 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Cindy
Date: 2001-11-07 03:32
I have found that in almost every high school in our district, clarinets have a bad reputation for being horrible and not dedicated. Being a newcomer into this district, I feel that I am pretty good and hate being grouped as a bad musician and lazy because of the instrument I play. I know there are many good clarinetists out there, and I hope to major in performance on clarinet. Because of our reputation, the clarinets are not worked with much, and thing are let slide that generally would not be. This is definitely not helping me get better. Does anyone have any idea why clarinets get such a bum wrap? Also, has anyone else encountered a problem similar to this?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: GBK
Date: 2001-11-07 04:32
Cindy...I wonder if you know if the band directors in your district are themselves clarinetists (or woodwind majors) or brass players. Unfortunately, I have often observed that school districts with band directors who are only brass players, some of them often tend to neglect the clarinetists for their lack of ability to really help them. Thus, the clarinetists as a group often feel a little slighted and thus develop a morale problem, along with sloppy playing habits. Just something for you to think about...
One other observation: Flute players as a group are usually highly motivated and disciplined, VERY competitve, and often rather self sufficient. Just some thoughts to ponder..GBK
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: sarah
Date: 2001-11-07 13:18
Show them that you are good. If you prove that you arn't lazy and that your a good musician it might help. And I agree with GBK to an extent. I don't think that the better directors do this.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Kim L.
Date: 2001-11-07 14:33
Yes, our university clarinet section had this problem and it only made us work harder. :-)
Good luck,
Kim L.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Peter
Date: 2001-11-07 16:47
I'm still curious as to what part of the country you are in. I would venture to say the Western U.S. However:
There are a few issues involved here.
One is the factor GBK pointed out, but that doesn't apply just to band directors who are not woodwind players.
The band director at my son's school is a Master in Arts in Clarinet Performance and something or other in directing and arranging, or some such. He is relatively well known, both as a band director and as a woodwinds player (he also plays a mean sax.) In my opinion, he truly is a great music and, most important, discipline teacher (an excellent leader as well.)
But he almost deleted woodwinds altogether from the marching band this year to turn it into a drum and bugle corps. He was actually toying with the idea of having all his woodwinds players take up brass just for the yearly marching band seasons.
I, for one, took extreme exception. I've encouraged all my children to learn multiple instruments (which has made our house look like a crowded band room,) but once they settled on what they really wanted to play, I encouraged them, not to exclude the others, but to make the one their life's work, as it were.
The reason many, if not most band directors would do that to a marching band is sound projection. By ratio, it takes way too many clarinets to be properly heard (somewhat less saxes) over the brass, and replacing them with more brass is more "sound-volume and projection" efficient.
(On the other hand, this teacher has an excellent woodwinds section in his concert orchestra and an oustanding wind ensemble.)
I don't agree with it, but that's pretty much how it is. And it can take months of advancement away from serious woodwinds students when they are forced to practice a totally different instrument, as a steady diet, during marching band season and its preceding practice period (about four months +/-.)
(Some band directors discourage anything but what they want in their bands all year long, just to avoid trouble when the one season comes along and he wants everyone to take up his/her "favored" instruments.)
Not to mention the low moral it instills in the students who don't want to take up the "prime" instruments and are made to feel less than useless. Those tactics are also often designed to force students to join the "elite" group or get out without the band director catching hell for some form of discrimination.
("Oh, I can't help it, the woodwinds players are an incompetent bunch and nothing I do helps to motivate them.")
Some people would be surprised what some band directors are capable of to put together exactly the band they want, and/or win more competitions.
I helped solve a similar problem in another school once by getting the woodwinds section parents together and lodging a formal complaint with the school board that resulted in that band director being transfered to another school with a severe reprimand
Then there are the band directors who just don't care for a particular type of instrument, at all. I've seen that quite a bit in some environments (that I won't mention, lest I be accused of generalizing, absolutism, or prejudice,) and more generally applied to the woodwinds than almost any other band section (there I go again!)
