 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Copland
Date: 2008-08-11 13:42
Hello!
In the discussions involving Benny Goodman's equipment, it almost unfailingly comes up that he used poor quality equipment, especially when he was beginning, and that this helped him reach the level that he did.
I was just wondering if people thought it beneficial to practice on such instruments. It seems to me that this is a poor idea because you'd get used to making adjustments that simply are unnecessary on better maintained instruments, and would impede technique on a better instrument. I'm obviously no expert though...
What do you guys think?
Post Edited (2008-08-11 13:43)
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Author: feadog79
Date: 2008-08-11 13:49
I definitely do not think it's a good idea to practice on inferior equipment. In most cases, students simply form bad habits by trying to work around a poor instrument/setup. There are those who are gifted enough to excel even when playing "junk," but it's definitely not the norm.
JW
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2008-08-11 14:25
I started on a junker and there are some pros to the idea in that you don't really 'trust' the instrument to work for you.
Generally, however, I would not encourage it for beginners. It may be beneficial for intermediate students to maladjust some pads/keys as an exercise, though. Covering the register tube with tape is a good exercise for clarion voicing, for example.
FWIW, I don't think that it helped me in the long run, though. It probably slowed my progress. If the instrument is bad then even the best player is limited by it. This ultimately makes your goal lower than it should be because certain things are just not possible.
Post Edited (2008-08-11 15:14)
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2008-08-11 17:19
As long as the pads cover and the instrument is a decent student model, it doesn't much matter what a beginner starts on. Arnold Jacobs, the great Chicago Symphony tuba player, said that he always took a student's instrument and played it, beautifully, with the student's mouthpiece, to show that the problems were with the student, not the instrument.
On the other hand, a student of the great cellist Zara Nelsova told me that she thought everyone should play for a while on a dreadful ("cigar box") cello, just to appreciate how good a real one is.
Ken Shaw
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2008-08-11 17:38
I'm currently unlearning a pretty significant set of bad habits that I'd picked up over the years. I'm becoming very aware of what makes me do certain things on the instrument. There are a couple keys out of adjustment on my instrument and a couple pads that don't seal properly, and it's on those notes that I'm seeing myself want to compensate... the same compensation that created the bad habits I'm getting rid of. Pushing extra hard on the keys, biting, changing embouchre for certain notes, I'm finding, can all be exacerbated by an instrument in poor repair.
I'll be seeing a tech this week.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: Copland
Date: 2008-08-11 22:33
Yeah, I guess my take on the situation is pretty standard.
BTW, I don't really consider myself a beginner (I've been playing for almost 7 years), but I think it would be exceptionally frustrating for a beginner to try to learn on a badly maintained horn. I know that personally I probably wouldn't have stuck with the clarinet if I hadn't had a good horn from the beginning.
Jack White (of the rock band The White Stripes) uses very old equipment that is particularly prone to failure because he says it keeps him on his toes and improves his playing on quality instruments. I took this approach when I learned guitar (or at least used the idea to justify buying a poor quality guitar ), and I think that once I moved to a better guitar the improvement was pretty much instantaneous.
Perhaps it's different, though, with wind instruments, given that they are typically much more complex mechanically than guitars.
Just some food for thought, I wasn't really trying to make any points.
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Author: NorbertTheParrot
Date: 2008-08-12 08:19
I think there is a world of difference between an inexpensive instrument and a badly-maintained one.
I have no doubt that Arnold Jacobs could play beautifully on an inexpensive tuba, but I very much doubt he could play beautifully - or at all - on a tuba with leaks and sticky valves. To take a more extreme case, no trombone player on earth can play a trombone with a dented slide.
Similarly, I can't see any benefit in practising on a leaky clarinet. Practising on an inexpensive (but fully functional) one might possibly have some benefits in improving tone quality and intonation, but I think there are dangers in learning compensation techniques that aren't needed on a good instrument.
Post Edited (2008-08-12 08:19)
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Author: feadog79
Date: 2008-08-12 11:43
Norbert, you said exactly what I meant (poor condition, not inexpensive quality). I agree completely...if an instrument is not completely functional, how can that really be of any help?
JW
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