 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2005-10-08 14:32
Mark Charette said, about warm air/cold air, that it was 'just a metaphor'.
I agree with him. But, many things that are said about playing the clarinet are 'just metaphors' too. (Of course, we agree thst that doesn't mean that those metaphors aren't useful.)
But what is also true is that the fact that a particular viewpoint is 'just' a metaphor, also means that there are other metaphors that may be equally useful.
For example, in the case of the warm air/cold air metaphor, it is perfectly possible to think of the situation in an entirely different way that doesn't include the notion of airspeed at all, or include the 'warm air/cold air' metaphor that tries to distinguish experientially between different airspeeds.
The sort of tongue position involved in creating 'cold air' can equally be considered as a tongue position that creates a 'small mouth cavity' behind the reed. And the tongue position involved in creating 'warm air' can equally be considered as a tongue position that creates a 'large mouth cavity' behind the reed.
That metaphor involves thinkng about 'mouth resonances' more than about airspeed, and has its own advantages/disadvantages, according to which student you happen to be talking to. (The details of how that may be useful to a student can be found elsewhere in my posts.)
The truth is that if you commit yourself to just one particular netaphor as 'the truth', then you block your ability to find the value in other metaphors.
BTW, apropos that, I want to make a remark about this board in general, discounting a few particular contributors.
I'd say in general that y'all here have a presumptuous pleasure in posting your 'opinions' about how one 'should' play the clarinet. That is, you want to promote your own metaphors, to the exclusion of others.
But in fact, most of you know very little about what playing the clarinet well consists of -- or about how metaphors may help or hinder that enterprise. You're simply reiterating what you've been *told*.
In the worst cases, these sorts of posts are the marks of arrogant know-nothings -- even if they may *seem* to want to be helpful.
Tony
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-10-08 16:00
Tony, are you twisting our "dragons tail " again?, [please, I mean no offense]. Thinking that you are asking for a "semantics" discussion, I looked up [it] and "metaphor" in my largest Webster [US] dictionary to renew my memory of words meanings. It used the well-known phrase "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" as an example. How does this apply to our clarinet etc discussions, do we need a playing key? 'Nuff for now. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2005-10-08 16:06
I don't believe it's semantics; rather, metaphors have been and are used as teaching aids. They're part of any teacher's toolkit.
1. a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money); broadly : figurative language" - http://www.m-w.com
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2005-10-08 16:11
Don, is the Webster dictionary the one without all the four-letter swear words?
I remember my cousins from Texas being amazed at the Oxford dictionary as having more 'language' than the average gangsta-(c)rap artist(?) could muster.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-10-08 16:12
Metaphors are very good teaching devices if the student can relate to them.
Post Edited (2005-10-13 16:12)
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-10-08 16:39
I learned this on the Clarinet board:
There are many different ways to get the same end result.
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2005-10-08 16:43
DavidBlumberg wrote: >> Well, play the Sax with cold air like the Clarinet, and see just how good you won't sound. That's not ego, but if it were, consider me guilty.>>
Sorry David, but that's an example of another beef I have about what goes on here. What you write may (I don't know) have meaning, but it's nothing to do with the subject of the thread.
This Board is incoherent for many reasons.
Tony
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Author: ron b
Date: 2005-10-08 16:53
I can only answer for myself, Tony, an individual know-nothing with a few opinionated views who offers a feeble and occasional try at being helpful. Those attempts are admittedly drawn from years of repeating the repetitive parroting by folks who were kind enough to repeatedly pass along their parroted (yet, somehow helpful) sage advice and metaphorical tips. The metaphores may, I sincerely hope, be useful to someone else along their learning journey. Let's keep the pot boiling, Tony, so to speak. I appreciate your thought provoking ideas and opinions. As I mentioned already, I cannot speak for all, but I know your posts keep at least a few of us in stitches....
- ron b -
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-10-08 16:53
That's the nature of electronic communication in general (there can be threads missed, etc or misinterpreted).
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2005-10-08 17:26
I think the ideal of addressing the subject is independent of the electronic medium.
Tony
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-10-08 17:40
Chris, my Webster in cr. 1989, and looking up some of our "foul" words, commonly/frequently used in movies, and beginning to appear on TV [dont like it ], found only one, s---, adequately described, however !! We/ve got a good one going here, keerect?? Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2005-10-08 17:54
Yeah, whatever you find, you're it.
