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Re: Rightly confused

Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2006-01-05 21:52

My philosophy, which I believe is in line with what Tony says, but defends the pedagogues a bit is:

If someone has a problem or isn't doing something quite as well as they like, a teacher or message-board poster would be correct in saying "Try doing such and such..." so as to give the questioner a place to begin experimenting. The student or questioner should then try what is suggested but be free to experiment to find what works best for him/her. For example, once the suggestion is made to "try holding your tongue in this position," the poster would be wise to try holding his/her tongue in that position, but would be wiser still to try some variations/deviations to see if he/she can find something that works even better. The teacher helps the student get to his/her optimal point faster by suggesting where that optimal point is likely to be found. (Some people might not get anywhere near that optimal point without some advice. For example, someone who has never seen a clarinet being played might try it with the mouthpiece upside down and never think to turn it over until the pedagogue tells them to.)

There are no hard and fast rules, only things that have worked well for others in the past. To give an extreme example, everyone is going to tell me to put my left hand on top and I would be wise to try it. But if I want to try playing with my right hand on top, I should be free to try that as well and, on the miniscule chance I can play better with my right hand on top, who is to say that that isn't the correct way. It wasn't the way Mssrs. Sax or Boehm or whomever designed the instrument to be used, but no law disallows it.

A more realistic example would be the angle at which one holds a bass clarinet mouthpiece in one's mouth. I find that, for me, a highly angled neck and tilting the bell of the instrument under the chair to make the mouthpiece even more vertically angled works best. But I have no room to tell someone who plays with the mouthpiece horizontal, as is typically done with saxophones, that they are wrong. I may be able to suggest that they try making it more vertical, especially if it might solve a problem they are having, but they need to decide what works best for them--and it may very well be holding the mouthpiece horizontal.

Considering that I am a primarily self-trained amateur, what room do I have to be giving this advice? I have the room provided by the fact that this works well with most any endeavor in life and is not just an approach for playing the clarinet. And maybe by the fact that I AM primarily self-taught and have learned a lot (maybe more slowly than others) through this process. (Being amateur means that I simply haven't devoted nearly the time and effort to clarinet study and practice that many other have, not that I'm doing things the wrong way.)

So, the only hard and fast rule of clarinet playing is: Listen to and consider the advice of others, but consider nothing to be a hard and fast rule. Experiment.

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