 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-09-11 11:32
Do you feel after having spent time away from playing clarinet and returning several years later to take it up again, you now have more maturity in your approach now to your playing and understanding of both the clarinet and the music you play than when you were younger?
Or is the 'older and wiser' thing a myth?
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Mags1957
Date: 2006-09-11 11:53
I was a strong player in college (mid-late 70's), making the audition circuit, and making the finals for a couple of "major" positions. I quit playing clarinet altogether for about 15 years, then took it back up in the mid 90's to finish up my education degree. I never got back to my former playing level, but I wasn't really too serious about it. I got a job as a high school teacher, and played very infrequently, and not very well when I did.
Flash forward to this year - I decided to get more serious about my playing again for a couple of reasons: 1) I have a couple af clarinet players in my band who are pretty darn good, and I wanted to show them what the old man could do , and 2) I wanted to see if I could try out for some positions, maybe sub for a couple of the pro orchestras in the area, as I had done in my youth. Well, I went back to Baermann 3 (what else) for about 2 hours a day all summer - and another 2 hours a day or so on repertoire, etudes, etc., and although there are a still a few things I need to work on I feel I am playing some of the best clarinet of my life. More mature in my approach to the music, a more consistently good sound in all registers, more subtlety, more "depth". It's sometimes hard to get these old fingers to move as evenly as I'd like at times, but my technique is 95% back, and my phrasing and sound is better than ever. A few more months of Baermann 3 and the evenness will come, I suspect.
The best thing of all - I having so much FUN playing! I'm so enthused about all things clarinet - sharing old recordings with my students, buying new cd's and music - even signing up for this board. It's been a heck of a ride!
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Author: EuGeneSee
Date: 2006-09-11 12:00
Chris:
I can see that after giving up band in the spring of 1962 to persue sports, I am more mature and therefore much more serious about practicing, but I have less understanding at this point as I don't remember anything about the music and fingering of the clarinet. Also, it seems much more difficult to learn as my brain doesn't seem to learn as easily as a kid's brain.
I had to start all over again with a teacher and beginner book #1. I've only been at this about 4 months, so if anything is going to kick my memory into gear, maybe it is too early for it to happen. This certainly isn't like riding a bicycle ("Once you learn it , it will always come back very easily"), at least not for me. So my "maturity" seems to have erased all memory of having played the clarinet for about 7 years (1955-1962).
Eu
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-09-11 14:47
I was first chair in college and dropped out for my hitch in the Service, grad school, career. I taught at a music studio: Jr. high and high school kids through the Langenus Books 2 and 3.
Returning to my horn seriously after retirement finds me a quite different player. I'm not as facile with the horn (by far) as I remember being. with a great teacher and work on the Rose and Baerman (and now, GASP, the Cavallini) I'm playing with more soul. Depending upon obligations and interferrence, I play 4 or 5 hours a day.
My sound is better, and I've found the joy of having a really, really great horn --that brought me a whole new world of intonation and smoothness of response.
I'm pretty busy with my conventional and familiar repertroire and have to reach way out to accept much of the "new" music.
I'm getting my biggest rewards playing with small ensembles: WW4 and mixed trios.
Two of my biggest problems currently are in speed (I'm about 2/3 as fast as I "used to be"), and my understanding of music theory. I badly need a course in Harmony.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2006-09-11 15:08
May a "continuer" respond also, pliz ? While I subscribe to "once upon a time I was Young and Foolish, but now am no longer YOUNG", I at least believe in the value and teachings derived from experience, perhaps that is what we call "wisdom" ?? Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: FDF
Date: 2006-09-11 15:16
Do I have more maturity in my approach to playing? Yes, if maturity means a more realistic appraisal of my abilities and my future as a clarinetist. No, if maturity means physical capabilities.
I returned to playing in June, after an extremely long absence from playing as a serious student of the instrument. Fingering came back to me like riding a bicycle, get on and ride. Even most alternate fingerings I learned returned without thought, for only a few did I have to rethink. Sight reading came back pretty easily, as well. Although, occasionally I have to stop and think through rhythms and the length of notes.
