The painting has been a bit sporadic lately, the cycling non-existent (unless you count the exercise bike) but I have been quite productive in terms of musical endeavours. I am assured that there is no connection between this and the fact that one near neighbour has just moved and another will be going shortly!
The clarinet poses an interesting challenge. It is a transposing instrument. Mine is a Bb clarinet, so if I play the note C on the clarinet, it sounds the same as the note Bb on the piano. So from time to time I get totally bewildered and wonder why they don’t just call it Bb on the clarinet as well instead of calling it C? Is it me, or am I missing something?
The result of this is that if I want to play a duet involving a non-transposing instrument like a piano or violin, and if the piano or violin music is in, for example, the key of G major, then the clarinet part has to be in A major.
Having gained my musical training on the violin during a large part of my youth I can read treble clef music for the violin but struggle to connect the same music to the clarinet fingering – but that will come with practice. Trouble is, this process is not helped by the fact that I am able (too often in the present context) to play the tune in question “by ear” and tend to ignore the printed music – or I get so involved in actually playing the tune that I forget to look at the music and therefore lose my place in the score. Is this a musical “senior moment” I wonder?
If there is a really disheartening aspect of the clarinet it is reeds. Even experienced clarinetists have problems with reeds – or they would if they hadn’t found their own ways of dealing with them. The problem is that although manufacturers grade their reeds according to their hardness, the raw material is inherently inconsistent – and so are the reeds. The consequence is that a comparative beginner (in particular) may find that out of a box of ten reeds only two or three will be playable straight out of the box. Just last week I had no playable reeds left, just a motley collection of rejects. Fortunately, I had acquired a copy of “Reeds Reeds Reeds!” by Alan Cresswell. Alan is a New Orleans style jazz clarinet player, who plays with Max Collie, The Muskrat Ramblers and The Golden Eagle Band at clubs and festivals in UK and Germany. He says that he wrote the book to share his experiences hoping they will help others. It is a slim A5 book of a couple of dozen pages, which includes detailed (and well-illustrated) practical information about reeds, mouthpieces and ligatures and how to improve problematic reeds, whether too hard or too soft. I strongly recommend this book. Why? Last week I had a collection of reject reeds – a collection that cost me more than the book itself. This week they are all working well and producing quite a nice tone. The book is available from Dawkes, who supply other music shops and Foyles bookshop in London and you may well find stockists by looking for Reeds Reeds Reeds on Google.
I knew very little about the clarinet when I started to play it but that soon changed thanks to David Pino’s book, “The Clarinet and Clarinet Playing”. It is packed with practical advice and information and is very readable. I found it at Amazon.
Good day to you!
Lovely new header photo. Isn’t it fun to be able to keep vacation “snapshots” such an integral part of life?
Enjoyed this post very much. How I remember sitting in classes, sucking on reeds before a lesson or orchestra practice. We weren’t quite so fussy about them, but even in the beginning it was obvious there were good reeds and bad. I can remember leaning over the boxes arrayed on the counter of the music store, trying to decide which to take. The proprietor sometimes was in a good mood and would let us sort through and fill a box with the reeds we were willing to bet on.
When I got a good one, it was pure pleasure!
Yes shoreacres, it is nice to have reminders of holidays but I must try harder with the photography next time – and get a lot more pictures of the sea as well.
I was interested to see that, in his book, David Pino encourages clarinetists to make their own reeds from blanks. Sounded like a good idea until it became apparent that blanks cost almost as much as finished reeds. So I think I will continue to buy “finished” reeds when the need arises but look upon them as blanks. Then if 7-8 out of every 10 need my modifications to make them work, at least I will not be disappointed, having expected nothing better.
All I need now is a new pair of lungs! Perhaps it would help if I remembered to breathe IN from time to time!
I didn’t catch all of the details on this and didn’t take the time to look it up, but I thought you’d get a kick out of it.
I was listening to a National Public Radio bit this morning on “stolen music”. As it turns out, the clarinet glissando at the beginning of Rhapsody in Blue was picked up by the composer from a practice session of some group – I believe a smaller jazz group. Just didn’t get it. But the point is fun – he heard it, and incorporated it.
Maybe there really isn’t anything (much) new under the sun!
But we won’t allow it to lower our opinion of the great George Gershwin, will we? Little snippets of information like this cast an interesting light on the daily lives of the masters -whether popular or classical composers, painters or whatever. Contrary to the popular beliefs of your average self-appointed art experts, most creative people are not actually seeking to express the meaning of life through their work, or searching for their souls but simply seeking practical solutions to the practical problems confronting them and they are probably hoping to find next week’s rent as well (if not last weeks in fact). In the case of brother Gershwin here, the practical solution was delivered courtesy of the practising band nearby – and having more talent than your average (note the cool British understatement), he saw the opportunity.