 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Keil
Date: 2000-06-15 11:26
My thing is this, once you do secure that job with a top notch symphony orchestra you'll probably be there until you die or decide to retire. This is beneficial for you yet harmful to the new aspiring clarinetist. Take Stanley Drucker for instance, playing in the NY phil since he was 19 or something like that... he's got longevity and he's also taking up a really cushy job for the aspiring clarinetist... All i have to say is "Work It Mr. Drucker!!" :-) Unfortunately most of us aren't the clarinet prodigy's that we aspire to be so to secure a job like that will take much time, patience, and practice. I like the idea of majoring in clarinet performance then going to med school... that's my plan... I'm going to take the required courses such as chemistry and biology so that when i'm done with my 4 years and have my degree in clarinet performance i can head into hopefully Johns Hopkins and train to become a Cardio-Thoracic surgeon, granted i won't have much time to play after that, i believe that once retirement comes i will take up residence in a local orchestra and teach lessons on the side...hey... it never hurts to have a plan!
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Author: paul
Date: 2000-06-15 15:01
Keil:
Your dream of having it both ways isn't that much of a pipe dream, but you're right, you will need to work your whole life away to achieve your goals. [There is a less polite phrase that would be much more blunt, but you get the idea.] However, don't despair because I listen to live jazz (brash and baudy New Orleans style) from a regional group called "The Band Aids" here in Central/South Texas. I've had the pleasure of talking with their clarinetist after their performance at the San Antonio Fiesta Taste of New Orleans bash that they have every Spring. This is one of the few clarinet performances that I don't have do drag my wife to because she loves the party atmosphere and the hot jazz, too. These folks are all retired MD doctors - every single one of them. Since their financial security is set, they can now take the time to persue their second passion in life: music.
I've also had the pleasure of sitting next to a First Chair All State high school clarinetist who is truly gifted. He too wanted to go to premed and med school and not give up his clarinet. I lost track of the young man after he graduated from high school, but the last time I heard, he was on the Dean's List (for academic excellence) at a prestigous college. He still has his R-13 next to him, too.
So, go for it. Use the clarinet as a source of relaxation and inexpensive fun while you are working very hard at your professional dream. Who knows? Perhaps some day you too can lead a band performing hot jazz just for the fun of it.
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Author: Mario
Date: 2000-06-15 18:08
Interesting.
For some weird reason, I detect a pattern whereby medical doctors and serious amateur clarinetists seem to go hand in hand. I keep hearing about this combination. I personally know a dozen of so medical professional who are outstanding clarinetists. I wonder why?
Couple of years back, in Columbus (ClarinetFest 98), Eddie Daniels gave a lecture on how to practice. At the end of his lecture, he invited "an old friend of his", Ron Odrich, to come up stage and play duet. Ron Odrich was familiar to me since I have several of his excellent vinyls and CD. I always considered him as a great mainstream jazz player (like Ken Peploski).
They played together; outstanding. And then Eddie told us that Ron was actually one of the leading peridontist in the US. Actually, Ron has even published in the "ICA clarinet", talking about various aspects of the mouth, etc. I was simply flabergasted to see a top doctor and a top jazz clarinetist all in one.
A few days later (still at Clarinet Fest 98), I has an interesting conversation with somebody who informed me that he had just played Rossini "Introduction, Theme and Variations" with the Seattle Symphony. Guess what! he was also a busy medical doctor.
Dr. Wilson retired (a regular contributor to the ICA "The Clarinet") is the former president of the San Diego Clarinet Society, and is an active jazz clarinetist.
Etc. Etc. Etc. Is there a pattern?
At any rate, these accomplished gentlemen have shattered a long held delusion of mine, namely that I had to choose between behing an excellent software professional or being an excellent clarinetist. They are the living proof that you can be both... I guess the rest of us are simply lazy.
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Author: paul
Date: 2000-06-15 21:55
Mario:
I really hate to say this, but you are probably right...
