 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: DLE
Date: 2001-03-02 12:56
Always, my worst case scenario is if I don't put on a good performance, because something goes wrong which I can't fix, no matter how hard I try.
This happened to me 2 days ago, during one of the heats in the National Chamber Competition. Our clarinet quintet was due on, and I was playing Bass.
Just before the performance, I found a leak in the clarinet - the cork at the bottom had come off, and the A-Key was playing up. So, in desperation I turned to the group leader (A Clarinet teacher) for help and THERE WAS NOTHING THAT HE COULD DO!!!!!
So I had to try and play through the most degrading 10-15 minutes of my life....
If I were to ask the board members to spill out their worst case scenarios, would they be worse than mine?
On a different note - do the experts think that the leak was the direct cause of my inability to play any low chalmeau(sp) notes that day? - or not?
I hope to hear some detailed descriptions pour in now...
DLE.
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Author: Steve F.
Date: 2001-03-02 13:27
I think I may be able to top that. I was playing in a chamber group at my church for the big Christmas Eve service. We had a couple of rehearsals, and the church music director was worried about losing the parts, so he kept them and said the appropriate parts would be up on our music stands when it was our turn to play. Well, of course when I got there, I had a stand, just no music. So I stood there like an idiot with my instrument in my mouth and making appropriate finger movements, but not playing a thing. I was fuming. I never went back.
From your description of the problem you had it is difficult to figure out what your problem was. Which "A" key are you talking about? I repair woodwind instruments, and I can tell you that in general, the higher the leak is on the body of the instrument, the more disastrous the consequences. If the leak was on the second space A on the staff, you certainly would have been miserable.
Sorry for your troubles.
Steve F.
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Author: William
Date: 2001-03-02 15:33
I remember my first trip to our state's music festival as a class A soloist playing Weber's CONCERTINO. I was a bit nervous because this was my first year playing in class A and I was scheduled to play for judge Himmie Voxman, the man who wrote the Rubank Clarinet Advanced Method that I was currently studying with my private teacher. I entered the room, tuned, adjusted my music stand, received the nod to begin, and started to play. All was going well until I turned the page and got half-way through the legato triplet section and the low C/F pad of my clarinet fell onto the floor. I stopped, picked it up and put it back it place and re-started. Soon, it fell out again, at which Dr. Voxman asked me if I had a match. "No, too young to smoke." "Anyone else have a match?" No luck, no smokers in the room. "Gum?" "No--I'm not supposed to chew gum while I am playing, sir." Mr. Voxman then suggested that I wet the back of the pad and perhaps it would hold until I finished. "OK." Pad back in place, I proceeded, once more, to perform. Disaster again!!! Out fell the pad!! So the rest of the solo was pretty much, play about twelve measures, stop, pick up and reset the pad, start, stop, start, stop, start.........etc. Dr. Voxman and the audience in the room remained silent and practiced good audience behavior throughout this most embarrasing performance and rewarded me with a polite, but enthusiastic applause, usually reserved for the last person to finish the race. I bowed nervously and walked back to Dr. Voxman and learned, what so many other of his students through the years also relate, that he is one of the kindest and most supportive teachers you could ever meet--anywhere! He smiled, thanked me for my performance, suggested a few things, offered his regrets for my clarinet pad problems, and awarded me a first division rating. Many years later, at the start of my second-to-last year of teaching, a sixth-grade beginning band student named Jimmy Voxman entered my band room with a Noble wood clarinet which he said his granfather had given him. After a few routine, "getting to know your students" questions, he said, "My grandfather has a music building named after him." To make my already too-long story shorter, "grandpa" Himmie attended his grandson's (and my last as a teacher) Spring Concert and thanked me, once again, for a good performance and wished me well in retirement. Sometimes, diasters can have happy endings. Hope you enjoyed my cyberstory and as always, Good Clarineting!!!!!!!!
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2001-03-02 19:14
DLE -
Strangely enough, after a few years, it changes from a degrading experience to a "war story" -- "can you top this"?
One of the things you learn from experience is to be prepared for small disasters. For example, you should always keep a couple of rubber bands and a small box of wooden matches in a plastic sandwich bag tucked in the music pouch of your case cover. (Don't keep them inside the case, since the sulfur in the rubber bands causes tarnshing of silver plated keys.) That way, when a spring breaks, you can use the rubber bands. If it's trouble with the throat A key, put it around the A key and beneath the other keys. If it's a key that has to be held open, such as the one for low A, thread the rubber band around under it and then around the thumb rest. (Rubber bands deteriorate after about 6 months. Replace them with new ones when Daylight Savings Time comes in and goes out.)
A friend had the pad fall out of his low B sliver key in the middle of the Carter Quintet. He grabbed his A clarinet and transposed the rest of the movement, then used a match to melt the shellac and put the pad back in between movements.
I had a screw fall out at the bottom of my low E key during a quintet performance. At the end of the movement, I got up and said "We'll have to take a short break. A screw fell out of my clarinet, and I'll have to get a screwdriver out of my case to tighten it back up." Everybody relaxed, and we went on without problem.
If you can't fix it, look someone else in the eye and say "I broke a spring. May I please play your instrument." If that person refuses, someone else will volunteer, and the refuser will get a 2-level deduction from the judge.
When a violin soloist with orchestra snaps a string, he/she switches instruments with the concertmaster. Top violinists travel with at least two violins, and the concertmaster plays the extra for the concerto. When a swich happens, the soloist always gets critical praise for being unflappable. In fact, it's all planned for in advance.
You'll tell the story to your grandchildren.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: katfish
Date: 2001-03-02 23:42
William : Thank you for the story about Mr. Voxman. I had the privilage of studying clarinet in college with him and he is a marvelous teacher and human being. By the way, he does not have a doctorate proving I guess that true scholarship doesn't require a degree.
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Author: DLE
Date: 2001-03-05 11:18
William and Ken Shaw's descriptions are abosulutely brilliant!! I enjoyed both of them thoroughly - Please have more pouring in!!!! (Over to Don, for instance)
By the way, it's the A-key at the top of the clarinet (Throat A, I think), that was causing most of the problems, not the lower chalmeau key. Sorry for the confusion.
DLE.
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Author: Ed
Date: 2001-03-05 13:33
Well, this isn't so catastrophic as some of the other stories but it is a little amusing.
I was playing in a July 4th concert - my first public appearance. I sat down and adjusted the music stand then began assembling my horn. When I next looked up the music stand was down by my knees. Thinking it was my nerves playing tricks on me and that I must not have adjusted the stand I pulled it back up to eye level and started warming up. While doing so I watched as the stand slowly sunk down to its unuasble position again. (It was kind of like an Abbott & Costello or 3 Stooges skit watching that stand shrink.) Well, with the performance about to begin and the director and stage hands busy with other emergencies I pulled the stand up and jammed a reed in the post to keep it from sinking again.
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