Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2023-03-08 22:45
The question seems silly, but after reading all sorts of warnings about gear, and "bad habits" that might develop (or...left unsaid - might not develop) due to any number of things...
And...having been told in college that I had developed a couple "bad habits" which I then forced myself to work tirelessly to address (most of which, I later realized, were misdiagnosed to begin with)...
I'm now left wondering what all the hubub was/is about.
Could "bad habits" actually be considered "alternatives"? Maybe not the "preferred way" - but a valid way?
To me (as an individual), learning how to make the sound/effect I want to make is a huge step towards understanding the instrument and getting it to achieve the results I desire. I usually discover many ways to achieve the same goal. This gives a freedom. It allows artistic interpretation. Freedom of approach.
Perhaps there is a "more efficient" way to do X or Y, but what if that efficiency doesn't work for me/you/the student?
I think there's a blaring truth sometimes missing in the clarinet world (including the bboard). That truth is: Very few clarinetists will make a living playing classical music in a professional orchestra. Yet - virtually everything we do from the time we pick up the instrument, till the time we graduate from college/graduate school aims us, trains us, and points us towards that goal...or the goal of teaching someone else to do it. Is this our goal because we wanted it from the point we were little kids, or is the goal one we assumed somewhere along the way because it is the only goal offered to us by the clarinet community - our instructors and peers?
We have been trained by A to be A, and then we (as the new A) train B to be A..."And don't pick up any of those bad habits. Use this piece of gear (because I've found it useful, and it's what the industry agrees is best), and play "this" way (because that's what I was taught was proper)," and etc.
My thought is: If the person is able to achieve everything they want to do. What difference does it make whether it is the "correct way" to do something in a professional orchestra that they'll never play in?
I think of all the self-taught guitarists and self-taught keyboardists. You know...the ones who have terrible form, hold their fingers/hands all wrong, don't finger things correctly by classical standards - yet make a great living in the music industry? Sometimes even becoming famous?
Why do we discourage clarinetists from experiencing that same freedom? To me, it seems that a person trying to learn clarinet is met with discouragement after discouragement from the clarinet community. "There's a tight rope which must be walked in order to play the clarinet 'properly.' Stray at all, and risk becoming a failure."
Nearly all fail.
I have a hard time thinking folks approach any number of self-taught (successful) rock guitarists to say, "You know, you have some really bad habits that wouldn't fit into classical guitar playing at all - go back to the basics and fix them. Distortion pedals?! Electric Guitars?! All must go - not proper gear at all! Tsk! Tsk!"
Maybe (just maybe) bad habits aren't bad habits.
Fuzzy
;^)>>>
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The Clarinet BBoard
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