 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2015-01-14 21:09
Sometimes nothing works right. Or, everything works less well. Fingers, tongue, tone, memory - everything seems degraded. Nothing external seems to predict this. You come into the session feeling good, had a good night's sleep, you're ready to go. But somewhere in warmups a couple things don't quite go normally, and then during practice it soon becomes clear things aren't right. Instead of gaining and building, you're stopping again and again to attend to things supposedly established long ago, things that usually are automatic.
I suspect it's a nervous system thing. It's almost like there's noise in the transmission lines degrading the signals.
This doesn't seem to happen often, thankfully. It doesn't seem limited to music either. I've had excercise workouts go the same way, where times or poundages fall way back for no apparent reason. I think that some bad days at work (as a software engineer), days where nothing went right, may be in the same category as well, though in such relatively complex situations causality is less confidently attributable.
This problem seems to affect even the best musicians. I've heard live performance tapes of, for example, Vladimir Horowitz on tour, playing a familiar program badly one day, then returning to his absolutely magical norm a couple days later.
I've tried a couple things when this happens in practice. I've soldiered on; this never corrects the situation, and typically puts me in a bad mood for rest of the day. I've changed the focus of the practice; whatever I switched to suffered similar degradation. I've aborted practice; this is annoying in its own way, since a perfectly good day is lost. In fact, that's the situation I'm in right this minute.
Is the day lost? Over time my vague observation is that these crappy days seem to be followed in subsequent days by gratifying improvements. Maybe breaking the routine helps. Or, maybe the bad day somehow precedes the improvements, sort of like the system being taken down while an upgrade is installed.
Any thoughts on this?
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2015-01-14 22:23
Acceptance of the "crappy" days is paramount in order to keep your mood up for the rest of the day. If you can acknowledge that spending time playing (even if the level is "lower" than you'd like) is useful in any way, your mood for the rest of the day can change. "I practiced!" is what can help your mood later, if you choose to "soldier on" as you put it.
Mindfulness is another "cure-all" being touted in a lot of places lately. A lot of us musicians already have the ability to be one-mindful while playing, noticing everything we do. If you can reframe your thoughts to the tune of "having a 'bad' day is absolutely average and typical" it can also help.
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2015-01-14 22:34
Been there and done this many times, in music (clarinet and piano), in my own software engineering (I'm an old time FORTRAN vim Ansys developer), in photography, and in life in general. And, like you, I've tried aborting the session or the day (back to bed? go to Disney for the afternoon?), pressing on, trying to fix things or just accepting them as they are... and none of those are really satisfying.
But also like you- I've many times found the next day or some soon to follow session to be magic. And I don't know if they feel that way just by comparison (I think not- I'm pretty sure they represent real progress over the previous norm), or whether the progress depends on having stuck with it through the storm- I'm inclined to think it does.
Related topic, anybody else encounter "terrible dress rehearsal leads to great opening performance"? Or the opposite?
Sorry- no answers, just sympathy.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2015-01-15 04:30
Is the day lost?
Like Katrina said, if I may paraphrase, it depends upon your perspective.
If you come to expect that you will have moments of sheer grief with play as part of the learning process, then this "unproductive" time really isn't unproductive as it is all part of the process, and therefore not only not lossed, but necessary.
Sales motivation courses often teach concepts where salespeople have to (metaphorically or literally) knock on "X" number of doors in order for one customer to say yes. Accordingly, the sales calls that lead to no sales aren't seen so much wasted time, but the grunt work needed to encounter sooner the sales prospect that says yes.
Permit yourself to be frustrated now and then, as we all get this way from time to time (at least those trying to advance themselves), despite this advice above.
Second, you mention the times when a couple of things don't click. When this happens, try to realize that getting mad about it only ends up affecting play, and things snowball into a vicous cycle where when bad things happen you get annoyed, and when you get annoyed, bad things happen in your play.
Don't be afraid to put the clarinet away, or devote the time to testing new reeds if you feel use must be productive. Play long tones. Though classically trained, when I recently had one of those days I started playing Burt Bacharach tunes (poorly at that) by ear. It was stupid but fun.
Or slow the metronome down, way down. And remind yourself that if playing clarinet was easy, how enamored would we be with the artists who make it look that way? Find music you can easily play today that was impossible when you first saw it, and remind yourself how far you've come. Tell yourself that clarinet is about taking 2 steps forward and 1 back every now and then.
If clarinet wasn't challenging, you and I probably wouldn't be drawn to it, no differently than the fact that few people turn tic-tak-toe into their hobby: as they quickly find out they can never win or lose.
I'll leave you with some video inspiration. Below you'll find Sabine Meyer, one of the finest players in the world IMHO. Rumor has it she faced quite the battle for acceptance in a Geman classical music world dominated by men at the time she desired orchestral membership. Here she is getting frustrated over either the slow tempo or her reed, maybe a little of both. Assuming some of the frustration being the reed, could you have told by her play prior?
I couldn't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R2GQJgig8s
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Author: Wisco99
Date: 2015-01-15 07:23
In the saxophone world, Zinner used to make a mouthpiece with an adjustable baffle using a slider on top of the mouthpiece. You could even change the sound while you were playing. It was called a Strathon Adjustatone. Perhaps we need something like that for ligatures, so we could move a slider and change the sound from dark to bright.
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2015-01-15 18:32
Dave, I noticed in the link that Sabine, who is also one of my favorite recording clarinetists, was rushing, possibly indicating she wasn't happy. (Then again, I've heard her rush at times in other recordings too.) Maybe she felt she was working too hard for her sound and, accurately or maybe not, blamed the reed.
Though I only know her from her recordings, somehow I don't get the feeling Sabine's one to opt for a day off if things get a little tough.
Actually, missing a day (or more) doesn't seem that detrimental in the longer view. It can take more than a day to "recover", so that playing in general feels at approximately the same level, but there seem to be less tangible benefits in terms of mental & physical health when one occasionally interrupts a routine, at least if the interruption is not too long and is not badly stressful.
After reflection, I realize I aborted practice yesterday at the 2 hour mark. Not long ago I wasn't able to go 2 hours on a good day. So maybe the day wasn't "lost", though I felt like a dullard, and progress was absent. I later spent a couple hours outdoors (9-deg F) doing menial tasks and walking to the store. It was refreshing.
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Author: TomS
Date: 2015-01-15 20:07
Welcome to the club!
But, when you get to be my age, crappy days predominate.
Tom
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2015-01-16 18:47
Yeah, I've had crappy days -- but being a doubler (or tripler or . . . ) helps with those times when nothing goes right on the instrument I intend to practice that day. I put that instrument away and get out the one that least resembles it. Fumble-fingered on piano? Switch to clarinet. Clamming on soprano clarinet? Sit down at the piano or switch to the bass saxophone. Bad day on a bass wind? Switch to sopranino recorder.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Paula S
Date: 2015-01-17 01:47
I had two of the best days playing of my life this week in band and orchestra.......... everyone noticed. Then my blinking long B went out of adjustment.......... might as well throw in the towel for now........ as I got more and more tense trying to make it work. Swapped to my A and all was well with the world again :-)
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The Clarinet Pages
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