 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Fred
Date: 2000-10-22 20:48
I have grown curious over the months that I have frequented this site about what some of the posters do when they aren't doing clarinet. For those of you that have left school and ventured out into the world, what "in the world" do you do? And for those that didn't attempt to make music a profession, what brought you back or kept you in?
I'll start . . .
I played through high school and six years of college (incl. grad school) before I set my clarinet aside for other interests. Trained as a chemist, I worked in law enforcement related jobs including about six years in a crime lab doing "Quincy" kind of things. I entered industry and continued solving mysteries, though they were now process related and didn't involve any . . . well, unpleasant stuff.
After about a 25yr layoff, I was persuaded to pick it back up when my church orchestra needed some help putting the brass in its' place. It has been so easy and so much fun . . . what a pleasure it is to be playing again! I've bought two more clarinets since starting back - a metal Silver King which is a blast, and a Buffet Super Dynaction jazz Bb clarinet to go along with my old R-13 - one of the advantages of gainful employment!
This site has been the most wonderful resource imaginable. (Young folks, don't take this for granted. You are getting information here daily that many pro's weren't getting 25yrs ago.) I've come to consider many of you as friends though we've never met or corresponded. I hope you will take a few moments to fill in a few of the details behind your posting name. It's nice knowing you.
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Author: MIchael Kincaid
Date: 2000-10-22 22:11
Hi Fred, I'm a Physician Assistant--I've been in Internal Medicine for 17 years. I picked up my
clarinet after 25 years (last year) because I needed a hobby and I remembered how
much I loved playing the clarinet. Michael
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Author: Pam
Date: 2000-10-22 22:40
Hi Fred,
I'm much like the two of you so far. Away from the clarinet (for the most part) since I graduated from high school in '79. My church has an orchestra too and I remembered how much I enjoyed music in school, so I guess it was almost inevitable that I would eventually join. I started last December with some lessons again and now play for 2 services every Sunday. A plus -- now that I'm an adult, I can afford the R-13 that I'm sure my parents would never have sprung for.
Anyhow, my other life. I am a wife, homemaker, and work part-time in office work. The church is a big part of my life too. I recently joined our hand-bell choir as well. Addicted to music!
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Author: bob gardner
Date: 2000-10-23 00:19
I'm retired and living a great life with my wife of 40 year, our horses, dogs and cat. We are building a log house and doing all kind of crazy things. In my life I have never ever marched to the same dummer as all of my friends. This is one of the reasons i picked up the clarinet. i tried to play as a child and was really really bad. Now that i have the time and the money to do what i want; that i will do. One of the things in life that I would really like to do is to be a good musician.
I have been teaching myself for the past year and have enrolled in a college music program. Believe me it is a lot of work but doing something for oneself is good for the soul.
Not one of my friends play the clarinet. i wish that one or two did.' it would make my quest easier. But again I do this for me' because the challenge is worth it.
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Author: Ai Li
Date: 2000-10-23 00:50
I'm in IT by training, currently working on a parttime degree, working fulltime as a software engineer VB/SQL coding.
Played the clarinet in secondary school (high school) military band... 4 whole years. (We played everything from Jeremiah was a Bullfrom to This used to be my Playgound?!) Stopped when I graduated... since been busy with career, love, life and family not in that order.
I'm now finalizing my decision on which clarinet to buy, to start playing again. I've decided to go the whole hog and do what I wanted to then but never got round to: take the ABRSM exams and see how far I can go. This week, hopefully tomorrow, I'll be bringing home my brand new Selmer CL210 and start the joy... I don't plan to play in band or anything like that yet... I suppose hubby on the piano or guitar for now is enough company...
That's my story 8)
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Author: Ken Rasmussen
Date: 2000-10-23 04:03
I didn't play an instrument until I was 22, when I bought a clarinet in a pawn shop. I struggled with it for awhile, then put it away. I decided to sell it since I wasn't using it, so I took it in for repair so I could sell it easier. It played so much better that I started playing. I eventually started sitting in with the college band where I was the oldest and worst player. I played for years, didn't play for years, on and off. I was basically unhappy about my playing. I read music badly and couldn't play by ear at all. I eventually switched to playing by ear--which was very difficult for me, and now that is how I play. I like it a lot. It is much more rewarding for me. I just purchased a bass clarinet, and I'm quite excited about it. Oh yeah: I worked for 20 years in the bicycle trade, spent 6 years managing a kayak shop, now I work as a machinist, and repair bicycles and sell cockpit customizing materials for kayaks on the side.