Let's face it, we are not talking just about a music education here, but also about the children's self esteem and confidence in themselves, etc.
In my son's band, they all play with and tease each other, but there are no short or tall, ugly or handsome (or pretty,) smart or stupid, black, white, yellow, or red, etc., kids.
They are just musicians, are judged, and judge each themselves as such. The worst ones who are open to it, are helped by the better ones, etc., and everybody belongs to the group. Sometimes, amongst themselves, they talk about each other with razor tongues, but defend each other fiercely, even from any attacks by the band director!
Peer pressure in a good music environment is also very positive if situations like Cindy's are not allowed to happen. Otherwise it can be very psychologically damaging to the children, and it is entirely the band director's fault, whether he/she actually created the original situation or not.
If the teacher can't motivate all his/her students in a positive way, that person doesn't belong there. Maybe shouldn't even be teaching. Anyone can teach under tha best of circumstances, but it takes a real teacher to teach and positively motivate students under difficult ones.
Without a doubt, get the parents together and go to the school board if you have to. The state school board if it comes to that, etc., and so on.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: James Garcia
Date: 2001-11-07 18:08
I CAN COMPLETLY RELATE
I go to a school where the the clarients are aweful. Maybe you can relate to what I have to go through everyday. They don't care and are pretty happy sounding like Dying ducks if any sound comes out at all. It would be nice for there to be a medium, It's like i go to the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra (considered on of the best, if not the best youth symphony in the US) and then all of the sudden im come to school on monday and my musical senses are made numb but what goes on in band, It's frustrating, i am even considering dropping band to keep my own sanity.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Meri
Date: 2001-11-07 20:41
I too had that problem in the college band. I was the only strong player, almost all of the others did not care about improving their playing (there was one exception), and the conductor made it worse by having players play different parts depending on the piece and playing music that did not challenge the players to improve. In contrast, my community band has four strong clarinetists, out of 8, and the whole band has an amazing sense of comradeship.
Meri
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Joseph O'Kelly
Date: 2001-11-07 20:45
James:
I know what it's like. I'm in the Detroit Civic Symphony Orchestra. The clarinet section is astounding as I'm the only highschool clarinet player there and the others are in college. I then come back to school for full orchestra rehearsal. I don't have to worry about a bad section because attendence is so poor that people rarely show up. In civic if you don't show up without explanation your kicked out and your only allowed two excused absences.
However my clarinet section is a decent one.
For those people who don't think that clarinets can contribute to a marching band, my clarinet section won the best section award (tied with percussion) in our marcing band. The 17 of us could sometimes be heard over the many trumpets.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Micaela
Date: 2001-11-07 23:18
My school orchestra has some similar issues. We play very easy music, so I'm playing violin (my second instrument). The string parts tend to be harder than the wind parts and I'm still of the opinion that string instruments are more difficult to play relatively decently than most wind instruments. The wind section (which is twice the size of the strings) gives the strings a lot of grief over out of tune notes and "screechiness." The director is a band type and the strings have a generally bad time of it.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Stephanie
Date: 2001-11-08 02:52
I totally understand how you feel. In my band, and in band at my old schools, most of the clarinets didn't really care. Neither did the director. Of course, all of them played brass instruments. At LCHS, the director worked mostly with the trumpets, his favorite section, and didn't spend hardly any time with us. Luckily we had a good section leader. But I think that a lot of what your problem is is that the director just doesn't know that much about clarinet (or maybe he does?) or that he just wants to spend more time with sections he likes better? Maybe this is just because of marching seaosn, which focuses mostly on brass and percussion, I think. I don't really know. This is just my experience. Perhaps you should encourage the clarinets to work harder and they wouldn't have such a bad reputation. It's like that here too. It seems like none of my section cares at all how they sound. If you work hard, you can prove everyone wrong. Good luck!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Joris
Date: 2001-11-08 10:19
Perhaps it's an idea to start op a clarinet ensemble (trio, quartet or more) and try to motivate the clarinet-section yourself
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
