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Re: How to get my "groove" back?

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-02-24 01:27

I play mostly orchestral music, which exposes the clarinet players much more than playing in a band does, so my first motivation is to be able to play well at the next rehearsal or concert on my calendar. Then there's a degree of self-flagellation that happens if my playing even in my practice room gets too sloppy or out of control.

But beyond those, I hate to say it because it sounds really egotistical, going to hear great live clarinetists drives me to want to play the way they do. I'm not Ricardo Morales or Sam Caviezel, but they are the players I hear most often, and wanting to play as musically and cleanly as they do is for me a meaningful goal, even at age 70. Before those two it was my principal teacher, Anthony Gigliotti and Don Montanaro, who held the same chairs in the Philadelphia Orchestra as I was growing up and through a great deal of my years as a player. Two other models were Raoul Querze and Ron Reuben, who were the rest of the section through most of my adulthood. Sometimes my motivation comes from upcoming concerts with other players I strongly admire out of the fear of having them find playing with me unrewarding.

I don't practice as much when I have no upcoming challenges as I do when something difficult is coming up, but I find enough in these motivations to keep me in shape and steadily (I think), however slowly, building and improving.

Karl

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