What a major contribution you and your kind make.
Tony
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2005-10-08 18:16
ron b wrote:>> I can only answer for myself, Tony, an individual know-nothing with a few opinionated views who offers a feeble and occasional try at being helpful. Those attempts are admittedly drawn from years of repeating the repetitive parroting by folks who were kind enough to repeatedly pass along their parroted (yet, somehow helpful) sage advice and metaphorical tips.>>
Well, if you could tell that those tips were appropriate to the people who were asking, I wouldn't object.
Yet, if you're a know-nothing in the sense that you're not a practising clarinet player, and that you don't really know what the person should best do in their situation, you'd be better off to say nothing.
>> The metaphores may, I sincerely hope, be useful to someone else along their learning journey.>>
It's rather that all we can realistically do is to present metaphors.
>> Let's keep the pot boiling, Tony, so to speak. I appreciate your thought provoking ideas and opinions.>>
Thanks.
>> As I mentioned already, I cannot speak for all, but I know your posts keep at least a few of us in stitches....>>
Tony
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-10-08 19:10
Quote:
I'd say in general that y'all here have a presumptuous pleasure in posting your 'opinions' about how one 'should' play the clarinet. That is, you want to promote your own metaphors, to the exclusion of others. Well I would think that if something's working for US, it's only natural that that would be the first way you'd try to explain it. I understand that you shouldn't exclude other ways of explaining things, but as far as I can understand, I try to explain things through what I'm familiar with. And I wouldn't naturally think to tell someone to do something a way OTHER than the way I was taught or I've been doing it, unless it was clear that my way wasn't working for them. But certainly I'm going to gravitate towards my way first. It wouldn't make sense. That's why I've been told that it's good to have multiple teachers and not stick with one person for year after year. So you can have ACCESS to different ways of thinking, different views, and different approaches that people take to attain the same end product (in this case, being 'music')
Another example of this (which to me sticks out more) is the concept that some people have of, "Buffet is the best". Maybe it's the clarinet that works well for you, but sometimes people aren't OPEN to trying other things, or they simply compare everything else to "a buffet". SHOULD they exclude other brands? No. Because the end result is the sound that you get out of it. But they are going to emphasize what works for THEM and what they've been taught in the past.
So, yes, we all usually stick to our own metaphors and don't consider others, but that's because that's what worked for us. So we HAVEN'T had to look at other ways of explaining things.
US Army Japan Band
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-10-08 19:24
Quote:
Yet, if you're a know-nothing in the sense that you're not a practising clarinet player, and that you don't really know what the person should best do in their situation, you'd be better off to say nothing. That would probably lower a lot of the volume on posts here. And therefore lessen the options that the original poster has to work with in order to get over an obstacle. Not to mention, of those practicing clarinet players on the board, how many do you think would really continue to monitor the board after everyone else has left off and just watches, as they're the only ones that will continue to answer questions and offer advice?
I know that if I ask a question, I'll take all the answers I can get. I'm not a practicing clarinetist by profession (well, I practice, but that's about it!), however maybe an amateur with very little experience might point out how THEY go through a certain passage (of course, via a METAPHOR!), and it'll make more sense to me than any of the responses that I receive from a professional.
Maybe I don't know what the best option is for someone's situation, but I'm still going to give AN option if I have one. Simply for the above reason.
Alexi
PS - Short story - When I was at my former college, we had an Olympic hopefull tae-kwan-do competitor there. He was a 7th degree black belt while there (age about 22), and had studied much of his life in Okinawa. I was interested in joining the club, and he told me that at the end of each practice they have a sparring session of sorts. I thought he would only fight against higher ranked people. The ones with the COLORFUL belts. ![[wink]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie3.gif) He told me he also fights against the white belts. When I asked why he would bother doing that? His response (paraphrasing here . . .) was along the lines of, "I can fight against an amateur, and not get touched. But I know at some point, they'll manage to crack me in the jaw. And I'll have learned something."
I thought it was a pretty cool thing to say (especially if you're trying to bait a new guy into sparring with you!)
US Army Japan Band
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Author: hans
Date: 2005-10-08 19:53
If TP is so disgusted with members of this BB and the quality of their posts, I can't help wondering why he keeps returning to insult them.
