Practice makes as close to perfect as you can get

I had a student once who, as she was playing, was getting increasingly more frustrated with herself and her continual errors in a particular piece I had set for her. She was wailing,"I've been practicing it every day but I can't do it". So we stopped and I asked her HOW she was practicing it. Ding ding ding!!!! Alarm bells sounded. Her practice sessions consisted of playing her piece from start to finish a couple of times and moving on. Warts and all, no structure or attention to detail. No wonder she was going backwards in her technique.

Good regular practice procedure is essential for technique to be mastered and I have a method and schedule that always works for me, especially in the times when I don't think I can fit much practice in. Assuming that you are practicing for 30min a session (or this can be worked out on other amounts such as a 20min practice session or 1 hour session as well), there is a schedule of sorts that can be implemented to ensure that you gain the maximum results from the short time you work.

The first five minutes of a 30min practice session should consist of a good, focused warm-up. Long tones in the low register are good for setting embouchure, warming the instrument (which, in turn, ensures better intonation and prevents bubbles and excess condensation) and most importantly, opening the ears to the issues of good tone and tuning. Think of it as a stretching exercise that a dancer or sportsman would do before taking to their chosen activity. The player is less likely to feel tired early in the practice session if a slow warm up is done effectively. This is also a good time to work on slow scales as they are a good way of warming the entire length of the clarinet tube and opening the player's ears to the variation in intonation between individual notes. If you do two practice sessions in one day, Usually this one warm up would suffice.

The next 20min of your practice session is the bulk of the work that you will do. If you have been set three or more pieces plus technical work to practice, it is better that you focus on one or two of these in one session in a focused manner, rather than try and conquer the lot in the one day which can be pointless and often counterproductive.

Firstly you need to concentrate on the areas that you are not yet comfortable with, ie. playing a passage, a bar, a phrase with which you have technical problems. Rushing over the notes, regardless of the errors, only serves to solidify those areas in your fingers and in your brain. Bad habits are very difficult to remedy once set in and this could lead to future frustrations and inadvertently lapsing back into mistakes in an exam or performance. Instead, you will need to play the area of concern to find the problem area, sometimes it could be a simple note to note movement or perhaps a range or physical issue. Mark where you are having trouble. Now....how to fix it? Slow and repetitious is the key. If you think you've finally got it, do it another 10 times anyway!

1. Fragmentation.

Often a problem in technique could be as simple as a single note leap. Isolating that spot and ONLY playing that particular problem note and perhaps the note preceding and proceeding it will aid in drilling the pattern. When mastered, you can add the next couple on either side of that note and so forth until the passage can be played without the mistake occurring. This kind of drill is reinforcing the correct pattern in your fingers and ensuring the muscle memory.

2. Retrograde

If a run or passage continues to elude you, there are other options such as playing a passage backwards. This reinforces the pattern in your fingers and when you change back to the original direction, it will seem so easy in comparison! Sometimes a psychological approach to your music is nine tenths of the problem!

3. Altering rhythm, metre or articulation

Changing rhythms, time signatures or articulations is particularly good in the case of a run or series of quavers or semiquavers as it shifts the accent of a note to a different one, therefore highlighting a note previously weak. Often in my playing, I have discovered that the note errors I make most often occur on the unaccented parts of the bar (ie, in a 4/4 bar, the note that falls on the 4th quaver of the bar is usually a problem). Shifting the natural accent (by putting a simple quadruple bar into a compound triple) can often shift the focus on to that note (or perhaps by changing the articulation and note groupings to punctuate that particular note) and subsequently highlights its importance in the fingers.

4. Repetition

Of course, repetition works. We know that. But it also works within a run by repeating each note once, twice or sometimes even three times. My old teacher told me this and at first I was sceptical but it works. It reiterates the fingering at a slow tempo - perhaps this is also psychological but if it is successful, who cares!

5. The 10 time rule

I have always said to students, if you have trouble with a particular passage, try playing it 10 times without an error (after, of course, you have done the minute detailed work. If you make a mistake, you go back and start again. This forces you to not just fluff over areas but to make sure you are completely focused at all times.

6. Memorisation

I've found that memorising music can take your focus off 'notes notes notes' and help you to rely more on the fact that you probably know it better than you think you do but you don't trust yourself. Taking yourself away from the intense focus on the page and more on your finger memory and instinct is a valuable tool.

