Author: NewBass
Date: 2006-05-11 20:50
(warning, could be longish..) OK, I'm new at this clarinet thing. Sort of. Played soprano clarinet two years in high school (long time ago). Been noodling on alto sax on and off for a couple years. Lurking here, I've learned a few things, and that's made my sax playing better.
A couple months ago, someone asked if I'd consider bass clarinet. Actually, until then, I hadn't heard of such a thing. Do some research and "hey, this sounds like my kind of instrument". So I'm going to try it. The advice I need is things that will generally make it more approachable, particularly at first. I'm not looking for that last 0.001% of tonal perfection; I'd be satisfied with tolerable tone and fun to play. I'll work on excellence after finding basic competance.
So. My general plan of attack is:
1) go rent a bass clarinet. I'm expecting this would be a basic student model. Question #1: is it worth messing around with anything other than a generic cheapie mouthpiece at this point? Or save that for later? The goal is to play the thing, not fight with it. If Yes, Question #1a is: how would one go about that at this (beginner+) level?
2) plan out a course of instruction similar to beginning soprano clarinet. Probably use the same books for awhile. Work fingering, tone, scales and intervals, lotsa just playing. Get advice from my wife (a flute teacher), and other musicians I know. Question #2: Any recommended course / study / book recommendations for the offbeat / ADD type student? Frankly, drills and such are helpful and necessary, but if my brain tunes too far out, it doesn't come back for awhile. I know there's no shortcuts - if you want the skills, you gotta put in the (grand) effort.
3) Do it. Question #3 probably has something to do with "do I need a teacher?" and finding one and all that, but I 'm out of time. So I'll ask that later.
W
Tonemeister Productions - All things audio
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The Clarinet BBoard
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