Author: Jeff
Date: 2002-08-14 16:34
I'd like to pose my dilemma to the group to see if you have any thoughts about my course of instruction. I took up clarinet a little over two years ago (at age 47) because I wanted to play dixieland jazz. I've been playing 5 string banjo for over 30 years now (including about 20 years worth of playing in bluegrass bands), and I had always played by ear. When I first started, my instructor (a Peabody trained, very proficient clarinetist) made me learn to read music. Indeed he would never (and still won't) play an exercise or lesson so I can hear it and repeat it. He makes me read it. That had been a source of fighting for a bit, but I gave in and it unquestionably has been helpful becasue when I see sheet music, I can at least play the notes and get the sense of the tune or melody. Sometimes, I will program the lesson into Finale and play it on the computer if I just can't figure out the timing, but I'm getting better at reading.
In any event, in the two years, I have finished two volumes of the Tune-a-day lesson books and the Intermediate Rubank book. We are now on Volume 1 of the Rubank Advanced. My dilemma is that what I really want to do is improvisational swing/dixieland jazz. I really don't ever want to be a classical clarinetist in a symphony or an orchestra, or even play in a community band where everyone has a set part. I realize that learning to read has been helpful to some extent, but I think I can get around the horn proficiently enough to stop with the classical training. At least that's what I think, and that's the beginning of the dilemma.
No, I can't peel of scales or thirds or chords in each key on demand without figuring them out on the fly, but I think that if I know a melody, I can find it on the clarinet and play it. What I really want is to learn the art of jazz improv and how to construct solo breaks, noodles in the background, etc.
The dilemma is that I don't know if it is time for me to stop the instruction I'm getting and find a jazz teacher (what instrument he or she plays would probably be irrelevant) who can help me learn to construct and play what I want to play (and to get the fun and satisfaction I took up the instrument to get) or whether I should continue through this and then Volume 2 of the Rubank Advanced before moving on. The dilemma involves my interest level which is getting harder and harder to maintain as I am able to pick out and play virtually any melody I want, but then can't figure out what to do after that. My instructor says it's ok to "play my stuff" after I work on the weekly lesson. But he simply says that constructing the stuff I want to play involves thirds, chords, arpeggios, scales, etc. and I need to be automatic with them before I will be able to just "play". Maybe that's true, but I sense that a baptism by fire wouldn't hurt either.
I realize that formal training in "legitimate music" can only be helpful, but the crossroads I'm finding myelf at is figuring out how to get the enjoyment I'm looking for and if the path requires me to plod another year and half or so through the classical (read: traditional) training in order to get there, or whether I can or should branch off now into a focused learning of the jazz genre.
I am the type of student who never shows up unprepared (part of that, for you younger players is that I am obviously paying for my lessons myself so there is an additional motivation present not to waste my money), and who practices for hours a day. The problem is that I sense a frustration creeping in and I don't know if I am unrealistically seeking to run before I have learned to walk.
I know this was a long post, but I hope it gives you the sense of the issue for me. I would really appreciate hearing other people's thoughts and experiences in dealing with this kind of issue. Thanks.
Jeff
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The Clarinet BBoard
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