 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2009-11-16 01:37
Which do you find more natural to say?
A) I play clarinet.
B) I play the clarinet.
I get asked this very often in my day job teaching English. My answer would be A, but most text books say B. I have even seen dictionaries that mention specifically that musicians generally leave the "the" out, but non-musicians usually say it.
Do you put "the" before musical instruments?
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2009-11-16 01:49
I say A, but if I were writing I'd probably avoid the problem with "I'm a clarinetist."
But then, everyone here calls the highway that passes Philadelphia "I-95", but in Phoenix, where my older daughter lives, they all drive on "the 10" (meaning *the* Interstate 10). Sometimes idiom trumps the dictionary.
Karl
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Author: Mike Baines
Date: 2009-11-16 05:26
My impression was:
"I play the clarinet." British English
"I play clarinet." American English
Mike
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Author: stevensfo
Date: 2009-11-16 06:01
--"My impression was:
"I play the clarinet." British English
"I play clarinet." American English" --
With TV and globalisation, I'm not so sure about the differences any more.
As a stand alone sentence, I'd say "I play the clarinet."
But in a conversation about the band or music in general, I'd say "I play clarinet."
But in any case, it's an irregular verb, isn't it?
I play
You practise
He sucks
....
Steve ;-)
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2009-11-16 08:14
I think I actually say 'A', 'I play clarinet'. Then one can say 'I play flute, clarinet and piano', for example (I don't, but one could say that!). 'B' sounds right but clumsy. The idea about musicians and non-musicians is a good one, I think. To a musician, 'clarinet' is an abstract all-encomapssing concept; I'd only say 'the' in a form like 'I play the organ in Winchester cathedral', meaning a specific instrument.
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2009-11-16 13:31
Hi,
I always think of using "the" with a noun as implying omnipotence (ala Thomas Aquinas) such as "you are the Man" or "The One" or a similar type designation. But then I am an academic and thus tend to be quite archaic in a lot of ways. In academe, we could mull this linguistic question over for a semester or two at least.
Bassie, you are right about the organ reference as you are really implying that specific organ.
HRL
Post Edited (2009-11-16 16:02)
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2009-11-16 13:45
I've heard Juilliard students and graduates say, "I'm a fiddle," "I'm a clarinet," etc.. I don't know whether this odd construction is peculiar to Juilliard, but it's unusual to hear non-Juilliard people refer to themselves this way in the USA.
I don't know far back in time this idiom dates. It definitely predates Christopher Isherwood's "I Am A Camera," from his "Berlin Stories," published in 1955. I heard the expression at least as early as 1952 or 1953, because my late Aunt Mary, a former opera singer who who worked as a career counsellor at Juilliard for years before she moved to the Met's National Counsel (fundraising), complained that she was trying to talk her students out of calling themselves by the names of their instruments. She thought it sounded pretentious -- but she told me she was pretty sure she never persuaded anybody to stop!
During this visit, I did the monkey-in-training bit and piped up, in answer to someone's question, "I'm a piano!" My aunt gave me the basilisk glare while my mother pointed one long index finger at me and said, quietly, "No." And by gum that was the end of that!
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2009-11-16 16:04
I did show up for a church pit gig for an Easter pageant and the choir director said "you must be the clarinet person."
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-11-16 16:07
I say "Im the bass clarinetist" of the BSO or I play clarinet and bass clarinet with the BSO. I know, that doesn't help.
Do you say, I'm a pianist or a pee- inist? Or flutest or floist?
We could all say I play an axe.
At least we all pronounce the clarinet the same way, more or less, we just don't spell it the same. Klarinet!
ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: Bluesparkle
Date: 2009-11-16 17:08
Just made T-shirts for my son's clarinet section. He asked that the front say "2009 FHS Marching Clarinets," which, when thoroughly reviewed means the clarinets themselves are doing the marching. Or are they a selection of instruments designed specifically for marching, as in "this is my marching clarinet?"
Then, on the back, they have a phrase someone said on a Facebook posting that struck a funny bone with the section, and they wanted to include it. "Because Clarinets are the awesomest section of all." Figure out that one.
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Author: John25
Date: 2009-11-16 18:14
I agree with Steve that on this side of the pond we would tend to say "I play the clarinet". If it's a question of multiple instruments, then "I play the clarinet, saxophone and piano".