I would have thought that he would be better off spending his time practising in the hopes of someday amounting to something.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2005-10-08 19:56
hans wrote:
> I would have thought that he would be better off spending his
> time practising in the hopes of someday amounting to something.
That's the funniest one I've read in quite some time! 
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2005-10-08 20:00
You all want to talk about something different from the subject of the thread.
Some of you still want to present a naive characterisation of what works -- you think -- for *you*...as opposed to what might help make it work for *them*.
I still say that very, very much less than half of you don't know the half of it.
"Warm because it comes from the diaphragm.." ???
Give me a break.
What many of you do is to present unsubstantiated opinions because it amuses you to be here.
Tony
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Author: ron b
Date: 2005-10-08 20:59
Tony, you come here for many of the same reasons most of us do. You submit your opinions because you like to toot your own horn. In the give and take that follows, thanks to your contributions, a few us nincompoops learn something.
- rb -
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Author: vin
Date: 2005-10-08 21:11
Tony-
I respectfully disagree- my diaphragm is very warm.
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2005-10-08 21:40
ron b wrote: >> Tony, you come here for many of the same reasons most of us do. You submit your opinions because you like to toot your own horn.>>
I sometimes wonder why I do come here. Tooting my own horn is a part of it, sure; but I think it's also tooting my horn in service of a larger cause -- which is also mine, of course.
>> In the give and take that follows, thanks to your contributions, a few us nincompoops learn something.>>
Well, thank you; but I'd say that *nincompoops* are only those who hold forth unreasonably, and then won't listen -- unlike you.
And I don't include people who argue rationally -- even if in the end I don't agree with them. (Feel free to be one of those:-)
Best,
Tony
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2005-10-09 17:22
Tony, I’m on this board, and I think you are too, first of all as a musician and secondary as a clarinet player. I’ve been a professional musician for 25 years now with a fairly successful career in chamber- and orchestra music. With the recognition I’ve earned over the years I believe of myself having much experience that I want to share with others. This applies even more to you to whom we can also give the credits: a celebrated soloist, teacher and a conductor as well.
We and other serious hard working professional people on this board look at our profession as musicians from a very serious viewpoint. As performers in prestigious venues in concerts and recordings we have the ultimate responsibility to present music as an art form with the great conviction that our education, research and experience have given us.
From this position I try to only participate in issues that I’m very familiar with and where I think I can contribute with something useful. I would strongly recommend that more people would do the same thing. It’s one thing to participate in a discussion and pass opinions or questions, but to give statements about things that are only based on opinions can be very dangerous, especially from ambitious teachers who have their own “methods” and lack any kind of flexibility. Metaphors can be very useful at times but very harmful if they’re not received as intended, or maybe even the intensions appeared to be wrong from the beginning.
Alphie
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Author: Sylvain
Date: 2005-10-09 21:45
With regards to metaphors:
Agreed, any body who has taught knows or should know that no single metaphor is universally effective. One has to tailor it to its students and figure out what imiage convey the most meaning for them.
With regards to this BB and its posters:
This is a bulletin board not a encyclopedia of what-to-dos for everything clarinet. IMHO, the whole point of this thing is to give everybody an opportunity to say whatever they want about clarinets and clarineting. If you want intelligent posts with educated discussions and well supported arguments, I am afraid you knocked at the wrong door. However, once in a while amongst all that noise, something important makes it through and I am grateful for that. If you feel so strongly about the quality of the posts, maybe Mark and GBK can give you your own space moderated by you?
-S
--
Sylvain Bouix <sbouix@gmail.com>
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2005-10-09 22:04
I'm not here for intellectual discussions, and you won't get anything intellectual out of me.
Intellect is not my forte.
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2005-10-09 23:41
I'm sure I'm off topic so this will fit right in. Hot air occurs when you open your mouth real wide and exhale. In order to have this same effect when playing clarinet or sax you would need to build a mouthpiece that makes the teeth separate about one inch.......that would be one thick mouthpiece beak!
Freelance woodwind performer
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Author: clarinetist04
Date: 2005-10-10 01:45
>"But in fact, most of you know very little about what playing the clarinet >well consists of..."
What constitutes knowing very little? In other words would you venture to say that someone who is an accomplished clarinetist, studied through college, and holds the principal chair in an orchestra knows very little? Obviously there aren't many people here with those credentials, but I'm curious what your oppinion is.