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Author: Chris Hill
Date: 2000-10-23 14:58
I have a full-time orchestra job from September to may, and conduct my city's Municipal Band full-time from May to mid August. However, I follow the advice of my teachers, and do other non-musical things to keep my head on straight. I volunteer time for my church, working (or should I say playing?) as a youth leader and have been on several committees. I've also worked on a political campaign, play softball, and work out regularly. If there are any students reading this who are thinking of playing professionally, always remember that a performing job will not be enough to keep you feeling fulfilled and happy. It took me a few unhappy years to realize this.
Many adults are either continuing to play or are learning to play, and community bands are becoming more and more popular. Students: please don't give up your music when you graduate. Community bands and orchestras are a great place to make music and meet friends.
Chris
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2000-10-23 15:07
I started in fourth grade when my high-school-age cousin gave me lessons. I was switched to bass clarinet in sixth grade. In college, I played soprano in marching band but was able to sneak into the wind ensemble with my bass for one semester. My majors were math and chemical engineering.
In the real world, I have worked in the petroleum engineering field and am now working as a software developer. All along, I have been involved in community bands, playing my bass clarinet. Unlike many working people, I look forward to Mondays because our rehearsals are on Mondays. Band rehearsal may be the highlight of my week. I'll never be professional (unless you count getting paid to march in college), but I'll keep playing as long as I can.
You may be surprised to find that many of the non-professional musicians frequenting this bulletin board are technically oriented. Many are engineers and/or computer people such as myself. As a result, there can be some deep technical discussions of the physics of clarinets.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2000-10-23 15:16
Very well said Don [and all others], I'm a retired Chem Eng myself, but still do patent work for the U of Tulsa [Petroleum Abstracts] . Didn't we have a go-around on personal history not long back [?Mark et al]. I can come up with about 71 years of cl playing, still hanging in there!! Don
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Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2000-10-23 15:43
Sounds like a familiar senerio. I played in high school and college but then grad school, family, and career took its toll. After getting my last daughter through college - BFA in ballet performance - and before anyone returns home, I decided to take the clarinet out of moth balls because I had such fun when I used to play. It was in pretty poor shape after 25 years so I bought a new horn and found a professional teacher that could tolerate adults and have been having a lot of fun ever since. Through the years I have had many interesting jobs - National Institutes of Health, Brown University Medical School, professional furniture repair person and antique dealer (these go hand in hand), back to Federal service at the Centers for Disease Control and now a part time business making clarinet products in a "dot com" format. I find that I enjoy the diversity and friendship in the music world as opposed to my scientific endeavors, although I have found a very rewarding aspect of Public Health to administer - the New Born Screening Program which tests every baby born in this country for metabolic disease - e.g. PKU - for which there is immediate and effective medical treatment which forestalls mental retardation. However, if you stick around with a bunch of scientists day in and day out and you go crazy! - a good prerequisite for a clarinet player though!
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Author: Meri
Date: 2000-10-23 21:02
I am a college student, in 4th year, studying Philosophy and Cognitive Science. My (soon to be) two jobs are one as a tutor in a school near where I live (which starts this Friday, which I will be doing one day a week), and a market research interviewer, (yes, I am one of those people who calls you about doing surveys) my current position, which I work either three evenings during the week or two evenings and a weekend, depending on how I arrange my schedule the week before.
Besides work and school, (and the clarinet), I like to write, mostly non-fiction, but am involved in other aspects of music, in composition and arrangements.
Meri
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Author: Dee
Date: 2000-10-23 21:22
I played clarinet until I graduated from high school. Then spent the next 20+ years devoted to career (engineering) and family. Then my older daughter decided she wanted to be in band and selected the clarinet. That's when I resumed playing and have played fairly steadily for the last 8 years in various community bands.
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2000-10-23 21:50
I've been playing bass clarinet principally, and soprano clarinet and saxes also, since about the 8th grade. I've never stopped playing, but had to make the hard career choice at the end of high school (with a great deal of heartache and occasional regret!) to go into engineering rather than music. I've been employed since graduation from college 21 years ago as a Naval officer (submarines), and as a mechanical engineer in the defense and aerospace fields, but fortunately I've been able to stay reasonably busy as a part-time amateur and sometimes semi-pro (?) musician. I guess I made the right decision (seeing as how I've had steady, secure employment all my working life) ---- but there's this irresistible attraction to music that makes me wonder, what if?........................
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Author: Mario
Date: 2000-10-23 22:13
I am currently running a software Company doing some pretty neat things. This is the major commitment in my life at the moment. I have two other passions: Sailing and Music (centered on the clarinet).
