Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 2002-03-03 15:16
Well, this would depend upon where you are already with klezmer skills and clarinet-playing skills in general, and where you want to go. If you've never played a lick of klezmer, you should be buying books and CD's (for listening) from places like Tara Publications and Ari Davidow's Klezmer Shack (both on the web), and working with those before you "bother" with a teacher. You should have some familiarity with the repertoire, first.
Then the question is, can you find a suitable teacher where you live? No problem in a big US / Canadian metropolitan area. Could be a problem elsewhere.
In between specialized teachers (who are pro performers of the art) and self-teaching are workshops, camps, and forming your own bands. There is a big thing called KlezKamp, very expensive (for me) which happens the week between Christmas and New Years, but there are other, smaller workshops throughout the year. Look up http://www.livingtraditions.org (I hope that's right).
If you are already a very serious and accomplished clarinet player and have already done these things and plan on becoming the next Andy Statman, then a teacher is the way to go. Heck, why not study with Andy Statman in that case? :-) But if you just want to have fun and add some more versatility to your repertoire, camps, workshops, and self-teaching are the way to go...and especially, forming your own band with other like-minded players. You can "peel" people away from jazz bands, concert bands and orchestral groups you may be involved with. Violin players, high and low brass, accordion, guitar, banjo, mando, etc. If there's a traditional jazz band, they may be persuaded to try some klezmer. Even just one other player, if he / she is an accordionist, may be sufficient. An accordion and clarinet duo can make a surprisingly big sound.
Also, don't restrict yourself to klezmer. There's a whole world of European ethnic folk music with clarinet - playing traditions out there. Do you live in the USA? Near a large city?
And of course, listen, listen, listen, to recordings. Old, new, whatever. So you know what you want to copy.
Hope this was helpful.
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The Ethnic Clarinet
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