Likewise, is it necessarily a lack of knowledge or rather a lack of communication skills? Just because one cannot apply a metaphor to suit a person's particular difficulty does not, under most circumstances, mean that they know little about playing the clarinet. I have had lessons with a number of professional clarinetists who can't seem to verbalize or show me metaphorically how to fix a problem that I've had.
Sometimes this board seems to be more like a political blog than a visitor-friendly forum on clarinet music and musicianship.
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2005-10-10 01:49
I beg to differ Chris. You always have interesting posts and consistently display a high content to verbiage ratio.
Freelance woodwind performer
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Author: Llewsrac
Date: 2005-10-10 09:47
Tony is quite right in his harsh finger pointing, sermons from the lofty hights of Regent Street. So much unverified opinions, dribbles , and here says that run at least a hundred years of instrumental ignorance who's volumns of instructores repretitions has made it holy writ, the one and only path to hear the father is to believe upon the adopted selfpointed TP and the likes.
Nothing much has changed in seventy-five years of teaching, some of the same old wise tales are still being pritched with the same zill and hell fire as always, matters not the least they are right or wrong.
This board is a fine kindergarden to keep an eye on the up-starts by the more advance up-start all trying to show off all at one time the sum total of the ignorance. And then there are those that are just loney,bored, nothing much to do and the board offers the illusion of being in the front trenches battling the sharpes and the flats. The board need structure and discpline, to tighten up post and response and stay on topic
Freedom of speech does not mean every word in one's head blasted onto the page in no logical of meaningful form in the middle of a thread for the rest of us to figure out. To expree one's seld in language is much easier then to express the same thought in music. Arnoldstang wrote:
> I beg to differ Chris. You always have interesting posts and
> consistently display a high content to verbiage ratio.
>
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Author: claclaws
Date: 2005-10-10 11:50
As usual, I knew I couldn’t read at one time all the threads under Mr. Pay’s post, so I copied the whole page and today succeeded in reading them in a bus during my commute hour!
About metaphor: I can’t agree more with all the posts by Ron B. and by Sfalexi. And also think that metaphors are very powerful tools for teachers to use to help students who desire to play the clarinet better. As Clarinetist04 mentioned, communication skill is important too : it's possible a virtuoso cannot teach because he/she just cannot verbalize his/her way of mastering the difficulty the student faces.
My teacher is such a talented communicator : she can describe how to breathe or how to attack using very vivid and hard-to-forget expressions, ranging from gynecological terms (women talk) to zen meditation (Asian talk).
Lucy Lee Jang
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Author: the only sane person in the room
Date: 2005-10-13 15:29
>>>>>>>>BTW, apropos that, I want to make a remark about this board in general, discounting a few particular contributors.
I'd say in general that y'all here have a presumptuous pleasure in posting your 'opinions' about how one 'should' play the clarinet. That is, you want to promote your own metaphors, to the exclusion of others.
But in fact, most of you know very little about what playing the clarinet well consists of -- or about how metaphors may help or hinder that enterprise. You're simply reiterating what you've been *told*.
In the worst cases, these sorts of posts are the marks of arrogant know-nothings -- even if they may *seem* to want to be helpful.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
I was just forwarded this thread by a colleague.
Do you folks here know how fortunate you are to have Tony Pay as a contributor to this board? Do you know who this man is?
Tony Pay is one of the best clarinet players alive right now. In addition, he is certainly one of the finest musicians who plays the clarinet actively. He plays with great virtuosity, elegance and intelligence. A combination extremely rare among clarinetists.
He has done things that 99.99% of clarinet players in the world only dream about.
Perhaps you should spend more time reading his remarkable postings and trying to understand them rather than trying to shout him down with nonsense. I mean, do you really think you know better?
You will certainly succeed in chasing him away otherwise. Shockingly, many of you would be happy about that. Pathetic.
Beware he who constantly has to remind you of his greatness.
Listen to those who have absolutely nothing to prove.
Go forth and listen to ANY of Tony Pay's recordings. The worst of them have much greatness to offer.
Just a warning.
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2005-10-13 17:40
I get the impression Tony doesn't just want us to read his posts. He is definitely putting forth material to be discussed. The board is the perfect place for it.
As far as "do you know who he is?" I read his posts and give his posts more weight than I would a beginning clarinetist but...........I am stubborn and have my own perspective on things . I won't change just because these opinions are at odds with a famous clarinetist. Many of these topics are very subjective and have many sides. I will read most posts even if the submitter claims to be the "only sane person in the room". I assume the poster here thinks Tony is insane as Tony is in the room.
