 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: clarinets1
Date: 2006-04-24 19:17
How long, would you say, does it take you to learn a new piece? let's say the piece is of considerable difficulty (think Nielsen Concerto). How do you approach it? Do you just play the heck out if or slow practice right away? On average, what would be a reasonable time frame to learn a piece of repertoire? let's assume that the player is ready to learn such a difficult piece, and has the technicalities of clarinet playing up to par, just for the sake of argument.
JK
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2006-04-24 19:50
That's a very subjective thing to judge. It depends upon a person's particular skill level and talent. Julian Bliss might learn a difficult piece of music in an hour and I might need 2 years. You mentioned that the person would be ready for the piece--but still, it varies on the person. And, if it is being judged by a teacher or a particularly strict judge--it might take longer to reach the musical perfection required. However if you're learning it for a performance to a relatively unschooled audience (which probably doesn't exist), you might do an adequate job in a short time period.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2006-04-24 20:03
Brenda Siewert wrote:
> However
> if you're learning it for a performance to a relatively
> unschooled audience (which probably doesn't exist), you might
> do an adequate job in a short time period.
That could be a dangerous performance mindset to have before playing. I would think it would ultimately lead to just a mediocre performance.
As Dave Etheridge used to always tell me: "Play to the one clarinet player sitting in the last row." ...GBK
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2006-04-24 21:37
GBK, you're correct. It would lead to mediocre playing. I'm not recommending it, just mentioning it because of the question of how long...it depends---do you want to be good or just mediocre? I want to be good for ALL audiences, but perhaps some don't care that much about how well they do a piece of music, just that they do it. I, however, don't want to listen to those particular musicians, as I'm sure you don't either.
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2006-04-24 22:36
Nielsen's concerto does not seem to present any technical difficulties(I think). The problem is that everybody performs it in the same,dismal,manner: at first it sounds like dramatic, but towards its end it becomes duller and duller. Same with his flute concerto. He might not know clarinet like Weber/Mozart/Brahms ,who weare acquainted with excellent clarinetists friends.
I would like to hear someone play it quite differently.
Post Edited (2006-04-24 22:59)
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Author: Bnewbs
Date: 2006-04-24 23:27
I got to disagree with Hiroshi on Neilsen. IMHO it certainly has its share of challangeing passages, maybe not too the extent of Corgliano or something, but it is certainly one of the more diffacult pieces I have set eyes on. I would start slow, make sure your hitting everything right technically, and the work on the musicality. But thats just me. When played well its probably my favorite piece for clarinet. but as its style, often cold and sarcastic, is not often well understood by the performer many of the performances are not what they should be. The relationship with the drum can be akward as well. I thought Burt Hara/Minnesota Orchestra played it especially well.
ben
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2006-04-25 01:13
Clarinets1 asked how to 'approach'. I think it consists of two considerations, intepretation/phrasing and technical aspects. To spend reasonable time on the former will be a good starting point as well as to have a good practice strategy.
It would be very informative if someone can tell a concise guidance or resource about a general approach to a composition.
Another thing to consider will be about psycological aspects during practice.
In the past instructors taught simple principles like 'Play it slowly at first using a metronome and then increase speed'. Now they became aware of psycological knacks.For example,
1)If you play a certain note wrongly, you should play it correctly twice, the first to cancel the wrong playing memory, and the second to imprint the correct memory. Thus playing a note wrongly is time consuming. Practicing slowly at first gets rid of this, which will be its real meaning.
2)Identify difficult parts and concentrate on practicing them. It is a waste of time to exercise the whole seciton repeatedly. The shorter the passage you exercise, the easier to brash it up.
3)Sometimes students practice a composition always from the beginning and the degree of brash-up becomes worse towards the end. Sometimes start it in the different position. This practice method is applied to scale practice too.
Necessary hours depend on players. It does not mean necessarily that it depends only on talents. Some players can play any compositions easily without spending much time on intepretation, which makes audience being interested in his maneuvability but not in his artisry.Marcel Moyse could play compositions at concerts on the spot,whereas Rampal spends many hours in practicing them.
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Author: Cuisleannach
Date: 2006-04-25 06:57
If a piece takes a particularly long time to learn (over a month) you may not be ready for it. Unfortunately, a lot of people use the repertoire as checkpoints to be ticked off as you pass them...the Nielsen is famous for this as some consider it one of the most difficult pieces for clarinet. In my opinion it is much harder to play the Brahms sonatas well then the Nielsen, and I dare anyone here to tell me they've said all that can be said with the Mozart, even though we "tick that box" in late high school or early college.
You are ready for a piece when you can get it under the fingers and lips to the point where you can actually make music with the piece rather than hanging on for dear life. To paraphrase a zen concept:
Playing the Nielsen clarinet concerto perfectly is easy. Simply make yourself perfect and play it.
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Author: cigleris
Date: 2006-04-25 22:46
Your ready for a piece when you know the music inside out and backwards. The music then becomes a natural expression of what you are trying to communicate musically and emotionally. Take the Mozart for me, i've been learning this piece since I was 16 and have performed the work on 5 occassions in the last few years (the last 3 on basset), everytime I have prepared the work something new pops out like a new take on a passage or not before realising a certian harmonic passage. These things are never still, forever changing. Human nature.
If you don't remember anything else you get taught, remember this:
You never stop learning about music or your instrument untill the day you die.
Peter Cigleris
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