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When you think you have mastered the problem areas (or it might be a scale or arpeggio that is the target of concern), play through the entire passage or whole piece. You will soon notice the areas that have improved and the sections that still need attention. Mark them as a focus for your next practice session. Learn to be self-critical and recognise your weak and strong areas and use these to the best of your ability. The more you settle for second best, the more you will be second best.

When your pieces have been worked on thoroughly, you can then move on to the final stage of your practice session. The final 5-10 minutes are very important. Most people who learn a musical instrument do so for enjoyment. Jobs in music are scarce and it is hard work to learn so most musicians do it for the love of it, because it's fun, because it's rewarding. We can lose sight of this in the frustration of learning a scale or a passage we find difficult. You must find something in this last 5-10min that is rewarding for you.

Have fun. Play pieces that you love to play - even ones that you used to play in your first weeks of learning if that's what you want to do. You could sightread some fun, light repertoire, popular tunes. Or you could improvise to the radio or a friend playing piano or a backing cd. If you have friends or family that also play, have a jam session. The possibilities are endless. You need to remind yourself why you have just put in the other 25 minutes of work - to learn to play because it is FUN. It is important to d this AFTER the long winded part because it is like the tasty dessert at the end of a meal your parents made you eat! That nasty mushroom casserole with brussel sprouts was worth eating because of the yummy chocolate pudding at the end. It is a reward. I used to (for the most part) spend 3 hours a day in a practice room when I was studying and I hated every second of it. It was boring. Especially practicing things I hated such as scales or studies. Practice can be a real chore so you need to give yourself something to look forward to at the end of each session. Of course, you deserve it!

Happy practicing!

Technique: The Foundation of Any Good Musician

I am a massive advocate for musicality. I spend literally hours a day not only fixing my own playing in this capacity but also, drilling the importance of dynamics, phrasing, tonal colour and articulation as equally important aspects of playing into my students.

However, all this can only come from a secure technique and this is something that is overlooked when many teachers begin with a learner clarinet player. There are too many cases, unfortunately, of clarinet players (self taught or otherwise) will begin teaching beginner clarinet players for a few extra bucks but will overlook the basics of technique in order to take on a more 'instant results' view to their student's playing. This is extremely frustrating, particularly for myself who has been required to take on several students who have arrived from another teacher and have obtained poor habits that are difficult to undo. These habits have arrived through both a lack of experience by the teacher and a careless, lazy approach to teaching. I was devastated to hear that a very new student of mine who has poor technique from the previous 10 years of appalling teaching - she suffers from a weak embouchure, poor air support (or a lack thereof), heavy slopping tonguing technique, poor sight reading skills and extremely slow note reading ability - has been 'employed' by her school to teach beginner clarinet students in the junior school. I wanted to cry. This wouldn't happen in a driving school - just because you can drive doesn't mean you can teach it.

A complete beginner clarinet student will, in the first few months, undertake a complex collection of instructions from the basics of breathing, posture, embouchure and hand positions to the more complex applications of note reading, rhythmic recognition and co-ordination of these aspects into one action.

Technique is the primary foundation of teaching an instrument - a student who is technically advanced or proficient may be free to play everything with musical expression. However, a technically limited student, whilst they may learn and understand the concepts of phrasing, dynamic control, tonal colour, stylistic interpretation and other expressive means of paying, their technical limitations may harbour their ability to put these concepts into practice.

On the clarinet, there are fundamental technical issues that cause concern for a beginner; aspects that a teacher should concentrate on solidifying as early as possible in order to prevent habits that would require a remedy in the future. It is much more difficult to undo mistakes once solidified in a student's brain. These aspects include, but are not limited to, breath control, posture, embouchure, articulation, crossing the 'break', scales (in turn linked to rhythm and tempo) and tone production.

Breath control is an extremely important aspects of any wind instrument as it enables the player to overcome hurdles in intonation, tone production, tonguing, sustained passages and 'break-crossing' (the point between the throat note area and the 'all fingers down' long B) or large intervallic leaps. If not taught correctly (and often combined with poor posture), a student may develop shallow 'high breaths' from the upper chest which will limit their ability to play a long phrase or support an upper register. This is in addition to the linked technical difficulties arising from poor air support. Breathing from the shoulders causes muscles in the arms, hands and fingers to stiffen. As a result, the body becomes tense and the tone of the instrument suffers as a result of the inflexibility in their embouchure, throat and fingers. Shallow breathing and poor air support also decreases a student's ability to play long phrases, make large fluctuations in dynamic range and to articulate with clarity which, in turn, harbours their ability to play phrases with musicality and expression.