I started learning the clarinet in Grade 8th (25 years ago) and undertook formal classical training for many years. I play Chamber music regularly and I have a small network of amateurs and semi-professional friends with whom I meet quite often. I am giving a small recital this coming Christmas in front of a group of friends. I will be playing "Rosita" by Guastavino and the "Victorian Kitchen Garden" by Reade.
I am fortunate enough to have access to "3" (unbelievable but true) excellent pianists, two fabulous singers, and recently to an outstanding string quartet.
My personal dream is as follows: Once I retire (young enough to have many years of healthy life left ahead of me), to resume my study of the clarinet full-time. I am already of a reasonible level and I am still improving slowly but surely. So, assuming 10 years of healthy life left, I can probably aspire to reach a high degree of mastery of my instrument, play many fine pieces, and maybe give real recitals in my communitee. Sort of a second career without the financial worries and the pressure to establish myself.
At the moment, I feel musically lonely and I have a strong desire to play with others. I would like to play the great work of the Chamber music repertoire where the clarinet figures prominently. Naturally, there are many sonatas,...,quintets out there in my sight. But there are many other outstanding pieces for wind ensembles (typically octets) that are simply wonderful. I often wonder why my concert band conductors of my youth never exposed us to this music. It would have been so simple to get together then when we were all available as students. Anyway!
Should there be a decent orchestra that would want me then, I would also love joining it. So, I have a lot of dreams becoming plans for the mid-term. In the meanwhile, I try to stay in shape, progress a little bit, and to learn well 4 pieces a year. Current program of learning includes a beethoven sonata ("Spring"), the Jenner sonata, Guastavino "Rosita", "Sheperd on the Rock", and the Brahms and Beethoven trio. I will be moving soon the quintet repertoire with my great newly found quartet (youppie!).
My two desert islands pieces: The two Brahms Sonatas which, for an amateur with lumpy practice habits, I can play in a half-decent fashion (good enought to provide joy to my small audience)
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Author: meredith
Date: 2000-10-24 04:59
I am afraid I am another scientist albeit agricultural science not engineering. I am currently doing post-doctoral work with the University of Sydney. Needless to say one can only handle so much science so music is an excellent diversion. I played clarinet for 5 years at high school, didn't have time during my undergraduate course, and pulled my clarinet out of retirement after 8 years when invited to play in a musical. I have since diverged into brass as well as our community band is a brass band. I do a little bit of clarinet teaching to keep my practice up. I love my clarinet and horn and would learn anything else just to be involved with music.
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Author: Andrea
Date: 2000-10-24 20:41
I played through high school, then thought I didn't have time.
I picked up again a few years ago and play with a community band now. I'm wishing for some lessons, but haven't found the time or the teacher.  We have a local university with a music program, so I'll start looking there when I find the time.
I'm another techie, of the software engineer variety.
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Author: Ashley
Date: 2000-10-24 23:39
I'd tell you my life story, but I dont have one yet. I'm 17. I'm a senior at a private catholic high school in central Iowa, and music is about the only thing I do.I quit volleyball after last year since the coach hated me, I dont long jump in track anymore cuz i hate the running part as well as the coach, and I dont do dance anymore cuz I didnt like the teacher. (think i have a problem with authority figures?) I've played since 5th grade when I started on Bb clar, switched to bass in 9th, started sax in 11th (tenor), and got my alto sax for marching band last summer. I go to a really small school, our marching band is less than 30. our director recruited me from colorguard this summer to be one one and only alto sax, so that the other girl who played alto could be drum major. I dont play piano at all, I need to learn but dont have time. I really want to start learning oboe, but i need to concentrate on Bb more. Hopefully I'll be able to get a clarinet of my own one of these days.. as the school one i'm using is horribe, and i've sort of forgotten how to play it I found a piece I'd like to play for solo contest on Bb, but unfortunately I wont be able to do it, as the rules are you can only play one solo per instrument and my director has had a Brahms piece picked out for me for about a year. Going to college at the University of Iowa (go hawks, dont tell me their football team sucks, i know that already
thats all, i told you my life was boring. i dont have one yet, thats what college is for.........
-ashley-
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Author: Susan
Date: 2000-10-25 04:33
I'm a health care professional in family practice working in a very rural area of the Ozark Mountains in Missouri.
I began playing the clarinet in the 7th grade. I played through high school and then put my clarinet away for many years. After twenty-five years I'm playing again. I now am playing the bass clarinet also. I started playing again to teach my daughter. The local school is so small that they don't have a band. My daughter is home schooled anyway, so we have extra time to play our clarinets everyday. There are no community bands here. It's over 100 miles to the closest music store. Thank goodness for the internet and mail order. I've found another mom and daughter who would like to learn to play, so they will be joining our little group soon. Who knows, maybe soon we will have our own little band.
