The Clarinet BBoard

Playing Clarinet with Weights On

Author: ThatPerfectReed  Date:   2014-04-26 22:54 It's a metaphor. Although perhaps doing so literally might help increase aerobic capacity: always a good thing for us wind players. (I might argue though that fitness training best belongs in the gym and clarinet training in the studio, and that they're both important. Although a former teacher and conductor of mine's managed to combine the two--at least music and fitness http://www.youtube.com/user/Conductorcise001--but I digress.) Anyway--I keep a log of my reeds, numbering them, writing down when I used them last, my brief impressions etc. Some might think this pedantic. I accept their opinion knowing many other players act in kind. A reed or two might be labelled with a question mark, either initially, or more likely with time. I've been known to deliberately use such reeds on a day when my patience isn't frazzled, and force myself to make them work. I think it is good training for the real world as no reeds are perfect, a great ones can turn on a dime. I know plenty of you save your best reeds for performance, and therefore do what I do, if not by design, then necessity. I'm not about deliberately making play more difficult in ways not likely to be faced in performance. I'm not about practicing when tired and forming bad habits, or temporarily compromising my clarinet's mechanics. And I respect players who feel that every performance, from that you do in your home's junk room, to the one on stage should be your best, on your best hardware, etc. On another area of tangential interest I revisited this video many of you have seen on the things in Ricardo Morales' clarinet case. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq9nuIZo_wE By no means am I saying that Morales shares my approach or not, and yet in a somewhat similar vein, I understand why his 2nd best mouthpiece is his primary. To paraphrase him, I think he, should something happen to his 2nd best mouthpiece, would want to counteract that loss, and how it might throw off his play, with the fact that waiting in the "bull pen" was his best one. What do you think about things like ocassionally but deliberately suffering through a reed--of course in moderation--towards a similar goal of playing with "weights" on? Note, these are suboptimal reeds, not unplayable sticks worth little more than kindling for a fire. Non-macochists only please. This is training, not pleasure. Post Edited (2014-04-26 22:56)

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Re: Playing Clarinet with Weights On

Author: fskelley  Date:   2014-04-26 23:22 That was one of my secondary goals, during all those times of mediocre reeds (and I've proven to myself they were mediocre, by later wonderful consistent play on other reeds, and resampling some of the old and they were still poor). That is, my goal was to play my best, or at least very well, on reeds, or ligature, or mouthpiece, or horn- that were/was not cooperating. Or even better, to improve my technique to the point it did not matter. In addition to being an independent spirit, or perhaps because of it, I am often obstinate about such things... "I refuse to allow your lack of cooperation to have ANY impact on my results..." Sometimes in my life, that attitude has served me quite well, other times- not so much. So in principle (not principal- right?) I agree it is a good thing to become less sensitive to perfect conditions. But I don't know the right balance, and I'm working very hard to be able to spend all my practice hours with the best possible equipment. Because I've known for a long time that my improvisation etc is way better that way. It's (supposed to be) all about the music. The medium (in this case a 17th century variable length closed pipe thingy) SHOULD BE TOTALLY IRRELEVANT by comparison. In the same way that a photograph is all about the final image, not whether digital or film, and nobody should care brand or size or cost of camera or lens or processing software, or whether the photog was skilled or unskilled at handling camera, tripod, computer, processing chemicals or paper (in the old days). It's never about the medium! When the medium gets in the way of the final art, that's wrong! Stan in Orlando EWI 4000S with modifications Post Edited (2014-04-26 23:26)

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