The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Previous Message | Next Message

Re: Liking your own sound

Author: Liquorice
Date: 2014-10-28 02:43

Some years ago I had an interesting experience. I had spent the whole day running from one rehearsal to the next, playing on various instruments. When I arrived at the venue for the evening performance I didn't feel the need to warm up because I had spent so much time playing during the day. When I finally opened my case 10 minutes before the show I realised that I had left all my reeds in another instrument case! There was no time to go anywhere to get any other reeds. I remembered that there was a box of reeds in an old instrument case that belonged to the orchestra. I opened it and saw that the reeds were 2 whole strengths stronger than what I usually play on. I asked the oboe player for his reed knife and whittled away at a few of the reeds, without having really any idea what I was doing. I managed to get a reed that made a sound. Without any other choice I went onto stage with this almost unplayable piece of wood attached to my mouthpiece. I spent most of the performance just hoping that the notes would actually come out. This was a horrible way to spend an evening with a professional orchestra.

After the show I went to the bar with the other musicians, relieved to finally be able to have a drink. After downing the first half of my beer I started to tell the string players about my whole experience that evening and how stressful it had been. Guess what? None of them had noticed any difference in my sound that night! These are the colleagues that I play with every day.

Besides making me completely depressed, this did show me that the way we obsess about our sounds is totally out of proportion with what the audience (and even our colleagues) take any notice of. What they will notice much more is our expression, phrasing, dynamics, style, rhythm and intonation.

Maybe you're worrying too much about your sound?

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics