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Re: About "standardization"

Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2021-03-13 06:55

It depends on what your goal is, and who/how your instructor is.

When I was going through high school and college, nearly every instructor I had gave me rules to play...habits to break, habits to create. I was never given concepts and encouraged in correct directions to achieve those concepts. It felt like the clarinet was some extravagant encrypted device, and if I simply followed all the rules, then I would one day reach the ultimate achievement of unlocking the prized result.

Please note, this is in stark contrast to some of the insight shared on this bboard by folks like Tony Pay and others. Concepts. Mutliple ways to achieve the concepts (some better than others). Reading such posts finally led me to the point I had already struggled to reach myself - the understanding that in most cases (for me anyway) the concept and goal were much more important than the minutiae of how to get to that destination. The goal is generally: understanding. The way to reach that understanding is: concepts....or being told every minute detail someone else used to achieve the goal, and trying to copy them (the latter seems to be the default in public schooling in the US - or at least it was when I went through school).

If you're planning a career playing "classical" music, then I would think the box is always going to be something you must deal with to one degree or another.

However, if you open up your options to include pop, rock, jazz, folk, etc. - the box changes / grows quite a bit.

While performance on stage can be a component of music - the music itself is strictly audio. So, if a person can achieve the audio result they are after - I'm not of the opinion that it matters exactly how that result was achieved. It is when a person wants/needs to add/change something to their playing/sound; where they might realize a hindrance with their current process/understanding, and need to re-evaluate. This can be painful and take a long time. I believe this is where the "box" is the default for most educators and students...it attempts to minimize the weak points, but at the cost of individuality and freedom.

Just my opinion,
Fuzzy ;^)>>>

P.S. - I had to laugh at your statement,

Quote:

I will never ever play the Mozart Concerto in the style of say, Stravinsky. Even if I was famous. That's just common sense and I'm sure everyone will agree on that.

Why not? Life is too short to be stuck with such rules. Many of the rock tunes are remakes of earlier pop tunes, or traditional folk tunes/melodies going back to medieval days.

Just to break things up, here's the Adagio movement from Mozart's clarinet concerto (rewritten to fit a 32bar New Orleans street beat/march (Jason Marsalis on vibraphone)...I get a kick out of the stuff starting around 2:20):
Adagio

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