 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tim
Date: 2000-09-07 17:53
I just had my first lesson with my new teacher today, and he was amazing! He started by getting me to play something out of the Klose book and after eight bars he told me two things that I was *fundamentally* doing wrong, and have been doing wrong for the last four years or so. Words cannot describe how pleased I am.
He did tell me, though, that he's going to teach me with the single-lip embouchure, even though I've been doing double-lip for a while now and was just starting to get somewhere with it. I did consider secretly practising it, but I thought that it probably wouldn't be worth it.
The trouble is, there seems to be so much conflicting information on how to play the clarinet. So my question is, is there a right way? Or several different ones that are all acceptable?
Tim
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Author: beejay
Date: 2000-09-07 19:59
I had the same problem with my teacher, who insisted I had to change from double to single lip. I did so, never felt comfortable with it, and went back to double, and I'm now prepared to stand my ground on this. It just feels right for me. But this is such a personal thing. I suggest you read Keith Stein's book on the subject.
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Author: Mark Charette, Webmaster
Date: 2000-09-07 20:00
Tim wrote:
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The trouble is, there seems to be so much conflicting information on how to play the clarinet. So my question is, is there a right way? Or several different ones that are all acceptable?
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I know that piano teachers & violin teachers vary in their approaches & methods - I'd assume that clarinet is the same way. Each teacher will have something different to offer, even if it's a negative offering ("there's no way <b>I'd</b> ever do it that way!" is a valid learning experience!).
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Author: Dee
Date: 2000-09-07 22:48
I believe that there can be several right ways. However each teacher is going to have his own preferred approach that he will consider to be right. At this point in your development, it would probably pay to consistently follow your teacher's guidance. This way you establish a good quality basic technique.
Later on, you can experiment some more. There are times where a technique that is normally considered "wrong" might be the only way to play a certain passage. For example, individual notes not tied or slurred from any other notes are normally started by tonguing. This is the "right" way. To start them with your tongue already off the reed and just using the starting of the air stream is "wrong." However, there was a passage in a piece where the band conductor did not want an audible start to the note but rather wanted it to grow out of nothing. So we had to start the note the "wrong" way as nothing else gave the proper effect.
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Author: Tim
Date: 2000-09-08 18:01
Dee wrote:
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I believe that there can be several right ways. However each teacher is going to have his own preferred approach that he will consider to be right. At this point in your development, it would probably pay to consistently follow your teacher's guidance. This way you establish a good quality basic technique.
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Thank you everyone for your sound advice, especially Dee. I can see that it is too early for me to worry about these things, so if my teacher can teach me to play the way he does, and he is certainly very good, then there is nothing wrong with that for now. If I want to do something different then it is best not to for now because I have no guidance for doing something on my own and it is likely to be counter-productive.
The thing that gets me is that so many musicians, and not only clarinettists, will say "you do it this way" rather than "there are a number of ways you could do this but this way would be best for now".
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Author: Tim2
Date: 2000-09-11 00:02
When a musician says "It should be done this way." what that musician is saying many times is that "This is what works for me." People are only going to teach what works for them.
That's where differences in performing technique come in.
As you have already stated, learning everything you can from your teacher that you can is what you should do. Know that they are all going to be different, should you get other teachers. But learn everything you can from all of them. Find what works for you. Learn all you can.
Enjoy!
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