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Re: Gearheads

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2022-08-04 21:16

SecondTry wrote:

> Still more, I find myself
> reeling in young players who want to buy into the "church of
> gear," particularly as a substitute for hard work.

> SunnyDaze wrote:

> Hi SecondTry,
>
> I've been thinking more about what you said about young players
> engaging with 'the "church of gear," particularly as a
> substitute for hard work.'
>

I don't know what SecondTry means by "young players." My experience with students who are high school age or younger is that they tend to be more than anything else oblivious to equipment shortcomings and sometimes need to be convinced that they would sound and generally play better with a different mouthpiece, different reeds or a better regulated clarinet. They are more often than not actually surprised at how much easier some things are when I let them play on my instrument or offer a more responsive mouthpiece from my desk drawer. They're even surprised, when I ask them to put on a new reed, how much of a difference it can make.

The young players most attracted to SecondTry's "church of gear," I find, are college-age students who are suddenly exposed to players from different backgrounds and often more gear-aware teachers. As college students my peer group (college in the late '60s and early '70s) didn't have nearly as many choices, and we managed to find lots of things to experiment with. We all came into college playing equipment our high school private teachers had selected for us. I don't know what older teenagers are doing about equipment these days with the seemingly infinite alternatives that are available. Based on the high school students that I've been teaching, I don't think they're much more aware than we were that equipment can make any difference at all.

Karl

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