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Re: Squillo

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2022-08-23 15:57

Thank you Luuk! Lots of great comments from a bunch of folks in that thread. Just thought I'd put one of Greg Smith's here:

"No clarinetist that I've heard either sitting next to, in front of, or out in the concert hall ever sounded better because of any noise, garbage, etc. in one's sound. Quite the contrary. It's convienient in theory but realistically, the better one sounds up close, the better they will sound at a distance PROVIDED they know how to PROJECT their well developed, pure, and well shaped sound - one with an inherent beautiful sonority.

Which brings one back full circle to how to project the sound.

It all starts with the formation of the concept of a sound through extensive listening as D. Hattner and his distinguished teacher suggested and practiced himself. One hears and qualifies aesthetically in the mind an ideal concept that one shoots for on a constant and continuing basis. Without that, one is simply shooting at a moving target. It increasingly amazes me how less frequently students that I see in my studio have any clear idea of who they want to emulate (or more flabberghasting, mention two or three incongruous, disperate players that could not possibly be associated with having a distinguished sound by any standard that I'm aware of).

Then comes all of the physical apparatus one assembles to best produce the sound that one has to best reach that ideal. Finally, one has to apply some basic concepts to best project that ideal sound according to the situation at hand. These fundamentals mostly include the origin and shape of the wind but also the ability to listen to one's own self as objectively as is humanly possible - as if one were listening to themselves on stage while simultaneously sitting in the balcony.

Lots of experience playing in good ensembles will help one in deciphering what works and what doesn't. One cannot apply the fundamentals of projection in a practice studio.
I learned more about my own ability to project by far when listening to radio broadcasts of the San Francisco Symphony and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra that enabled myself to hear what I sounded like IN CONTEXT. I remeber my teacher, Robert Marcellus describing exactly the same learning process to me about playint in the Cleveland Orchestra when we talked about this subject during the last few lessons that I had with him. He told me that he had learned more about his own playing and made the most personal progress from that single, objective listening process alone.

Gregory Smith"

.............Paul Aviles

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