Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2017-04-23 19:39
At the risk of pointing out the oh so obvious, the steps to becoming a great player, regardless of the clarinet genre you cut your teeth in (classical, spiritual (e.g. Gospel, Klezmer), Jazz, Band Era, etc.) are so utterly simple you might wonder why so few are truly virtuosic.
Sure, there's abilities were born with, hooking up with the right instructor at the right time, (which is probably not long after emerging from the womb) and gear, etc.; and clearly not everyone is or should be destined to be Julian Bliss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe_WiPxEAY8
So, if the steps, which I will outline, are so easy, why don't more players reach the best version of themselves?
The best parallel answer as to why this is so, that I can furnish, lies in the weight loss industry. In 2012 it was a $20 billion U.S. industry. In 2016, $60 billion, and still 2/3 of Americans are overweight. And yet like the steps to becoming a great clarinet player (true, I haven't gotten to them yet, bear with me a little longer, I will) describing what it takes to take and keep off weight is so utterly simple:
"Consume less calories than you are, and exercise more than you are."
OK--it's not THAT simple. In addition to eating less, we have to make those calories "count," getting the nutrients we need for healthy living. And exercise, while so necessary, doesn't mean each of us were destined to do so via pole vaulting. Physical activity has to be tailored to our abilities and likes.
And yet we can, because were are only human, fail at maintaining proper physical fitness for the same reason we can fall short of being the best clarinet players our genetics and environment (and to a smaller extent equipment) destine us to be. The reason why, and the holy grail are actually one and the same:
focused discipline over the long term, with the right teachers.
Let's break down this so simple yet so elusive holy grail, removing any ambiguity. Great play comes from blocking many hours of your time to distraction free focused, metronomic repetition of the great study books of our craft:
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=224152&t=224150
If I could bundle this into a video it would be something like this, only tailored (likely down) to your abilities, at speeds no faster than you can reasonable handle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YYk8okEQ10
(and remember, that's just Bob's warmup)
Then find yourself a teacher (a fitness coach) who is demanding, watching you finger every nuance with the least effort necessary
http://www.kalmenopperman.com/testimonials
(btw: the student's the great Adam Ebert, still practicing this philosophy today)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWigDvhiVJk
=======
So why is the very holy grail the source of our failure? It's because understanding the steps are easy, but implementing them, day in day out, 3 or 30 years from now, when their novelty and newness has worn off, and not being sidetracked by other things that could reasonably (baseball, debate team), or unreasonably (clarinet gear that falsely promises things, or your false believe that it will hand you the sun, moon, and stars) takes up your time is:
freakin' hard,
particularly when advancement can seem like a "2 steps forwards, and 3 steps back" proposition.
============
Time to practice, quite literally, what I preach.
Post Edited (2017-04-23 19:41)
|
|
The Clarinet BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