To a lesser degree, correct breathing opens the possibility for good phrasing to be taught to a student in that a teacher can instruct a student to breathe where the phrase ends. This not only teaches them the concept of phrases but gives the student the opportunity to decide for themselves where to breath where the musical sentence concludes.

Poor tone is very difficult to fix as many factors are involved in a student's tone production problems. Frederick Thurston once said 'There are only two kinds of sound on a clarinet. Good tone and bad. Good embouchure, posture, hand position and air support....are foundations of technique. Practicing long notes provides good tone and facility over the break, hence opening the possibilities for expression' (Porter, Maurice. The Embouchure, London: Boosey and Hawkes, 1967 p.1).

Teaching the importance of clear, comfortable tonguing can improve a student's tone and in turn, increase their ability to play with expression. Tonguing is very important as a beginning step in a clarinet student's development - the worse the tongue, the fuzzier and harsher the tone, the inability to play rapid passages, the 'honkier' the sound and the worse the phrasing. Breath support and articulation go hand in hand and without a solid air support behind the tongue, the tone on articulated passages can suffer, dynamics will sound weak and ineffective and therefore, the expression suffers.

The quicker tone production is developed in a student, the easier the student will understand and be able to apply the more complicated procedures of varying tone colours which can only be controlled by technique. The varying of tone colour, according to Maurice Porter, is an important part of expression, almost inseparable from dynamic variation. This includes the use of vibrato, brightening or darkening the sound (a difficult and complicated process to demonstrate), adding or removing fingers as vent keys to colour the sound, throat manipulation and other 'tricks'. Therefore, the basics of articulation, air support, embouchure and posture are essential parts of a student's development of their playing into musical expression.

Scales and rhythmical exercises are invaluable tools in enabling a student to consolidate technique to such an extent that musicality can be approached without any technical hitches to harbour its development. The tendency to rush a complicated or difficult passage is a common situation that teachers will find their students in. Metronome work in scales combined with good breath support and finger consolidation can help a student not only recognise a passage in any piece that they play and will increase note recognition but also will enable them to control the tempo of a piece in a way that follows the contours of the phrases and is stylistically true to the composer's wishes. Rushing or 'panicking' can not only become a build up of technical problems but destroys the musicality and can sound uncomfortable to a listener. Keith Stein said 'Good phrase driving is closely associated with rhythm in that there is an almost self-perpetuating surge that gives an energetic boost to the music. He goes on to say that when the amateur student attempts to introduce musical expression, he risks upsetting note smoothness and evenness, especially in rapid tempos. (The Art Of Clarinet Playing, Illinois: Summy-Birchard, 1958, p55).

Scales, therefore, are fundamental technical exercises that enable the student to practice evenness and note smoothness, particularly in crossing the break where there are obvious hiccups in the flow. This is to ensure that phrasing, when necessary, can be as seamless and naturally contoured as possible. Pamela Weston mentions that descending scales are good with a counteracting crescendo and vice versa in order to practice evenness of tone and volume that can be applied to pieces that require long phrases and musical flexibility (The Clarinetists Companion, London: Fentone Music, 1982, p91).

Musicality, as a general rule, I believe, should be taught as arly as possible. A student's awareness of phrasing, dynamic variation, melodic sensitivity and stylistic interpretation is important to their development as musicians, regardless of how early their progress is. However, without a solid basis in the fundamentals of technique on their instrument, the learning of the expressive side of music can be an uphill battle as they could be possibly fighting against their own poor technique. The importance of solidifying these basics as early as possible and giving the student a thorough grounding in these elements is influential on a student's future as a musical performer and will give them the freedom to interpret music in their own unique way.

Baby Dream Your Dream: Memories of Sweet Charity

March 1995. That date is engraved on my mind as fresh as any school studies or childhood memories. A time when my mundane life as a less-than-studious Year 12 student was thrown into disarray with a solitary announcement. My patient, friendly music teacher and concert band director made this announcement. Our concert band rehearsals were to undergo a temporary change. We were to become a major musical support for the biggest thing to hit our humble high school for four years. Finally, the teachers were announcing a school musical accommodating both the junior and senior school commodities: the sixties extravaganza, Sweet Charity. And I was to take on a major part of this one-time event.

