 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ruben
Date: 2025-09-22 13:37
What is your mantra before playing? Mine, which you are eagerly awaiting (ha, ha!)? -EVERYTHING SINGS.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2025-09-22 16:40
Tim Laughlin has said (of Pete Fountain's playing): "Every note [had] a smile on it."
I like that idea.
So, if I had a mantra, it would be something to remind me to: "Put a smile on every note." (Give each note thought and consideration)
Fuzzy
:^)>>>
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Author: donald
Date: 2025-09-22 17:09
Many years back I was in a smokey pub (called "The Gluepot") playing wild clarinet on a song called "Big fat crashing bastard thing" and was doing a lot of multiphonics etc, generally sounding a bit obnoxious and enjoying it a bit more than the audience.... this voice started calling out at the end of the song... "play a good tunes, good tunes, just play a good tune". It turned out to be punk rocker Chris Knox (google him if you like) who I had met once or twice but was well known to my band members. He continued to heckle me for the rest of the gig calling out for me to play "good tunes".
For at least 20 years after this "Keep playing the good tunes" was my mantra (though I wouldn't have called it that), and I also used this phrase to end letters and later on emails. Over the years I took from it different messages or interpretation - but mainly not to forget the audience, to play with authenticity rather than gratuitously (both which would have been some of what Chris intended, he is a smart man).
I later had a bit more contact with him- and in 1993 phoned him up and recorded him over the phone saying "congratulations, you have just found the secret message hidden in this music" which I then backward tracked on to a "modern classical" composition for Flute, Percussion and tape. He loved the joke and that was all that mattered to me, if no one else "got it" or thought it was funny I didn't care.
He had a stroke which greatly reduced his ability to perform, but my wife and I went to see him in a "post stoke" performance where he couldn't sing the words but vocalised with incredible intensity. I was touched when in the middle of a song he came down to the front row, stuck his face in mine (while singing quite loudly) and with a big grin pushed his index finger on my nose.
So coming all the way back from a noisy beer sozzled nigh in 1991 my mantra has been "keep playing the good tunes", I've been focusing mainly on classical/contemporary repertoire since the end of the 90s, but those days taught me something (or, some things).
Post Edited (2025-09-22 17:13)
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Author: ruben
Date: 2025-09-22 21:07
Fuzzy: Benny Goodman's mantra was similar, though more austere: "every note counts" he was fond of saying.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: smokindok
Date: 2025-09-24 16:34
I am loving the positive imagery. Among my pit colleagues, the mantra was commonly, “don’t **** up.” Something more inspiring would perhaps have been more beneficial.
John
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Author: ruben
Date: 2025-09-24 19:42
smokindoc: I wonder what the mantra of the musicians on the Titanic was!
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: smokindok
Date: 2025-09-24 21:17
ruben wrote:
> smokindoc: I wonder what the mantra of the musicians on the
> Titanic was!
>
My guess… Nearer My God to Thee?
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Author: davyd
Date: 2025-09-24 21:43
Back in the day, an older (now deceased) bandmate said that his general approach was that of a doctor: "First, do no harm".
As I near the age he was when he passed, I'm inclined to agree with his perspective.
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Author: ruben
Date: 2025-09-25 10:36
another mantra: playing rhymes with praying.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Johnny Galaga
Date: 2025-09-30 05:26
Playing 3rd part is like mayonnaise. You're not the main meat and cheese, but you make the whole sandwich taste better.
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Author: David H. Kinder
Date: 2025-09-30 06:37
My mantra: Just own it and enjoy it.
Playing isn't stressful for me at this time. I'm far more nervous/excited preparing a 30-60 minute industry speech than playing in an ensemble.
Ridenour AureA Bb clarinet
Ridenour Homage mouthpiece
Vandoren Optimum Silver ligature (plate 1)
Vandoren Traditional #4 reeds
ATG System, Cordier Reed Trimmer, and A.L.E. Reed Balancer
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Author: jim sclater
Date: 2025-09-30 16:32
"Do the best you can do today and try to make at least one person smile."
jsclater@comcast.net
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Author: ruben
Date: 2025-10-01 13:24
This is not a mantra, but a slogan. I stole it from the boxer Joe Frazier who said before his first fight with Muhammad Ali -fight that Frazier was certain he would win: "You can outwit me, but you can't outwork me."
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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