 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Nld7631
Date: 2011-02-27 21:09
Hey guys. I'm new here. I'm a high school student, and will be auditioning for music schools next fall. I play bass clarinet and soprano Bb clarinet. My skill Im just as good on bass as I am on soprano. I've been taking private lessons on both for about a year now. I'm having a problem though, I don't know which instrument to major on in college. I'm aware that many colleges don take bass clarinets but all the schools I've been looking at do. I know that a good bass clarinet is around $9,000 and I'm ok paying that price. My dilemma is which instrument should i major on? Thanks
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2011-02-27 21:24
Except in a military band, no one plays just bass. In orchestras, the bass player plays soprano most of the time.
I'm not sure any school offers a bass major.
It's an easier jump down than up.
I think your mission is to perfect your soprano playing and have bass as a useful addition.
There's plenty of time to decide. Four years in college will change your world.
I'm sure Ed Palanker, our resident bass specialist, will have more to say.
Ken Shaw
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Author: clarinettist1104
Date: 2011-02-27 22:29
I think a good A clarinet should come before your own bass, but that's just my opinion.
-alex
Post Edited (2011-02-27 22:55)
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Author: Clarimeister
Date: 2011-02-27 23:05
As Dr. Barcellona at Cal State Long Beach tells not only his flute players but the clarinet and sax players, that you dont just play Bb or just bass. You play Bb, A, Eb, Bass, etc. Flute you play piccolo, alto, bass. It's great that you are great at both of them. I would start learning some Eb as well. It'll help your high register on Bb so much. I second what Ken is playing. I'm one of the very few at CSULB that is taking advantage of opportunities to play all the main auxiliary instruments in different groups - Bb, A, Bass, Eb, and learning to transpose from C clarinet parts. It's great.
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Author: USFBassClarinet
Date: 2011-02-27 23:07
Re Ken, there are schools that offer just bass clarinet majors, USF is an example. Most of them still require a significant amount of Bb playing though. You don't just play bass clarinet even if you are a bass clarinet major.
I don't think it matters much if you are a bass clarinet or clarinet major. Play both either way. In fact, add an Eb and a A to your repertoire of instruments in college as well. I have been doing a gig where I was playing just bass clarinet for a community group that paid, but not much. Turns out next series they need a 2nd clarinet because the normal guy is going to be out. Now I am getting paid to play 2nd when otherwise I wouldn't get paid at all because there is no bass clarinet on this series.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2011-02-28 03:26
I'm a bass clarinets in the Baltimore Symphony and taught clarinet and bass clarinet at the Peabody Conservatory for 19 years. Peabody would not accept a bass clarinet major, not many schools do, especially if the clarinet teacher is not a specialist on it as well as on clarinet. The program we had when I taught there, it no longer exists now that I retired, was that any student that wanted to was aloud to take bass clarinet lessons in audition to clarinet lessons.
As a bass clarinetist in a major orchestra I am called upon to play a good deal of regular clarinet. Many parts are bass and third, or bass and fourth as well as having to play second clarinet on many occasions. In orchestra's that only have three clarinets, we have four, the bass clarinetists is often also the assistant first clarinetist as well. I suggest you major on clarinet and "minor" on bass unless you're interested in being a bass clarinet soloist, good luck to making a living doing that. I majored on clarinet, took bass clarinet lessons for one year and practiced all the bass orchestral literature as well as clarinet and Eb literature as well. ESP
http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2011-02-28 05:39
I'm effectively a bass/contrabass major at the moment, in that they're the only clarinets I'm playing on my graduation recital, and 90% of what I play in a given week. The program I'm in just says "clarinet", though, and I play whatever the situation calls for. I consider it a "clarinet family" major. I just gravitate more toward the low end.
So, depending on the situation, you may be able to be a bass "specialist," play a lot of bass, maybe even play more bass than you do soprano, perhaps very little soprano at all. I wouldn't expect to play bass only, though, nor to not play a significant measure of Bb. Especially in your early years. Graduate degrees or even toward the end of your bachelor, you may have a bit more leeway to call yourself a "bass clarinetist" primarily.
If you want it to feel like you're a bass major, look at it the opposite way as the general population... instead of looking at a piece of lit and asking "does this call for bass," look at it and ask "does this call for soprano?" Treat the soprano as your double, that it's good to know how to play because pieces with bass call for it once in a while, and sometimes there'll be a soprano-only gig and you don't want to close that door without reason. Just as a clarinet major might play a bass clarinet solo once in a while, you might take on the Mozart or Poulenc for variety.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: Chetclarinet
Date: 2011-02-28 13:12
The University of Houston Moores School of Music accepts bass clarinet music majors. All bass majors are required to learn the clarinet also. I am on the Moores School of Music clarinet faculty and am a clarinetist/bass clarinetist with the Houston Ballet Orchestra. While at the Eastman School of Music, I studied clarinet with Stanley Hasty and bass clarinet with William Osseck. I have made a good living playing both instruments professionally over the past 45 years!Versatillity is the name of the game these days for clarinetists.
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