 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2005-10-10 16:36
Claclaws wrote:
>> 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).>>
Well, this is not quite either of those, but do I remember being very struck by Maria Callas's advice:
"To sing this phrase properly, you need to breathe in from HAIR to HAIR!"
:-)
Tony
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Author: Tyler
Date: 2005-10-10 21:22
what does that mean? forgive my uncreative cognition/sleepy state of awareness, etc.
-Tyler
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2005-10-10 21:24
Callas was as vivid in her master classes in her performance. You breathe to fill yourself with air from head hair to pubic har.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-10-10 22:02
I seriously doubt that was what Ms Callas meant.
Bob Draznik
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-10-10 22:03
TKS, Ken, VIVID, YES. I thot it might have been from there to here, nowhere near the punch !! Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: vin
Date: 2005-10-10 22:50
Bob- I wouldn't put it past her to have meant that exactly. Go see the play "Master Class", listen to her famous masterclasses at Julliard (available on cd- on EMI I think) and read her biography. You might have a slightly different picture of who she was as a person, then. If you have done all these things, I guess I got a different vibe than you.
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2005-10-10 22:58
BobD wrote: >> I seriously doubt that was what Ms Callas meant.>>
I'm sure she did mean that.
After all, it's a very clear technical and emotional pointer to what you should do if you want to produce a really powerful phrase, and is instantly recognisable as a deep truth to any player who tries it.
Moreover, it has the advantage of not violating traditional wisdom. (For example, Americans can still have pointy chins and double lip embouchures while they do it, if they want:-)
Tony
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2005-10-10 23:40
"To play this passage, your breath should be deeper than a coal miner's lunchbox..."
"Even Sheherazade couldn't make this bit interesting... just read through"
"What are you, tap dancing? DON'T pat your foot, it's annoying."
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Author: GBK
Date: 2005-10-10 23:53
"You're playing too sharp - You're higher than a cat's back in April."
No idea what it means - but it was a favorite expression used by a prominent US clarinet professor ... GBK (who heard it for 4 years in college)
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2005-10-11 04:45
Ah, insults. A more painful one (only reported to me, so I don't know whether or not it's apocryphal):
Famous and irascible Italian violin professor to hapless student in class,
"I KNOW that every day you play worse -- but today...you really play LIKE TOMORROW!"
Tony
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2005-10-11 08:01
For five years I heard:
"That's not staccato, it's castacko".
"Take off your boxing gloves when you play".
God bless his soul, he was actually a very loving teacher but with a character of his own.
Alphie
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Author: donald
Date: 2005-10-11 10:05
"oh come on, a bit louder eh?, that sounded like a rat farting"
(not i)
donald
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2005-10-11 11:12
Another one:
"Your emboushure is like a sphincter, like you have in your rear. It should feel like a chicken's a**."
How about that for a metaphor, Tony.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-10-11 12:05
Leon Lester used to say something about a strand of spaghetti, but it wasn't vivid enough for me to remember it 27 years later.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-10-11 13:38
Guess I'll have to get the Master Class video
Bob Draznik
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