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Author: Laura
Date: 2000-10-25 12:34
I played clarinet in high school and did fairly well, due to effort more so than ability. I played two more years in college and then put the clarinet in a closet. After more than 10 years I realized that just listening to music wasn't enough any more, so I've rescued my horn and joined a community band this fall. Things are coming back to me slowly. At first I couldn't even remember the fingerings! I'd like to take lessons now, but am having trouble finding a teacher on the south side of Atlanta.
I work as an assistant in a college library. I'm not a techie by any means, though I have a lot of techies in my family who all also played in bands.
I must say, this is an excellent resource. As a library person, I'm very impressed with the breadth of information here. I'm finding out all sorts of things no one ever told me when I was sloggin away in high school.
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Author: Lelia
Date: 2000-10-26 13:52
I'm not a techie either. I was a math avoider in school, though I loved geometry because I could see it. Music, with the structure of intervals and wavelengths, fascinates me, and reminds me a lot of geometry, because it's math I can hear.
As a kid, I took piano lessons, but never took private lessons on clarinet or recorder. I started clarinet at age 9 in a California public school band, quit after high school, began playing clarinet and recorder again in my forties, then added saxophones. This year I tried adding cornet and flute, but I'd need lessons to get anywhere on those. I'm an amateur.
In real life, if any, I'm recently semi-retired as a stained glass artist. I owned a small studio where I did restoration, original design and building. (More geometry!) Now I'm mostly a writer. (I highly recommend writing as a way to starve in the gutter, if anyone nourishes that aspiration.) As a movie critic, I'm a staff writer for _Scarlet Street: The Magazine of Mystery and Horror_. My weird fiction gets published here and there, now and then. Before I opened the stained glass studio, I worked as an investigative researcher in product liability, and before that, I taught English. I still do volunteer work as an ESL teacher.
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Author: Roger
Date: 2000-10-26 14:17
I am a lawyer and have been one since 1972. (JD Emory Univ). I work for an ordinance codification company in Tallahassee FL. This means I am an expert on local government law.
I started playing clarinet in the 4th grade (the public schools gave free lessons back then). The first clarinet I had was metal.
In the eighth grade I switched to tenor sax and stayed on sax until 1982. (I was in the all city band my senior year in hight school) In 1982 I joined my church orchestra and discovered clarinet was what as needed. So I dusted off the clarinet I had bought in 1978 and started playing. Eventually I bought an R13. I took clarinet lessons from Frank Kowalski (prof. of clarinet at FSU) and various grad students.
About 1998 I started playing bari sax more (I have proffessional model tenor and bari saxes) but am back on the clarinet. I also play bass clarinet. (The long layoff from soprano clarinet hurt me). I currently play in my church orchestra and the community band.
My wife developed ovarian cancer this past summer so I have not been playing as much as I would like to. Her chemo is once every three weeks. In addition my job involves travel (I have been as far west as AZ and as far north as MN, SD and ME) so that practice time can be limited.
What I lack in ability I make up in experience and effort but I suppose I that I am at best a fair player. (Oh yes playing sax got me in the ROTC band in college and I managed to get a commission without having to carry a rifle around every Monday.)
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Author: Jeff G.
Date: 2000-10-26 14:23
I'm a 40 year old new to playing the Clarinet, I am taking lessons. I have always loved the sound of a Clarinet, although I am partial to the jazz and swing side.(sorry I know most of the pro's here play classical). I found an old horn that plays well and decided to start. I am involved with a group that holds a monthly blues jam at which I often play guitar. There are a million guitarists but not many woodwind jammers. I figure in a few years I will be able to set in on the jam with the horn. I played trumpet in high school and was pretty good at it. As a solo practice instrument I found it un-interesting and I haven't played it since. I have so many hobies I have to plan my practice time, even taking my clarinet to work so I can practice if I have some down time. My lessons are going well and my teacher is very good (read "very demanding").
In my real life I work for a University. I am the director of an theatre handling everything from contract negociations to design(sets, lights etc.) and repair.
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Author: Willie
Date: 2000-10-26 19:43
I played in school then joined the Coast Guard. Though I tried to keep playing in the CG its was imposible because I made the mistake of getting trained and qualified for too much stuff which the CG took unfair advantage of. Though my rate was bos'ns mate, I did little of this. I was also engineer, navigater, signalman, quartermaster, radioman, corpsman, gunnery officer, ASW specialists, boarding officer and the list goes on. All wear more than hat in the CG. After a 20+ years of not playing, my daughter started band and I too started (again). This prompted my wife to get out her old flute (didn;t even know she played) and we all now play in two different community bands. Our son, 12 (YO!) just started on trombone ( a comprimise, he wanted drums) and its now VERY noisy at our house.
