 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2019-02-18 21:13
I try to tell each student to make everything they play beautiful; solos, exercises, scales, warm up noodling.
Sometimes I forget.
Personally (and this is probably because I don't have super technique) I make the effort to make lovely sounds.
One famous trumpet player was asked what he did on an off day. He said he puts his trumpet back in the case and slides it back under the bed.
...................Paul Aviles
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: kdk
Date: 2019-02-18 23:34
Of course, he isn't talking about music or playing the clarinet, which seems to have been only a visual prop. His point has to do with caring about what you're doing (in any activity) and the degree generally to which one should be willing to risk imperfection in order to commit to an action one cares about.
Risk and growth generally (maybe always) go together because failure, if you care, leads to learning in order to improve on the next try.
As a musician I haven't ever stopped learning because I've never stopped falling short of my goals. If I didn't care - if every note I try to play didn't matter - I'd have just given up long ago.
On the other hand, when I found as a 12-year-old that I couldn't hit even Little League pitching, I just stopped playing baseball and learned to enjoy watching others play. Playing ball just wasn't that important to me.
Karl
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2019-02-19 06:50
The title of the thread took me in a different direction than the video did. I'd expected one or two other things.
When I hear a great musician, I'm almost always hearing a great, expressive sound. They must work on just that much of the time, a great sound, the exact sound they want, on every note of every piece they perform. Not just the "right" note, but the right sound for each note in its place. And yes, they want it to be a sound people would want to hear.
The other way every note matters is phrasing and fitting every note into its passage, and every passage into the larger work. Great performances don't have any musical dead spots. They're alive, spontaneous and logical at all times. Even though a piece as composed might seem weaker in some part, a great performer will do something to make it sound right and convincing.
Technical issues and other things can crowd out the awareness of the sound and meaning of one's playing. One keeps coming back to those things to try and gradually make them as automatic as possible. But even great pros can still have relatively less inspiring or impressive days.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