I’d heard rumours of this the year before – fleeting comments by teachers, whispers through the music suite – but until now, I had not anticipated the enormity of staging a full-scale and expensive stage show on my young adolescent existence. At first, I was a little resentful that I could not participate on stage but when I realised my role in the orchestra would be largely important (being one of only two competent clarinet players in the school), I suddenly felt compelled to make a positive contribution and undertake the challenge. If I had realised what putting together such a large show with a 100-strong cast and professional music entailed, I (and my co-musicians) may have been less enthusiastic about the orchestral duties.

Our first shock was the beginning of rehearsals. The cast and crew had been given scripts, song music and CD recordings of other performances months ahead and had already begun tight Sunday rehearsing schedules, as well as many late days of choreography and singing lessons from the pompous but talented Mr Rogers (who didn't live up to his name, sadly). Unfortunately for the long-suffering and hardworking musicians, we did not receive the score and parts from New York until five weeks before opening night – only just adequate time for a semi-pro orchestra to practice, let alone an amateur school band filled with musicians flourishing under a maximum of five years experience.

This was the first indication that our proficient, organised production director, Mr Harrison, had little idea what was even meant by the term ‘orchestra’ and did not understand the enormity of pressure to perform that he had bestowed on us. He admitted on regular occasions that he could not read music – however, we would have termed it more appropriately to be ‘total musical illiteracy’ – and proved later to work us overtime with scarce consideration for wind players’ lips, string players’ hands and the RSI of holding drum sticks for 4 hours straight.

I didn’t quite realise just how incompetent Harrison was, music-wise, until I attended a Rhythm Of Life rehearsal and he had to ask me – the only musician around – to help him with the tune and the rhythm. This resulted in the embarrassing task of having to sing in front of 20 cast members – it was reminiscent of karaoke at the local pub, not Pop Stars material.

On finally receiving our musical charts with which we were to become intimately acquainted, the looks on the musicians’ faces were of shock, dread and fear. This resulted in a few students leaving the band and the rest of us sweating. The entire woodwind section were restricted to a mere three books (flutes, clarinets, oboes and the entire denomination of saxes). Traditionally, Broadway pit orchestras feature only a few multi-tasked woodwind players to play at least two different instruments – if not, all the parts – and would swap instruments as instructed in the books. This was not an ability present, nor expected, by a bunch of high school beginners. As a result of this beginning set back, Aleta (string bass), Isobel (my fellow clarinet compatriot) and myself spent several hours developing a rapport with the library photocopier and piecing the music together by hand with scissors and a UHU stick.

When we began rehearsals after school most days and the ungodly hour of 9am Saturday mornings, grimly aware of the lack of time we had, we began to make friendships with people otherwise segregated from us in terms of age, year level and situation. Our MD introduced us to M.H. and her young violin student who joined us in the first rehearsal and Saturday mornings welcomed back the old school concert band members from yesteryear: Magda (Trombone), Simon (Baritone Sax), Ben (Trumpet), Jack (Drums), Stacey (Flute) and Naomi (Alto Sax). It was a friendly bunch of musicians that refreshed us for the grim task of heavy rehearsing every weekend. The orchestra were as follows:


Sweet Charity Orchestra



Flutes: Stacey A..... Clarinets: Moi
Gillian G...... Isobel C.....
Stephanie D.....

Saxophones: Naomi C..........(Alto) Violins: Margie H........
Scott M........... (Alto) Margie’s student (name unknown)
Simon H.......... (Baritone) Alexandra G........
Piano: Tom F.......... String Bass: Aleta B...........

Percussion: Peter M....... Guitars: Jeremy S.........
Jack P.......... Alex H..........
Grace B............. Patrick V...........

Trumpets: Rob C.............. Trombone: Magda K...............
Ben S.............
Steve K.................. Conductor: Rob P...............
Earl H...................

