 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2015-01-24 14:27
(Bass Clarinet rant)
Tonight a band i'm subbing in has their annual concert.
Yesterday we had dress rehearsal. Tightly packed stage. I was seated in the hindmost row (of five), three tubas to my right, four 'bones to my left, five french horns in front of me, drum set in my back.
On the plus side, I can play whatever I want and don't need worry about the odd wrong note.
Meh.
--
Ben
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2015-01-24 18:35
yes...makes playing a pp duet with the oboe in the front row a lot easier. ![[tongue]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie6.gif)
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Ben
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2015-01-24 20:59
>> and don't need worry about the odd wrong note. <<
Or even the even wrong note.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2015-01-27 00:41
(My own Bass Clarinet rant)
From decades of playing bass clarinet in concert bands and orchestras, I have determined that I have the unique ability to STOP THE MUSIC at will! Permit me to elaborate:
The bass clarinetist, as Ben and others will attest, typically has many measures (sometimes entire movements, and of course entire works) of rests. So at a rehearsal he/she sits and waits, and waits, for the opportunity to play those twelve or thirteen exquisite notes allotted him/her for the evening. I have found that, after sitting for half an hour or more waiting to get to the part where I finally have something to play, I can cause ANY conductor to cut us off, simply by grabbing my instrument and preparing to play.
Just by that simple act of pulling my bass clarinet off its stand (K&M, by the way), the conductor will always stop and return to rehearsing that violin section part, or that brass fanfare, or whatever --- anything that doesn't have a bass clarinet part. I have demonstrated this amazing ability to my section-mates dozens of times. What power I have!
More than once I've gone home after sitting through an entire rehearsal, always ready to play, having personally STOPPED THE MUSIC several times and without having played a single note.
I suppose that is why I get paid the big bucks (HAH)
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2015-01-28 17:24
>>More than once I've gone home after sitting through an entire rehearsal, always ready to play, having personally STOPPED THE MUSIC several times and without having played a single note.
>>
Yes, the bass clarinet does possess this magical ability and so does the Eb alto clarinet, as I learned in my junior high school band back in the days when dinosaurs ruled the earth!
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: Gandalfe
Date: 2015-01-29 05:13
Insane that they would place the bass clarinet in the back row. Did I say insane, I meant sad. Not sure I'd stay in a group like that assuming I had options.
Jim and Suzy
Pacifica Big Band
Seattle, Washington
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2015-01-29 11:37
> Insane that they would place the bass clarinet in the back row. Did I say
> insane, I meant sad. Not sure I'd stay in a group like that assuming I had
> options.
Yes, that's why I'm planning to quit. Not with a Grand Exit, mind you, but I'll inform them about my reasoning.
--
Ben
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Author: GeorgeL ★2017
Date: 2015-01-29 18:02
In the four bands where I have played bass clarinet, I have always been next to the bassoons, usually in the 2nd row, right behind the flutes or oboes. Almost always there are loud brass right behind us, although one band had three tenor saxes (cruel and unusual punishment) behind me.
As a 3rd clarinet, I have frequently been in the last row of clarinets with something loud behind me and not a chance of being able to hear the 1st or 2nd clarients.
Years ago while playing alto sax I sat in front of trumpets and behind horns. That was loud.
If the trombones are good players, being in front of them is more painful than being in front of good trumpets.
I probably did not start using ear plugs early enough. I now have hearing aids.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2015-01-29 23:21
I said: "THE PERCUSSION ARE TOO LOUD!!!"
Clarinetists do have one advantage over most other wind players, we can sense our pitch (though not our tone quality so much) via conductance of the vibrations through our teeth and jaw. Even if our hearing is disrupted by loud noise around us, or degraded by hearing loss, we can maybe continue playing to a greater extent than brass players, flutists or oboists.
That's my theory and I'm sticking to it, until refuted by someone who might actually know what he/she is talking about.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2015-01-31 00:24
>>If the trombones are good players, being in front of them is more painful than being in front of good trumpets.
>>
Yes, because the trombonists can stick their snouts out farther in the direction of the ears of the people sitting in front. In my high school orchestra, the first trombone sat directly behind me. He thought it great fun to put his slide over my shoulder and empty his spit valve down my front. I never did come up with a good way to get back at him!
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: Mark Charette
Date: 2015-01-31 01:03
Lelia Loban wrote:
> I never did
> come up with a good way to get back at him!
>
Too bad you didn't play eefer back then. You could have just turned around and tootled at will :-)
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2015-01-31 19:30
>>Too bad you didn't play eefer back then. You could have just turned around and tootled at will :-) >>
Yeah, that would've made a great incentive to practice the highest possible altissimo!
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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