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Re: About "standardization"

Author: Matt74
Date: 2021-03-13 12:42

I've always liked it that my clarinet teachers were more open minded than my saxophone teachers. IDK what things are like now - it seems you have more options now all around.

There is a lot of group think in music. It's not necessarily all "wrong", but it can be restrictive.

IMO most of it comes from students and amateurs, rather than professionals. Individual teachers do sometimes teach or think very much "one way". I think part of this is that they have a way of playing and equipment that they know, and they can most effectively teach their students that way. However, not all the teachers teach the same way.

If you ask various professionals about various things you will get a greater variety of opinions than with students or amateurs. This is because the professionals know what they are doing. Students have less experience and tend repeat what they have heard, because they haven't figured it out yet for themselves. They depend more on guidance and recommendations, so they gravitate to certain things.

There are some radical differences of opinion and practice regarding interpretation, especially if you listen to older recordings.

That said, professionals can be mighty opinionated.

The "rules" were actually a major stumbling block for me when I was young. I couldn't get along with the standard classical saxophone set up and approach AT ALL. I eventually quit playing because I couldn't stand it. It was just one big painful struggle. On the other hand, I got along great with the standard clarinet set up, and it was my own dumb fault for not switching to clarinet full-time. When I went back to playing I decided that I was going to try different things and play whatever I wanted, however I wanted - but I don't have to "fit in" anymore.

- Matthew Simington

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