Harder to recapture is embouchure. After playing for three and a half months, my lips are still not up to par and this leads to trouble when I start reaching for anything higher than E or G, depending on the reed. Also, fingering is not as fast, but is adequate to most situations. Oddly, enough I have a more difficult time with tempo, since my natural tempo is slower than it was as a youth. This becomes most evident when I have to play up to tempo with a group.
Do I have greater understanding of the clarinet and the music I play? Yes, although this is a qualified yes. General knowledge and experience helps a great deal here, and I don’t take as many things for granted. When I was younger, I didn’t spend as much time thinking about my setup, I just played. Now, I’m looking for some quick fixes. Ha! My general knowledge of music has matured, but my specific knowledge of clarinet music has not advanced, since I chose to turn my back on it, preferring not to suffer by not being able to play what I heard.
Is the older wiser thing a myth? The biggest difference is, even with all my practice, I know I’ll not be as good as I once was. The biggest similarity, I greatly enjoy playing.
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Author: robertgh
Date: 2006-09-11 18:07
Ten months into my own "return" I find the experience remarkably similar to FDF's in terms of restoring or recapturing technique. It's a work in progress. What has changed is the enormous availability of resources -- not the least of which is this website and its archives and contributors. The generous sharing of insight and enthusiasm for the craft from performers of all levels of ability and experience is a treasure.
Older but wiser? Well "older" does have its impact on technical facility (though it is amazing what a "fountain of youth" sheer practice, practice, practice can be). As far as being wiser? I don't know if wisdom is the right word for what I've found after a 30+ layoff; perspective is probably a better term. I take joy in what I can do, am not in despair of what I "can't" do, and am encouraged by my ability to move the dividing line between those two realms by setting goals and working toward them. Ten months into the journey I'm patiently finding the phrase "can't yet" a much better mind-set than "can't"; just wish I'd known THAT at seventeen!
During my 30-yrs away from the clarinet I got serious about studying voice and vocal performance, spending a good bit of time concentrating on that area of my musical life. All jokes about "singers vs. musicians" aside, I've found that I now approach the instrument with a much different sense of line and phrasing than I had as a kid. I've also listened to a vast amount and range of music over the years. While that is a pale substitute for actually preparing and performing, it does provide a greater context or sense of the territory than I had at seventeen. (Of course, "context" is different from "knowledge": I wish I "knew" at fifty-seven a fraction of what Julian Bliss already knew at 16!)
What I do know though is that for this "returnee" the old cliché "absence makes the heart grow fonder" certainly applies. The sheer joy of playing is as rich as it's ever been, and those transcendent moments when it all comes together and -- I don't know--"sings" are priceless.
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Author: dat99
Date: 2006-09-12 03:32
When I was in school, I didn't take the clarinet seriously. I barely practiced, I used the cheapest reeds and I just wasn't that interested in it.
Then, 29 years later, six months ago, I started to take lessons and learn the clarinet again. I started from book 1. I now practice 1-2 hours a day and I love the clarinet. I wish I appreciated it years ago. I do have to say that having a teacher I feel that I am learning things I never learned before.
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Author: Clarinet Geek
Date: 2006-09-12 15:02
I've started taking private lessons about twice a month, and have joined a community church orchestra. This is after about 15 years of not playing at all. I find that I enjoy lessons more--I ask questions, pick out music, point out my own mistakes. And I'm more relaxed in an orchestra--and yet more serious. This is not a professional or even semi-professional orcherstra. No auditions, anyone who shows up (practically) can join. But we do want to sound good.
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Author: connie
Date: 2006-09-12 15:09
Bruno wrote:
>There is no substitute for youth!
Alas, youth is forever wasted on the young.
After not playing for 20 years, and now back to it as of 6 years ago, I can say that my "musicality" is far better, but my technique... it's mostly a case of "the older I get, the better I was."
connie
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-09-12 15:23
I wish I took it more seriously when I was learning, but I was happy that I managed to get ARBSM grade 8 with distinction within the two years I was learning clarinet, but due to a muck up with tuition fees I left college and pretty much shelved my clarinets fro around 15 years, only getting them out their case for the odd gig or show I needed to play clarinet on. But I was still playing sax all the while I wasn't playing clarinet, so I was still involved in music somewhere and still playing in bands.
