contragirl
Date: 2005-05-23 08:18
Yeah, my old teacher had it all going for him. There are some ppl that do have it all. Hopefully you and I will master our technique. Then we'll be the famous ones everyone looks up to!
--CG
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Author: William
Date: 2005-05-23 14:32
I think that ones own personal tone quality has to do more with the individuals physical oral attibutes--shape, etc--than with the brain. However important it is to know what a "good" sound is or whom one would like to sound like, there will always be the physical predisposition towards a particular tambre that cannot be greatly altered. That is why I will never sound like Larry Combs, nor could he ever sound like me. We are just simply "built" differently and therefore produce different tambres, even though we both have decided what a "good" sound is (or whom we would each want to sound like). Mouthpieces, barrels, reeds, ligs, clarinets and bells can act as sound enhancers to help us achieve that tambre which we seek to produce, but ultimately, we are limited to what our natural born oral configurations will allow us to achieve.
Really, there are lots of good sounds "out there", but it is musicality--phrasings, intonation and rhythmic accuracy--that separates the pros from the amatures.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2005-05-23 15:26
Contragirl -
You're lucky. Your personal sound can have many colors, but a lot of it is built into your anatomy.
Being able to play really fast is also beyond your control. It depends on how early you started and how your fast-twitch muscles work. You appear to have gotten good ones.
Oddly enough, you're lucky with your problems, too. They're exactly the ones that don't depend on DNA, and be solved by practice.
The first thing to recognize is the difference between practicing and performing. As you say yourself, it's great fun to play fast. However, every time you play fast and sloppy, you're practicing how to make mistakes.
If you want to play for yourself, or in an intermediate band, then sloppiness hardly matters. If you want a musical career, or want good players or professionals to let you play with them, or if you are going to ask people to pay to hear your playing, you have to move to the next level. The professional ranks are full of people who have worked for years to conquer all technical problems, and, unlike in college, nobody will cut you any slack. In fact, you need sharp elbows, as well as talent and practice, to get ahead as a pro.
If you want a career, read the advice from the pros in http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=178641&t=178641. Then, find a good, tough teacher, and go home and practice.
Sorry to be tough on you, but you're not an undergraduate anymore. This is mild stuff compared to what the principal oboist in Atlanta had to say on the IDRS board last week, to a kid who was just in high school.
If you don't want to be a professional player, then let it all slide off. But sometime soon, you should make your decision.
Ken Shaw
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