[Dixielandjazz] Laying off & bad horns

[Russ Guarino]

To all the world of reed teachers:

Frankly, the first job for the teacher of saxophones/clarinets and other reeds is be
sure the student horn actually plays.

Nothing could be worst than for an enthusiastic student than to be given  a horn that
has leaking pads.  No matter how good the instruction or how talented the student, the
horn wont play and the student will assume he [ generic "he" ] is at fault &  will not
be able to master the instrument.

I have had the experience of putting my mouthpiece on a student's horn and
experiencing the shock of a bad horn.  It's embarrassing, so, check it out first
lesson.

Russ Guarino

"Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis" wrote:

> What goes with clarinet players is endurance and speed over the register
> break.  It just depends on how long you don't play.  While I played clarinet
> I spent time practicing on cross fingerings and the register break.  Those
> are two things that suffer when you don't play for awhile.  A player can get
> away with biting rather than using the embouchure muscles but the tone
> suffers and again endurance drops rather quickly.  I assume that the person
> is playing nothing at all and is never practicing.  I find it hard to
> believe that a person could be at the top of his form after a layoff of some
> time.
>
> Brass players lose range and endurance rapidly.
>
> The instrument that this is most true about in the WW family is the Tenor
> and Bari sax but even there endurance is the first thing to go.
>
> I was in a repair shop one day and a guy brought in an Alto Sax that
> obviously hadn't been played in years.  He explained that he had been asked
> to join a community band and hadn't played for a long time and needed his
> horn put into playing shape.  That guy pulled out the mouthpiece, put a reed
> on it and played the most beautiful sound and some neat licks on it.  So it
> can happen but -----
>
> I find I have to play all the time or my fingers get log like and especially
> on long gigs playing Soprano my lip will get irritated and be sore the next
> day if I lay off much.  That really didn't happen while I was still playing
> clarinet.
> Larry
> St. Louis
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <Cebuisle2 at aol.com>
> To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 10:00 AM
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] (no subject)
>
> > Jim is probably correct in his description of the problems of teaching
> > students. Most of the clarinet players I started over the years stuck with
> > it for
> > at least a year or two, trombonists gave up by the score after a few
> > weeks.
> > In addition to the bleating and mooings that the horn is capable of, the
> > slide
> > positions are a wonderland for kids. Always had more trouble finding a
> > trombone than a clarinet. However, the reed embouchure can also be lost
> > from
> > non-practice
> > Recently bought a used clarinet for my adult son, who once played one in
> > the
> > school band. Tried it out before giving it to him as a gift. Couldn't get
> > anything above the octave key!!
> >
> > Lat's hear it for those dedicated 'bone  players--
> > Ted
> >
> >
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