 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Lori
Date: 2002-08-19 23:12
Just curious really...how long did it take before you felt "in-sync with yourself" again? I'm not sure what I expected, but it never occurred to me that it would be minimally 6 months to regain any semblance of a consistent embouchure. Getting the fingers to behave was relatively easy and came back pretty quickly, but breathing and the ability to support returned somewhere in the middle of the journey making good tone production a crapshoot. It's finally all starting to gel again, but somehow, I still feel "out of phase". Oddly, in some ways, I'm exceeding my earlier skills (I've spent a huge amount of time on scales and tone) but I still seem to lack ease and finesse. If I miss a day of practice, I need to work twice as hard the next day. Does there ever come a time when you feel like it's all back and then some or is there always going to be this perpetual "behind the eightball" quality in some aspect of your playing?
Lori
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Author: Willie
Date: 2002-08-20 01:29
When I started again, after not playing for 20+ years, the hardest thing for me was getting back my embouchure and tonguing. Then I had a 4-way bypass and I've found myself struggling with certain fingerings and I don't know why yet. But hang in there, the clarinet is the only instrument (I think) that can be the most fun and the most frustrating..... both at the same time.
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Author: William Hughes
Date: 2002-08-20 04:18
I started practicing last October after a thirty-five year layoff and signed up with a community band in January. We finished our summer concerts last weekend and I think I am back to about where I was mechanically (embouchure and fingering). Sometimes I flat surprise myself with a well-played passage or two. Keeping tempo, key signature, articulations and dynamics all in good order is still a challenge and I have the added exertion of transposing some of my parts from bass clef (on the contra alto). The hardest part for me is sight reading. Unless I know the piece, or until I hear it, new music is largely a mystery. I suspect...and from what I have learned on this BB...the process of setting goals and working toward them with some discipline is never-ending. Keep it up, Lori.
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Author: Ken
Date: 2002-08-20 04:25
I personally am a strong believer in the "progressive theory". The farther the player progresses/achieves whether a beginner, intermediate or advanced skill level (i.e. experience, technique, knowledge and interpretation) the more retained if not ALL of it regardless of how many years off the horn...the body and brain will remember. Basic mechanics; getting those chops back, endurance and tongue to where it was is the primary challenge and temporary obstacle.
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Author: Lori
Date: 2002-08-20 13:56
Ha! Tell me about sight reading woes! The summer community band I joined was in existence for exactly 4 weeks - 2 rehearsals for each of the 4 concerts. This translated to sight-reading 10-12 pieces per week - many we read through only once before performing. I totally choked and my confidence really suffered. I was astounded to be the only one struggling and then later learned that most of the rep is recycled from earlier years. Like Roseanne Rosannadanna used to say - "it's always something"!
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Author: tim k
Date: 2002-08-20 17:22
Sometime during the almost 40 years I laid off they made sharps and natural signs look remarkably similar. Small musical notations are not designed for those who wear bifocals.
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Author: Ken
Date: 2002-08-20 21:57
Lori said: I was astounded to be the only one struggling and then later learned that most of the rep is recycled from earlier years.
--a word of encouragement; don't be thrown off by this or let it shake your confidence. If you were the only player in the section struggling through the band's reading sessions it might have been because you were the ONLY one really sightreading...especially if the band's repertoire rotates. That means the other players (depending on affiliation with the band, backgound and experience) had already read through the pieces in the past, or if the pieces were transcriptions they were familiar with the orchestra parts or at least heard recordings of and/or both band/orchestra versions. Unless the other players were flat-out better sightreaders than you they weren't sightreading at all and playing by recall. v/r
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Author: Lori
Date: 2002-08-21 14:28
Thank you all for your encouragement. Ken, as it turns out, the players were all mostly local teachers and even some broadway professionals and I was the only one 30 years out practice. Still it was embarrassing to be flubbing Leroy Anderson and show tunes...
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