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Re: Thoughts on Playing the Clarinet in Tune

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2018-09-19 19:16

Unfortunately it is the reality for most of us (unless you're in a professional orchestra or premiere concert band) that we have to play under less than the most desirable circumstance. My tack has always been to look at that as a challenge in which your task is to find the best tuning "in the moment" as possible. Everyone isn't playing all the time. Everyone doesn't have the melody at the same time. And there in lies the key (no pun intended). You find satisfaction in making the best music possible for any given moment.

In my twenty year career in the military band field I had seen a fair number of really fine players leave at the end of an enlistment due to the frustration of not having things always as good as you'd like. But that is not the point. Even in major symphony orchestras there are moments of less than perfection (and folks not even talking to each other for years at a time). So my suggestion to combat the frustration factor is to look at "less than perfect" as a game or a test in which you challenge yourself every moment to make it as good as possible.

Quite frankly, if the intonation issue is not addressed by the conductor, coping is the only defense.

...............Paul Aviles

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