The dirty work began with deciphering the badly written music and ploughing through the scores littered with horrendous key signatures (seven sharps was a particular highlight) and wickedly hard time signatures. The music (scrawled and smudged by hand by someone getting paid by the note) was incomplete in some places – bars were missing notes, in the wrong key, quite often transposed shoddily and sometimes totally indecipherable. When problems like these were smoothed over, hard-core practice began and without the melody of the vocal lines, it was hard work.

Finally the dreaded time came. Our MD announced that our services were now required with the cast to begin a full-blown stage show rehearsal. This arose in the form of a five day, strict 8-hour rehearsal schedule from Friday morning to Tuesday afternoon, culminating in a full dress rehearsal in front of the non-participating junior school. This delighted some of us who were enthusiastic to miss classes on Tuesday.

One prominent advantage of working to such a short tight schedule is that the impatient, methodical group of musicians that we were had to develop patience and tolerance. Upon arriving at the school hall, Harrison discovered that there was double the amount of musicians than he had anticipated and therefore had to give his singers radio microphones even before the show so we could hear them. However, not being able to hear some of the principle female singers in the cast would not have been a problem for us. Maria and Vicki (the Wed./Fri. contributions to the roles of Nickie and Helene) would have to have been the most untalented tone-deaf singers and actors ever to ‘grace’ the school stage – and the worst part of it was not only did they not know this but they actually condescended to pretend they knew more about music than our musical director. It took a lot of strength and suppression of extreme frustration on my part not to get up and strangle them with my clarinet strap, although a few screaming matches did serve to give me my revenge for the torment I received in Year 8 (but that’s another story).

Similarly, the principal Wed./Fri. Charity had almost as little talent except to look the part of a trampy prostitute – she didn’t even need a costume. The Tues./Thurs. Charity, left a little to be desired but at least she understood the basic principles of music and working with other musicians. Her contribution was not perfect but she was lucky to be supported by the fabulous "C K" and "Rain Muse" in the Tues./Thurs. roles of Nickie and Helene – the latter later going on to become a filmmaker and taking lead acting roles in several amateur musical theatre. They were an absolute pleasure to work with. Although a pleasant enough guy, Luke D (who was strangely cast into the main role of Oscar, the love interest, despite not having sung before) was so tone-deaf that the orchestra were told NOT to play during his solos because it would highlight the fact that he could not remain in one key throughout the song. Therefore, it was customary for only the bass and drums to accompany his singing. It was a pity – he had a lovely timbre to his voice if it wasn’t so flat and tuneless.

The original role of Herman was originally played by Brock but due to non-talent and an inability to show up to rehearsals, Brock was fired – As far as I’m concerned, being fired from a school musical is quite an achievement! He should be proud! He was replaced by Harrison’s musically talented and studly young ‘soooon’ (obviously adopted as he didn’t appear to have derived from any of the Harrison gene pool), on whom Isobel immediately developed a crush. However, he was quickly replaced (or should I say, put aside) by the equally studly blonde sex magnet, Steve who blew a mean trumpet. Lucky for me (hmph…), Harrison's son was also a mildly accomplished clarinettist and he picked up my clarinet during one rehearsal and quickly told me that I ‘slobbered’ too much in my clarinet and hastily sucked my reed dry. No doubt Isobel was jealous that he had wanted to suck my spit up…

The rehearsals began to get to us after a while, beginning at 8am and sometimes finishing as late as 6pm. I spent many an hour practicing a brutal semiquaver solo from The Rhythm Of Life to no avail. The section the phrase appeared in was so loud, I couldn’t be heard anyway. Small things began to seem incredibly entertaining after virtual social isolation for 5 days straight. The ‘elevator sting’ became a particularly favourite amongst the musicians – this consisted of one accented note played ‘ffff’ by all the orchestra, no matter what pitch, to signify an elevator breakdown in the script. I think that this became a favourite because 90% of the orchestra had finally found something in the score that they could actually play! Another amusing indication of fatigue and short adolescent attention spans came in the form of helium balloons from McDonalds Happy Day which were brought to lunch one day and were taken by the principal cast on stage. Picture "Rain Muse" and our own Vittorio Vidal singing The Rhythm Of Life, Baby Dream Your Dream and If They Could See Me Now in chipmunk voices on stage accompanied by the sounds of roaring laughter. Oh, the maturity…. Unfortunately, the McDonalds that one of the chorus boys ate just a few minutes before dance rehearsal for The Rhythm Of Life was a permanent regret for him as he vomited on the stage after overexerting himself. He will be forever remembered as McDonalds boy!