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Author: connie
Date: 2000-06-15 23:20
My take on it is, that people who are single-mindedly focused (might we say "obsessed"?) can achieve a great deal. Then there are those of us who got distracted along the way. Even if I had enough semesters in college to major in music and still satisfy pre-med requirements, it would have been difficult to do any serious playing during med school and residency because of the work hours involved. Unfortunately, it took me 20 years to realize how much I needed the musical outlet, and by then it was too late to pursue a professional musical career. So for me, retirement will have to be my chance to concentrate on the music...still several years away, I guess.
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Author: Lelia
Date: 2000-06-16 13:26
I think there may be a correlation between doctors, other professions that require advanced education, and music in general, not just clarinet. My husband, a good amateur violinist (but not a doctor), has noticed that a lot of the better amateur stringed instrument players in the Washington, D. C. area are doctors and lawyers. I suspect two different things are going on here. First, people with the drive to stay with school that long probably have good self-discipline, necessary for mastering an instrument. Second, they end up with a good income and can afford to buy high-quality instruments and other equipment. I think that owning good equipment that's fun to use (and fondle and gloat over...) gives people an incentive to practice a lot.
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Author: Bob Gardner
Date: 2000-06-16 13:47
I think that owning good equipment that's fun
to use (and fondle and gloat over...) gives people an incentive to practice a lot.
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If i don't practice after all the toys I have purchased my wife would kill me and give everything away. As long as i play everyday she doesn;t say much. Just closes the door.
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Author: Mario
Date: 2000-06-16 15:27
On the subject of fundling your instruments, I like to hug my horns, and even give them a little kiss when the music is particularly good.
My wife looks at me with worried eyes.
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Author: Fred
Date: 2000-06-16 17:19
Our school systems create a love of music in a great many young people. Many, unprepared for life decisions as they are, decide that they should major in something they already love . . . MUSIC !! For many, that is a poor decision.
I enjoyed (and still do) playing the clarinet. I was a pretty decent 2nd part player at the university level, but could probably have never been a soloist . . . just not enough raw talent to develop. Players like me that major in music end up being music teachers, which is great if that is what we wanted to do. But running a band program and enjoying music are two distinctly different things. Fortunately for me, my dad was hardheaded and told me to enjoy clarinet and band as much as I wanted, but major in something else. I'm a chemist (Greetings, bro. Don!), and am glad that I'm not a band director. NOTE: THIS IS NOT A PUT-DOWN OF BAND DIRECTORS - I APPRECIATE THEM AND THANK GOD FOR THEM!! I JUST WOULD NOT HAVE HAD THE PATIENCE FOR IT, AND WOULD PROBABLY HAVE BEEN THE SUBJECT OF SOME BAD BAND DIRECTOR POSTINGS ON SNEEZY!!
The bottom line is that a music degree is only a major plus for those wanting to teach or those talented enough to earn a living in performance. The rest of us can enjoy our music with needing to squeeze a paycheck out of it.
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Author: paul
Date: 2000-06-16 17:22
My wife simply doesn't "get it" when I come bursting out of my practice room, beaming ear-to-ear, showing her the latest fingering scheme I cooked up. She really hates it when I then volunteer to play that previously nasty run for her right then and there. However, she gets a good laugh when I screw it up and can't figure out why I can't get it right. To be fair, she usually abruptly cuts into the room when I'm practicing to file something in the cabinet right next to me. She says "Oops, I didn't know you were practicing. Excuse me, but this won't take but just a minute." Right, sure. Gee, ain't married life just grand?
Now, if I could recapture that intense focus that I had years ago. I fetched an Engineering degree and a Master's degree while working more than full time when I was single, but now I can't even get one octave of scales out as a rank amateur. What happened? Those of you folks who have a busy and tightly interknit marriage and family understand exactly what happened.
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Author: Bob Gardner
Date: 2000-06-16 18:05
Don't you love it when you are playing something like--Summertime--and she walks into to room and you say--how does that sound dear? and she says--I wasn't listening.--Give me a break--she has perfect hearing and I'm half deaf--what you say.
You got to love them--after all they put up with boys having toys.
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Author: Mario
Date: 2000-06-16 18:26
Our world is filled with music played by excellent pervasive, readily available, and easy to do. They have difficulty understanding the hard work required to become a proficient player. They do not understand the process of mastering a piece.
