 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: blokecalledpaul-drums-clarinet
Date: 2007-02-06 04:14
Hi i'm struggling for time to play at the moment for a few reasons.
My job. I teach construction to young adults who have social and behavioural problems such as ADHD and dyslexia/dyscalcula etc. When i get home im burned out.
My family. I got two kids and a wife that deserve my attention. Mum not well.
College work. Silly me doing extra night classes! (Cert Ed.)
The evil Drums. Im a 24/7 tapper though not always visual. I need to play to get the jazz/funk/hiphop/rock out of my system.
Still some people face worse than that so i guess in some ways im doing fine.
No matter how big or small...
Whats your barriers?
If the world didnt suck we would all fall off ![[up]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smiley24.gif)
Post Edited (2007-02-06 04:16)
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2007-02-06 06:56
> Whats your barriers?
- the inner couch potato
- serving overtime resulting in being too late at home for practising
- guests or an evening out
Happens rarely that I don't practise on two consecutive evenings, though. Family knows that I'm offline for half an hour. I just need that to blow the rubble from work out of my system.
--
Ben
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2007-02-06 09:56
Lack of the 'important' academic qualifications (low grades in GCSE Maths and English Lit.) and the fact I don't play piano prevented me from furthering my studies in music.
But that's not to say it's thwarted my passion for music. Being more of a practical than an academic kind of bloke has certainly helped me - I don't see why I need to know about algebra or Shakespear to do what I want to do. I've never been any good at maths or been able to read books (apart from imformative ones on subjects I'm interested in).
Back on track, I don't really have any barriers that prevent me from playing - apart from time or lack of it. I tend to pick and choose what I want to play rather than being forced. If I'm not interested I just won't do it as I know I won't benefit - I like a challenge, something to get my teeth into, and that feeling afterwards of knowing you've earnt your crust when you're completely knackered out. All the flute and piccolo playing I'm doing this week is going to be tough going, but I know it's going to do me a power of good and I should come out of it a better player than I was previously.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: stevensfo
Date: 2007-02-06 09:59
Similar problem. Two boys with lots of after-school activities, so I end up ferrying them around. A wife who works longer hours than me, so I'm usually cooking for them when we get home, dragging them from the tv to do homework etc.
We keep all instruments in one room and the children have a rather irritating habit of not wanting to practise when it's free, but you can bet that the second I start on my clarinet, one will want to practise his trumpet, the other piano.... .....and I end up as a fight referee! ;-)
Fortunately we have a basement (great acoustics) and I sometimes go there late evening to practise and play along to CDs.**
So, lack of time and sheer exhaustion mostly. What does help is something to motivate you. Our wind band stop for about 8 weeks in the winter (not sure why) and I find it a lot easier and more enjoyable to practise when I know I have a good reason. I guess having lessons will also help.
Steve
**The ABRSM in the UK sell CDs of their exam pieces: clarinet with piano accompaniment. One CD has clarinet with piano, the other has piano only. Great for practising!
You can find similar CDs for jazz as well.
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Author: Brenda ★2017
Date: 2007-02-06 11:40
Same here, a 4-5 day work schedule with a 45 min. commute each way. Kids are grown and most have moved out, but one especially has health situation and when the meds aren´t taken then emergencies come up. Picking up son from work on frigid nights - otherwise he takes the bus home. Entertain husband, he likes to go shopping - together. No, really he´s good about my practicing! Happy Mom, happy husband he says.
Having a goal to work towards really helps to focus, like lessons or concerts coming up.
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Author: claclaws
Date: 2007-02-06 12:45
To be frank, the 'ugly me' with so many excuses...
Lucy Lee Jang
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2007-02-06 15:30
If you're feeling the absence of the clarinet in your life, it's up to you to find time to play it.
A writer friend gets up at 5:00 am to spend the first, best time of her day doing what she loves most. Can you get up 1/2 hour earlier and find a heated garage or corner in your basement?
I keep a plastic clarinet on a peg by my computer chair, with an old mouthpiece and a Legere reed. Each time I'm ready to click on a new site, I stop and play a short piece (e.g., a Kroepsch etude) in between.
Trade off with your wife. If she cleans up after dinner, you offer to clear the table, load the dishwasher, wash the pots and pans and take out the garbage. Then let her keep the kids amused for 30 minutes while you practice.
Play your clarinet with a jazz/funk/hiphop/rock beat, to get two things done at once.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2007-02-06 15:54
yeah, time conflicts; and the imposition of my noise on other household activities, difficulty scheduling ensembles.
Bob Phillips
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Author: stevesklar
Date: 2007-02-06 17:38
4 young kids - 8mth girl, and 3 boys, 3yr, 6yrs and 8yrs.
all the things associated with snall ones.
full time job 5-6 days of the week.
other major hobbies such as bicycling and astronomy/telescope gazing
AND (luckily) alot of tech repair work on clarinet/sax
BUT I do play alot for 30-45 minutes in the morning and I playtest alot for alot of hours. So i get ceratin practice time in on other peoples instruments.
wish i had more time to play though. when i do play at night, the kids usually like to come in and pull out their instruments (plastic ones) or fiddle with mine ... and of course interrupt me, want me to do other things, etc. So mostly the morning time for me.
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Author: Brenda ★2017
Date: 2007-02-06 19:44
An interesting thing that happens sometimes in my basement music studio/practice room is that my son has adopted it as his music room as well. It's fine with me because this way he doesn't keep himself up at night by having the guitar and amp in his bedroom.
So we've found ourselves sharing practice time in the same area. He'll be working on his rhythms on the electric bass, his amp in my music room while he's accompanying a computer recording, while I'm working on my own sight reading or rhythms on my clarinet. Oh, and the TV's on upstairs. We're both able to focus on our own music and couldn't even tell what the other is working on if you asked us. Not a bad skill to have! I guess having a big loud family developed that skill. So what could be a barrier for others has worked out to be not bad at all for both of us.