It was only since I started oboe lessons that I reached a point where I realised I'm learning new things about music in general that I'd previously missed, and could apply them across the board to every instrument I play - even to big band playing as well as Baroque and Classical, so I've definitely become more aware and mature in the way I listen to, play and appreciate music and performers. I also feel like I'm doing it out of enjoyment rather than it being a labour, and things I got tied up in knots over before I can now look at them in a different and more rational manner and find an obvious solution to get the desired effect that I want.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: awm34
Date: 2006-09-13 02:59
I had free public school lessons in NJ in 5th to 7th grade where I was only fair. We moved from NJ to Maine (no more lessons) and I played through my first year of college without much direction. I began again with the encouragement of two good clarinet-playing friends at age 68 after a lapse of 49 years.
That was four years ago. I take weekly lessons from a teacher I regard highly and practice almost every day -- often for more than an hour -- and I take my clarinet with me everywhere (France and tennis tournaments). I play in a community band where I'm approaching dependability as a third.
What other challenge could I find in my golden years (other than top 20 nationally in the 70s tennis)?
My 85 year old buddy and I are currently competing at the same tennis tournament in NC and we spent a happy hour plus this afternoon playing duets. Most excellent!
Alan
<a href="http://supersenior.info">
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Author: Pathik
Date: 2006-09-13 08:57
When I was 17 I bought a second hand clarinet, a Noblet Artist, but hardly knew even how to put it together. I have no idea what possessed me to start playing the clarinet at that age.....maybe it was sheer desperation, who knows? I was not at all a good clarinet player in my youth, never really practiced properly, never took any lessons, just played along to jazz records for the most part, though I did play in a small (very amateur) jazz group when I was about 20, which is also when I stopped playing.....for good, or so I thought at the time.
Fast forward 28 years, to September 2005, when I was suddenly struck by some sort of "inspiration" completely out of the blue, and I knew that I had to start playing the clarinet again. I bought a Buffet E11 B flat clarinet and that was it. After almost exactly a year of rather very hard, but also very enjoyable and rewarding, work, I am now a very much better clarinettist than I ever was in my youth. I am prepaing for the ABRSM grade 5 exam (classical) - my teacher says I'm ready for it, so I'll give it a go - and I also go to the Sheffield jazz workshop intermediate group every week, which I find positively inspiring.
Starting to play the clarinet again at this point in my life is one of the best things I've ever done. It's not just about playing music again and playing with others, there's a lot more to it, it makes me feel so much better about myself and life and helps me to grow and be a better person. "Older and wiser"? Yes, most certainly - well, at least older! My understanding of the clarinet, of music and life in general is light years beyond what it was in the traumatic 70s. I know that I still have a lot to learn about playing the clarinet, about music, life and myself, but all of this is now a much more conscious process.
Playing the clarinet is for me the best way to more easily express what I truly am, and to give a voice to what's been lying dormant inside me for all these years, yearning for expression. It's a gift just to be able to do this, even at the not very advanced level that I'm at. I just love playing the clarinet, whatever I play, even scales and suchlike, and have recently bought a Leblanc Concerto II, which is an absolute delight to play, really exquisite. It's got such a beautiful tone that people even comment on it. Nice!
.....so if you've played the clarinet "in the olden days" and you're considering taking it up again, do not think that it's too late or that you're too old. It's never too late and you're never too old. Now's the time - always!
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2006-09-18 09:15
"Do you feel after having spent time away from playing clarinet and returning several years later to take it up again, you now have more maturity in your approach now to your playing and understanding of both the clarinet and the music you play than when you were younger?"
Yes, that about sums it up (having done it twice!). Each time I think I gave it up because I was stagnating. The rests gave me a fresh outlook, it seems, broke some of those bad habits I was stuck in. You forget what you think you sounded like and rediscover it with fresh ears - and make some corrections!
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