Freelance woodwind performer
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Author: mtague
Date: 2005-10-13 20:36
A lot of people have a hard time describing something in a way that makes sense to all students. It's harder than it seems to be a good teacher. One of the reasons I don't tutor or teach. Sometimes it's also hard to describe the things you do internally to create your art if it has become instintive to you. I don't think that means you shouldn't give the best explanation you can. People seeking advice shouldn't assume that the one explanation/metaphor is literal and the only way.
I do like this board, and find some value is many of the posts. If someone's description doesn't make sense to me, I will think about it to try and figure out what they do mean in a more general sense, rather than trying to apply it to myself immediately. It's important to understand the underlying concept of what is being taught, rather than dissecting the metaphor, which can be misinterpreted, and thus applied wrongly. If I need more explanation I can ask my private teacher. If I need more than that, I can contact another clarinetist that she knows, etc. and so on. But I find that trying things out for myself tend to work out, with some help and verification from my teacher.
I find it's important as a student, or someone seeking advice, to be prepared to experiment, question and review all advice, ponder it, but maybe not necessarily take it.
I don't post much, but prefer to read. I did feel the need to let everyone know that all the advice, opinions and discussion are appreciated.
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Author: ned
Date: 2005-10-14 05:12
It seems to me that Tony Pay, whilst seemingly having the reputation (to some on this board) of being some sort of guru, sage, teacher, tutor or other equally resplendent description one may ascribe of his talents, one thing is missing, in my view at least.
Tony says that he admits he wants to ''toot his own horn, in service of a larger cause'' and that cause is? Presumably to educate those of us, whom he thinks could benefit from his instruction. This is admirable and I am always willing to listen to those who offer sound advice in the cause of attainment of knowledge.
Tony is, then, a teacher and player of great substance, according to some of our correspondents although I have not heard of him until recently, possibly because I move in different spheres.
I propose however, that a teacher has first to gain the trust and respect of his/her pupils and with regard to the latter point, I say that this respect cannot be gained by berating and insulting would-be students who may take exeption to being referred to in a less than complimentary manner.
If I had a teacher who referred to me as an '' arrogant know-nothing'' or use the words ''less than half of you don't know the half of it'' I think I'd be rightly miffed, even if it were the truth.
And, that missing thing I previously referred to, could well be humility, or possibly modesty or possibly unpretentiousness.
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Author: Sylvain
Date: 2005-10-14 13:04
Tony can speak for himself, he has certainly shown he can do it.
However, my feeling is that he does not call the student an "arrogant know nothing", but the teacher. Somebody who has very little experience as a player who gives advice solely based on his personal "feeling" without credential can be dangerous to the student/reader here. I feel it is these people that Tony is irritated by, and in many ways I agree with him. I am certainly guilty of giving advice and even more guilty of being a know nothing, so I try to stick to subjects I know about a little bit and pay close attention when somebody like Tony talks about music, interpretation or teaching.
On the other hand, Mark C and GBK (who again can speak for themselves) have let anybody post anything they want as long as it is somewhat on topic. Given the number of posts per day, the task of sorting out the dangerous posts, from a clarinestic point of view, is simply impossible. There are places such as "the clarinet" for which the authors do have to have some credentials to publish. I am also thinking of Sherman Friedland's corner, whose article have been quite insightful to me especially the ones on repertoire. But interestingly, I have not seen him post here...
As a scientist, I read papers every day and some of the stuff that gets published infuriates me, because it claims to be the next best thing and it is simply *wrong*. If I take this paper and try to reproduce the results it will give me garbage. So I guess I can understand why Tony can get worked up when a bunch of people like me tell the board what is working, when he knows it is *wrong*.
--
Sylvain Bouix <sbouix@gmail.com>
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Author: graham
Date: 2005-10-17 12:11
There is no point in anyone getting worked up about what is put on this board, because it is, and is designed to be, an open board (that does not include insulting remarks of course). If people want the information sifted so that they only read from people with credentials, they might think about paying money to do that, whether via a magazine or a lesson.