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Author: soybean
Date: 2009-11-16 22:35
I play the clarinet.
Then the awkward silence followed by; "What's a clarinet?"
~Dan
(Leblanc Bliss, Buffet R13 key of A, Yamaha 250 Bb)
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Author: BobD
Date: 2009-11-17 15:43
Some languages omit the article altogether i.e. "the", "a" . Teaser: Would you say, "I live in the Netherlands" or "I live in Netherlands".
Bob Draznik
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Author: Bubalooy
Date: 2009-11-17 20:41
I believe that either "I play the clarinet or I play clarinet" could be correct depending on context. The is used to designate something from a larger group, so while it is generally wrong to say I am going to see Bob today. If your listener may confuse which Bob it is, it is perfectly possible to say I'm going to see the Bob who lives in Baltimore, or the Bob who plays clarinet. So to distinguish which musical instrument the clarinet is correct. In many cases, however, it would not be necessary.
The I am a tenor or I sing tenor is interesting as with vocalists, they are the instrument, so it is interesting. On the other hand, I guess if you attend Juliard it might mean that you play tenor sax.
I was also struck by the possibility of I'm a clarinetist. I wonder if that would be actually true if clarinet is not your profession outside of the context of the specific ensemble you may play with . For example, I am the clarinetist in a woodwind quintet. But outside of professional or in such a context perhaps it is better to say I am a clarinet player isn't it? I teach English to non-native speakers, so I grapple with these questions often.
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Author: graham
Date: 2009-11-18 07:00
"I am a clarinet" would be entirely normal expression in English English.
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2009-11-18 07:57
>"I am a clarinet" would be entirely normal expression in English English.
I can only guess that this must only be in the context that it is assumed that one is already a musician and one is only making a specification on which instrument; as an abbreviation, this phrase removes "player" from the sentence because it is redundant. Similar to, "In 1995, I moved to California"; the specification "CE" or "year" (ie. "the year 1995" or "1995 CE") is redundant because it is so widely assumed that a 4 digit number preceded by "in" has little chance of being anything but a year in the Common Era.
It has to be already understood that one is a musician for this phrase to work, because without prior information, this might happen:
A- Nice to meet you. My name is John.
B- What do you do, John?
A- I am a piano.
---
I am asking more about the use of "the" before instruments in general, not just in the "I play~~~" example.
Other examples:
"I practiced [the] clarinet yesterday for two hours"
"I started playing [the] piano when I was 5 years old."
"I wrote a concerto for [the] cello a few years ago."
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Author: stevensfo
Date: 2009-11-18 09:45
"I am a clarinet" would be entirely normal expression in English English --"
Only if it's the clarinet that's speaking.
Steve
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Author: graham
Date: 2009-11-18 10:02
I was referring to Lelia's observation. It is just as applicable in the UK. Of course it has to be set in context. I do not go up to people in the street and say "I am a clarinet". Nor do I say "I play the clarinet" in that context either.
A conductor will often pressage a remark:- "Clarinets, .....". They never seem to say:- "Clarinet players, .......". But they expect the player to respond, and do not expect to be answered back by the clarinet itself.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2009-11-18 11:19
"and do not expect to be answered back by the clarinet itself."
Oh, but they do expect to be answered by the clarinets....
Bob Draznik
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Author: crsbryan
Date: 2009-11-19 15:02
We could, of course, move the English language forward (or backward depending on your opinion of the issue) and turn the noun into a verb.
How about:
"I clarinet."
Which could then take advantage of standard conjugations:
"I clarinetted for the symphony last night."
"I'd rather be clarinetting."
"She clarinets beautifully."
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2009-11-19 15:42
crsbryan,
Yours is the best yet! Still laughing as I type on my computer (as opposed to saying "type on a computer" since that would seem superfluous). But then, I could be typing on a Blackberry but do you really type on one of those?
HRL
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Author: Curinfinwe
Date: 2009-11-19 18:49
Or we could just take a page out of Bob Marlee's metaphoric book and say, "We be clarinettin'."
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Author: GBK
Date: 2009-11-19 20:39
BrianM wrote:
> I am the clarinet.
The clarinet was Paul. ![[wink]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie3.gif)
...GBK
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Author: Lee
Date: 2009-11-20 00:09
I normally say "I play a clarinet" -- I am a baritone when I sing.
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