 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: SavvyClarinet
Date: 2007-07-07 01:49
I know I'm not the only one who has their "lucky" rituals or ocd quirks they have to do when practicing or performing the clarinet. Anyone want to share their habits, such as saving lucky reeds, playing pieces a certain number of times, etc?
Here's mine: I've never thrown away any of my reeds (I keep them in a box), before All State tryouts, I have to practice the etudes three times (or multiples of three, like 6 or 9), and I have to swab my clarinet nine times before I put it away. Oh, and sometimes when I'm feeling really nervous, I have to touch each section of my horn once for good luck. Lastly, I always sign up to try out 2nd for All State tryouts.
Any rituals you wish to share?
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Author: JJAlbrecht
Date: 2007-07-07 01:55
About the only OCD ritual I have is to practice my music regularly.
Jeff
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Author: Neal Raskin
Date: 2007-07-07 04:22
A couple summers ago, I took part in the Minnesota Orchestra's Sommerfest Institute. Basically a 2-day camp for aspiring professional musicians. Anyway, one of the speakers that presented told us that getting into a bunch of specific rituals such as instrument adjustment, swabbing, doing push-ups etc, could potentially lead to your demise.
Maybe one day you are going through your "ritual" before the audition or concert, and you forget one of your "tasks." You remember right before you go on, and then your mind subconsciously looses track of what is actually important, the music. This might cause you to loose focus right when you need it.
So...moral of this story. Don't "lock" yourself in to a set of specific rituals because it might cause you to loose focus.
This is not to say that everyone does naturally have a way that they put the reed on, swab the horn, etc.
My habit is that I polish my keys about once a week to keep them shining. I like my silver polish! ![[wink]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie3.gif)
...edit: i use a polishing cloth to clear away smudges. sorry for the confusion.
NMR
www.youtube.com/nmraskin
www.musicedforall.com
Post Edited (2007-12-21 05:01)
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2007-07-08 05:38
I can think of one thing that I do that would be considered "odd" by clarinetists. While assembling my clarinet, I twist and push all the joints into place EXCEPT for the mouthpiece. For some reason, I always just align the mouthpiece correctly, then just push it straight on without twisting. Don't know why I do it, but I find that I can't bring myself to twist it on like all the other pieces onto cork.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Detru Cofidin
Date: 2007-07-08 07:31
I disagree with neal. Your subconscious mind is like a trained dog. You can tell it at any time to change, and it will.
You can lock yourself into any routine and it may help you, or hinder you, only based on what you believe those habits do for you, but the correct way to go about the whole thing is to "know" that everything you have done in your practice is right under your nose, at reach, at any time. Professional musicians have habits, but the real professionals have a sort of improv way of handling incidents as they happen. If something goes wrong, they know how to navigate themselves out of it with flying colors
Nicholas Arend
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Author: claritoot26
Date: 2007-07-08 13:11
neal,
I hope you're not using actual silver polish on your keys. I read somewhere that's not recommended for instruments. maybe there's a thread on it.
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