As to whether Tony is a guru to you, the starting point is listening to his playing. No-one who has not done that can judge what credence to give to what he says. And his incontrovertably high reputation should not persuade anyone who, having listened to his playing, feels there is nothing in it that they would like to learn. And even those who listen on CD cannot judge in quite the way that those who hear him live are able to judge (for themselves and for their own purposes).
So, before you either get out your prayer mat or make negative remarks about how categorical and blunt he can be, I suggest you listen to the man first.
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2005-10-17 15:30
I hadn't intended to contribute further to this discussion, but I find I want to say this:
I asserted that people quite often write things that show (to an experienced player) that either they don't know what they're talking about -- that is, their advice is just plain wrong -- or that they don't know that the way of looking at the matter that seemed to work for them may not work for others -- which is something that any responsible teacher knows very well.
All I was saying was that if you don't know what you're talking about, you'd be better off not laying down the law.
I have to admit that then, as always, it slightly embarrassed me to have my own playing dragged in. That other people praise my playing makes me look as though I am unduly pleased with myself, and therefore dismissable (as 'pretentious', I think it was).
Now, I may be unduly pleased with myself, who knows:-) but that's not deducible from what I have to say -- even what I strongly have to say -- about the need to be responsible when giving advice about clarinet playing. How I would put it is that I have a fair amount of expertise on the clarinet -- not as much as very many other performers in all sorts of ways -- but more than enough to know what here is handwaving and what is genuine understanding. (There are others here who know that too, of course.)
I don't say that a 'wrong' post does damage necessarily in itself -- though it may. Rather, a wrong post confuses the issue, and makes it difficult to hear something genuinely useful. The handwaving is so noisy that a pertinent post goes unnoticed in the general clamour.
As for the deeper questions -- well, playing the clarinet excellently is a lifetime's work, like doing anything excellently.
Someone didn't like it that I said that more than half the people here know less than half of it. He was right in a way: I shouldn't have said that. What I should have said is that ninety percent of the people here know less than a tenth of it.
Tony
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Author: ned
Date: 2005-10-18 11:27
''I still say that very, very much less than half of you don't know the half of it.''
''What I should have said is that ninety percent of the people here know less than a tenth of it.''
I assume that there is some data to validate the above postulations. Seemingly there is more recent data extracted in the last few days which proves that, rather than the original 50+%, it is now closer to 90% of correspondents to this board can be described as ''know-nothings'' or are guilty of knowing ''less than......of it''
This board is principally a forum for interested persons to have a discussion ''over the back fence'' as it were, and is, I trust, not meant to be a continuing academic treatise of some description. Many correspondents here have merely an amateur (I use the word cautiously) interest in their chosen instrument and this board is enough for them. For some others, perhaps this board is not for them and scholarly journals may better fit their needs.
Errors and misconceptions are not infrequent, however the perpertrators of these should not be taken to task for merely offering opinions, which may or may not, assist one or another of us. All advice is given in good faith, one can take it or leave it.
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2005-10-18 20:48
Ned wrote:
>> This board is principally a forum for interested persons to have a discussion "over the back fence" as it were, and is, I trust, not meant to be a continuing academic treatise of some description. Many correspondents here have merely an amateur (I use the word cautiously) interest in their chosen instrument and this board is enough for them. For some others, perhaps this board is not for them and scholarly journals may better fit their needs.>>
This board, on the contrary, is about many other things. Of course it's not about what you say it is. Who you?
Some of those other things are: it's an opportunity to say what's true about the technical details of clarinet playing; to say what's true about how we may best use those truths to improve our clarinet playing; and to say what's true about what clarinet playing in general is trying to achieve.
I'll make another post, under a different heading, about how these are related -- but here, I'll simply say that "what this Board is about" is not to be determined by any one person.
An important part of our responsibility in the world is that we have the opportunity to interact with the rubbish that we are confronted with. (Notice that that rubbish is endemic -- we need to deal with it locally.)
I am committed to dealing with 'clarinet' rubbish because I'm qualified to recognise it.
Tony
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Author: hans
Date: 2005-10-18 23:30
Tony,
Regarding your comment: "I'll simply say that "what this Board is about" is not to be determined by any one person".
The last time I looked the BB still belonged to Mark Charette. That makes Mark the "one person" who can decide unequivocally "what this board is about".
Hans
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Author: Clarinetgirl06
Date: 2005-10-19 02:46
I prefer similes. The board is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get (read) each day!
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The Clarinet Pages
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