For me the mornings are pretty awful - it takes at least a coffee and a 45-minute sit with CBC radio to become functional in the a.m., so the evenings are my best time to practice. This isn't a good situation to be in when anticipating our master class in a few days, and I'm scheduled to play first at 9:30 a.m.
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Author: Bill
Date: 2007-02-06 23:12
1. Full-time job (9-5)
2. Profound enjoyment of red wine after about 5:05 p.m. each evening
3. Not knowing which of 20 billion mouthpieces to use (never have less than two mouthpieces; and NEVER have more than three)
B.
Bill Fogle
Ellsworth, Maine
(formerly Washington, DC)
Post Edited (2007-02-06 23:14)
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Author: ginny
Date: 2007-02-06 23:40
I seem only to have barriers from playing well, which I've come to understand are related to my stage fright... I have improved markedly in the last month by learning to relax my wrists as well as my shoulders. I have hit some relatively dazzling speeds.
I have a full time job, raised a family, have my dad to watch after, do what ever house work gets done, get the groceries and cook all meals, and all that yet I MUST practice everyday and seldom miss. I have even practiced while my dear husband drove to Yosemite and in motel rooms using more air than sound. My main barrier seems to be inner tension exhibited in muscle tension. I practice each night before 9 for clarinet and then before 10 for the accordion. It's what I do.
I simply do not watch any TV unless they invade a country or have a local earthquake.
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Author: hartt
Date: 2007-02-07 04:40
It's not the time but rather the frustrations preventing me from practicing as I'd like.
During a 20 yr hiatus, I broke my left wrist 2x, 2 broken fingers on each hand, multiple (6) fractures of the neck requiring a cervical fusion, only to throw a clot 4 wks later, and a lumbar L1-L5 & S1 that is fractured, deformed vertabre and slipped discs.
Ergo, I can't sit too long, can't stand too long
dennis
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Author: blokecalledpaul-drums-clarinet
Date: 2007-02-07 05:41
I would like to take my hat off to all of you because those barriers your mentioning are just the honest grit and moments of reality in our lives.
Im sad today because my clarinet teacher cancelled my first clarinet lesson as she said they all have cold in thier house. Good news is that i re booked it for next Tues evening. Im not sure how many lessons i will get with her as she is 17 weeks pregnant at the moment! When i said i was a drummer on the phone she seemed excited and said she wanted some drum lessons! Could do a skills swap!
Paul
If the world didnt suck we would all fall off
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Author: bawa
Date: 2007-02-07 06:26
Well,
as I write from parents point of view, daughter's school & music work is the issue.
Out of the house from 7:30 to 4:00, then Homework, projects, revision, and reading.
Mon: 2 hours of Harmony
Tues:2 hours of Band, plus another half or one hour chamber group rehearsal
Wed: swimming + clarinet class
Thurs: chamber music class
Fri: piano class and piano accompaniment
Saturday: 2-3 hours of clarinet ensemble rehearsal. Homework from all of the above.
That leaves very little and sometimes no time for practice.
Lucky people with houses and basements...in an apartment building, early-morning and late-night are out of question.
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Author: Bill
Date: 2007-02-07 11:43
When I first began playing I lived on the second floor of a three-floor apartment house. Once I asked one of the two young girls upstairs whether my playing bothered them, and her answer was such a perfect restraint of what must have been anguish ... she said "Oh - no - not at all - you seem to be .... improving."
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Author: bawa
Date: 2007-02-07 11:58
Bill,
My immediate neighbour has an oboe-playing daughter and his younger has just taken up the clarinet. My younger son plays the violin and they all have obligatory piano.
We don't even mention the topic to the ones on the floor downstairs, just in case!!
We did have an issue last year, when the neighbour's nephew came to practise the piano because he did not have access to any other. He was a very advanced player and from 11:00 onwards I would be treated to live concerts.
Unfortunately, the guy below made a huge fuss because he said he worked shifts: loud TV, pop music, vaccum cleaners, barking dogs and all other day noises that go on in the building did not bother him; only the piano.
In the end, the nephew bought himself a piano, which he needed to anyway, but as a worker-from-home, I miss those piano recitals.
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Author: buedsma
Date: 2007-02-07 12:12
work : out of the house from 06:30 till 18:00
young children : only in bed at 20:00
Leaves me maximum 2 hours , when not watching television , during the week
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Author: Tony Beck
Date: 2007-02-07 13:14
As with so many others, my main obstacle to practice is more important family matters. When our daughter first started in her school band, she loved to practice with me. In fact, that’s what got me back into regular playing. She still plays in the band, but practices her Irish dance much more than clarinet these days. I may have to pick up a pennywhistle and join in the Irish music.
In addition, we have homework. Last night, I was all set up to practice Gliere’s Russian Sailors Dance, and got called to help on a homework question. Two hours later, and an hour past bedtime, we finished the “short assignment”. One of her teachers is infamous for these. Last weekend was entirely devoted to Science Fair, with short musical interludes.
A way that I get to play more is to keep a clarinet in the car. I’ll go out at lunch and play for a while, or get an hour in during Irish Dance lessons. Eefers are great for this. You can even play while sitting in the car, and my car isn’t very big.
One of the many good things about being in a community band (or orchestra) is that you get to play for a couple hours every week, with minimal distractions.
By the way, I haven’t watched a complete TV program in years.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2007-02-07 13:20
I ought to get a cheapo curved soprano sax as that's easier to play in a parked car than a straight soprano or clarinet as the steering wheel gets in the way.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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