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Author: beejay
Date: 2000-10-26 22:52
When I was 19 or so and working as an apprentice journalist in England for very little money, I blew all my savings on a Boosey and Hawkes 1010, which I bought from a musician in the old Sid Philips band in England. (Anyone remember them?). I played New Orleans jazz in Sussex in southern England, and for a time made more money out of music than journalism, which isn't saying very much, since I believe my Dad was still paying the newspaper to train me. Took a boat to Buenos Aires in 1960, met a beautiful portena, sold the clarinet and took up the cello. But then moved to a newspaper in New York, and gave up music altogether when it folded and I joined a wire service. I spent more than 20 years in various news bureaus in Europe, and then joined a newspaper in Paris 14 years ago, where I now cover European Union affairs. About four years ago, the beautiful (and wise) portena frog-marched me into a music store and made me buy a clarinet, since I kept looking at the darned things in store windows and telling her what an a good antidote a horn would make to my stressful life. I started by playing along with my old jazz records, but then suddenly fell in love with Mozart. I began to learn how to read music instead of playing by ear, found a pianist who was willing to put up with my dreadful early attempts at reading and then discovered a retired French conservatory teacher who has been giving me lessons for the past 18 months. He has been a model or patience and guidance, prompting me first to buy a Buffet RC and then to devote a great deal of time to playing scales fluently. Today I played an arrangement of the Mozart basset horn concerto with a superb pianist, which was one of the most satisfying things I have done in ages. One of the most impractical things I have done in my life was to order a basset horn since I want to play Mozart on the instrument that he loved so much. Since I work long and irregular hours, I fit in practice sessions whenever I have a spare moment and try to play as much music as possible with like-minded amateurs. My ambition is to play well enough by the time I retire four or five years from now to be able to join a good amateur orchestra or chamber group. Funny thing is that now I've learned to read music, still rather hesitantly, I can no longer play by ear as well as I used to. I get a lot of ideas and inspiration from reading this bulletin board, and consider a lot of of you far-flung contributors as kindred spirits.
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Author: Gavin
Date: 2000-10-27 07:35
How absolutely wonderful to read about the "other lives" of the above. I am another person who has a non-music career. I am fairly new to visiting this board and to the klarinet list, though, and haven't posted terribly much yet - I'm afraid of saying something foolish I guess. As I've enjoyed reading your stories so much, here is mine:-
I am another lawyer and work as a solicitor in Australia. I am a partner in a small capital city law firm. I mostly do disciplinary and criminal law work with a smattering of other stuff, mostly personal injury law. I graduated in law from university in 1994 and also have an arts degree.
I'm privileged to be able to play clarinet in community orchestra that plays good quality repetoire and I also play in a pit orchestra for an amateur theatre group from time to time with my wife who plays violin and viola. At the moment its Pirates of Penzance (a more boring clarinet part you will never come accross, but you should see the viola part). In orchestra its Beethoven 9 at the moment (a longer piece you will never ...).
Whilst studying law, I practised clarinet probably more hours than I sat reading the law and took lessons from Paul Dean, principal clarinet of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. I also played in the Queensland Youth Orchestra for 2 years.
My wife and I also have a group of friends who regularly meet for sunday dinner and form a clarinet quintet, just for fun. Whilst not up to concert standard, we have had hours of fun reading the Brahms, Weber, Mozart, and a few other quintets. The members of the group consist of myself (a lawyer), my wife (a music teacher), a pathologist, a professor of general practice (Doctor), and a professional orchestral violist (who plays violin with us).
For me, though, being part of an orchestra is such a BIG BUZZ, and something you do not get at work. I'm lucky in that I have played in performances of many of the pieces I once thought it would be great to play in such as Schostakovich 9 (as 1st clar this year - what a great part for clarinet!), Mahler 5 and Brahms 1, just to name 3 of the highlights for me. I was once a little frustrated about not having studied music, but I am now a peace with myself in the knowledge that I would have never got an elusive orchestral job, so I made the right choices in pursuing another career and keeping up clarinet part time.
Besides clarinet, I'm soon to become a dad, so no doubt, I will not be getting in the practice that I really need in the months to come!
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-10-27 11:56
Gavin wrote:
> Besides clarinet, I'm soon to become a dad, so no doubt, I will
> not be getting in the practice that I really need in the months
> to come!
Congratulations to you and your wife!
You may find that your practice hours are just a little more, ah, irregular :^)
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