[Dixielandjazz] Beginning clarinet

[LRG4003 at aol.com]

I started playing clarinet at age 9 and my comments will echo much of what  
has appeared on the list with one exception.  I was fortunate enough to be  
able to participate in good school music programs as well as having private  
lessons for a period of a few years, playing a repertoire of  both typical school 
band and classical orchestra music.   All of that must take priority.  But the 
one thing that separated me  from far better technical players when I reached 
college was the fact  that I had played along for years with records.  My 
folks were huge Pete  Fountain fans and every chance I got, beyond practice time, 
I played along with  his recordings as well as those of Benny Goodman, Louis 
Jordan---anything we had  around the house.
 
When I started playing with trad groups in college in the late 60's (there  
were still a lot of them around then) I was one of the few---in fact the  
only---clarinetist who could walk onto a stage and play by ear.  None of  these 
groups used any charts---call a tune, call a key and go--so the  technically 
superior music majors, who hadn't grown up with this music couldn't  play a lick 
of it.  
 
You can't give up the basic grounding for the other, but hearing, and  
playing along with, the great players of the past (Goodman, Shaw, Edmond Hall),  
near past (Davern), and present (Wilbur, Peplowski) etc. from time to time,  is 
invaluable too.  Finding the balance between the two is the  trick  
 
Virtually any time I play in front of a new crowd there is invariably  
someone who starts up a conversation with me by saying, "I played the clarinet  in 
high school.".  But that's where it ended for most of them.
 
Developing the skills is absolutely critical.  But I think  finding the fun 
ways to apply them is almost as  important.  (Remind your son that Benny 
Goodman, until the  end of his life, practiced every day).  I wasn't the best 
clarinet player  around but I always loved playing.  And so I continue to, 48  years 
later.
 
Hopefully your son will find the same joy in the music.
 
K.C. Clarinet



************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.