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Gearheads

Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2022-08-03 00:07

This bboard has had its fair share of gear questions and gear debates over the decades. Discussion about the theory/physics etc. can be fun and even enlightening.

However, I still can't get excited about gear - at least not as either a barrier or a panacea. A tube is a tube. A hole is a hole. A vibration is a vibration.

Save a fairly rudimentary level, the balance is in the skill/practice/makeup of the human playing the instrument.

Can gear help make something easier or harder? I suppose.

Can gear make things more or less comfortable for various humans with various different physical make-ups? Certainly.

Can certain gear make playing more subjectively "fun" or "enjoyable" than other gear? I think so. To each his own.

So - I'm glad there is a lot of gear out there, I truly am. We're not all built the same, and we're not all aiming for the same exact goal. It is nice to know what options are out there.

However, when the topics touch on the equations of xgear+ygear=result, I become skeptical. Best ligature for... Best barrel for... Best clarinet for... Best material for... Easier with... How to achieve Z... Best facing... Best reed...

How is it that a great player can pick up a leaking instrument with a poor reed (and all the wrong gear) and still sound better than a lesser player on a perfect instrument with all the "right" gear? This question underlines my "doubt" pertaining to gear and explains why it produces an ambivalence in me (or is it a disregard?) toward gear.

Great players play great. Gear seems to make this task either easier or more difficult. More comfortable, or more work. More fun, or less fun. More this, less that. However, beyond a certain baseline - it rarely prevents the great player from playing greatly.

I often wonder if all this gear talk on the bboard, in practice rooms, and in schools lengthens the student's trail to becoming a great player instead of shortening that trail. From past experience, I know it at least lightens the wallets of the student's parents.

;^)>>>
Fuzzy

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Fuzzy

2022-08-03 00:07