On top of that, the human ear is fully capable, without training, to detect that something is wrong in the music. So, people listening to anything than a perfect performance will quickly get annoyed and critical (especially since they assume it is easy, like on the radio all the time).
I for one HAVE NOT PLAYED IN FRONT ON NON-MUSICIANS FOR YEARS. I am often asked to play something in, says for the Chistman party (I am the Pres. of my Company - folks are quite intrigued by my passion for music and constantly request that I play). I simply refuse. Not only the set-up is usually not ideal for my kind of music (I play chamber music - you do not do that on the cruise organized for your Users' Group), not only my kind of music is not popular, but I make mistakes. My musician friends appreciate an move one. The general populace chuckles and berate you.
My wife was quite annoyed with my constant practicing a few years ago, and often critizised quite brutally. I remember for instance the hard work required to get the fast run ending on a high A in the final of the Weber Grand Duo Concertant. This is a difficult passage for even the very best, and it took me a few months to get the run nice and bubbly, with a high A full of color and in tune. She simply could not stand it and thought something was wrong with me, etc. (I also kept listening to it on CD at the time - sounds so easy played by Richard Stoltzman...).
Then she started learning the piano, and realized how difficult it is to play music. She had revisited her opinion of my playing and actually admitted recently that she tought I was quite good...
A few weeks ago, I posted a comment on sex ranking 9.3 on the scale of pleasure, with music ranking just behind at 9.2. As you get out of your practice room "real happy", your wife senses that something special took place. Women are sensitive to that and sometimes resent their husbands having some deep personal experience without their involvment. Essentially, they get jealous of this quality time that excludes them and they react accordingly.
Tough, but that's life.
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Author: Sara
Date: 2000-06-17 03:43
I never thought of being able to major in music and still go for med school. Ever since I was about 8 I always wanted to be a doctor, and then a little less than three years ago, I discovered music and the clarinet and naturally fell in love with it, but I still am holding fast to that dream with wearing that white coat and helping little kids out of sickness. ithought that after high school I would have to almost drop clarinet completely and work toward a chemistry degree or some other science in order to get me into med school and go for that life-long dream. Keil, that plan of yours sounds like something i could try, but don't you have to do twice the number of classes, or something?
Sara
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Author: Jessica
Date: 2000-06-17 21:53
To qualify for med school, all you need is a certain number of courses in the science area, a college diploma, and an MCAT score. It is my understanding that music majors have one of the highest acceptance rates to medical school. I think that is because sitting in a practice room all day and sitting in a lab all day are both feats that are insufferable for ordinary humans. Musicians and doctors both need high degrees of patience to be successful.
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Author: Tim2
Date: 2000-06-19 03:33
What a great thread. I am a computer programmer. I used to teach. Unfortunately, I had not the patience for all the shenanegans that went on, not only with the kids, but with the adults in the school board. I did not make a good teacher in some respects.
I put away the clarinet for 15 years in revellion, frustration, loaning it to another who was going to college. Loaning it to my neice after that till she exited high school. Got it back and had a chance to play for something, Had to work things back up and it was and is wonderful now. I take pride in my playing. I missed so much through those years.
Mario, I understand what you say between you and your wife. My wife has a hard time with some of the music I play (Martino "Set for Clarinet" middle movement) But I bought that Moenig barrel a few months ago and the sound is much better to her, and to me. She too started learning piano but it was so frustrating for her. She asks me what I was playing occasionally.
I don't know about doctors and lawyers being clarinetists, but surely there are a lot of math and engineering people on this board.
I could not live without music, it needs to be more than just listening to CDs or the radio, it has to be from one's self, the heart, the lungs, the energy and emotion, it is one's self.
By the way, I have a math and music degree. 5 years. The music was way tougher.
As for waiting until I'm retired, I'm not going to. I'm playing now, sporadically but I'm keeping it up.
And Mark, I didn't get a chance to do the Bernstein last year like I wanted but it's going to happen towards the end of summer, September. All those rhythms have come. Your son was right. One needs to feel those last measures. Thank you. Hope he's well.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-06-19 15:24
Tim2 wrote:
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Your son was right. One needs to feel those last measures. Thank you. Hope he's well.
--------
He is. Thanks for asking. You can reach him right now at home at stephen@sneezy.org .
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