But the fun, hard work and slavery of rehearsals came at a price – I came out of the Saturday rehearsal with lips the size of balloons as a result of playing for five days straight for 12 hours a day with no break, Isobel had a thumb callous like 12 grit sandpaper and Aleta’s fingertips were red raw from plucking the guitar strings. Finally our MD had had enough and decided to take the Sunday off for which he copped no end of grief from Harrison. Our MD came to our defence stating that Harrison should give his poor musicians a rest as it was physically impossible to play for that amount of time – unfortunately the stubborn director argued and refused the time off.

You know what they say, if the dress rehearsal goes badly, the show is bound to be good. Well, I have a feeling that doesn’t apply to school productions. The dress rehearsal signified the first appearance of four new musicians to our fleet: The school's percussion teacher extraordinaire Peter, the school's extremely accomplished trumpet teacher Rob, Tom (pianist) and Grace (tuned percussion). Some had never seen the music before but being all accomplished musicians, this did not appear to be a problem and their presence was greatly welcomed. Little were Isobel and I to know that we were about to make a shocking discovery – the lovely, friendly and accommodating pianist Tom was, in fact, the son of the biggest wicked witch of a teacher at the school. Again, I don’t think he belonged to that gene pool. Maybe he was adopted.

The dress rehearsal also began the first argument over who was going to play the block for Charity’s Theme and finger cymbals for Big Spender. This became a long-standing argument and the biggest highlight of the winner’s day. Of course, the dress rehearsal was not without its mistakes – the worst being that our Vittorio Vidal set the tablecloth on fire because the stage crew forgot to put an ashtray on the table and so he butted the cigarette out on the tablecloth instead. I remember the giggles from the orchestra as the smoke rose from the table and horrified looks appeared on the faces of the Fandango Girls on stage.

Opening night: I was nervous and excited…so much so that I found an excuse to skip classes to practice heavily in the music suite during the day. My first mistake of the day was to tell Harrison ‘good luck’ as I passed him in the hall 30 minutes before curtain call to which he replied “NO!! Don’t say that, say break a leg”. My non-dramatic training had never taught me that. I’ll never forget that lesson, but then, I don’t think I jinxed the performance that much. Opening night featured the half-decent cast so the orchestra were less nervous than we expected. I would have been more nervous had I known the performance was being videotaped.

Funnier moments occurred with the cast when the Vittorio/Ursula orgasm scene occurred. At the point Vittorio Vidal was to yell in ecstasy, “Ursula, my darling, my angel, my sweet!!!”, Robert T, our lighting person, was supposed to dim the lights. However, he was a little delayed in his fade and the distance of a metre between the two supposed lovers seen by the entire audience turned the bedroom scene into an absolute farce.

Similarly, Isobel and I were to hear our dodgy clarinet solo played a whole note out of time with each other on the recording of the performance the next day to our dismay – it sounded rather like an unintended fugue. Now that I look back, it is an amusing look at teenage musical inexperience. That aside, we still performed a better job than Earl, who insisted on playing a quarter-tone out of tune with the other trumpets for the entire four nights of the musical’s run.

We were disappointed to hear Harrison's son in I Love To Cry At Weddings neglect to perform the falsetto “Sweet Adeline….”, after the number of times he had done it perfectly during rehearsal. I thought it would have made an entertaining and fitting moment for the show but it was not to be. However, it was all made well by the sight of Patrick A’s sleazy flasher role and the subsequent sight of young Stephen M wearing Pat’s love heart boxer shorts with lipstick kiss marks all over his skinny little body. I would like to know who put them there!

However, when all is said and done, the performances were executed quite well considering the length of time and considerable lack of talent in the primary cast. After the final performance, Harrison was overheard speaking to "Rain Muse" about the casting for the performance. He stated that if he could have another chance to stage the musical, he would overhaul the cast with the exception of "Rain Muse" and "CK", including finding some male actors with at least one ounce of musical ability. He was disappointed to learn of Holly P’s singing talent after the initial casting (although he quite happily dismissed her in the beginning without a second glance). Holly soon overcame her annoyance at being discounted as a possibility by getting stoned with the show's butler during the closing night party.

The party was a chance for everyone to let their hair down. Our MD posed for a photo with the band in which he lay on the ground in front of us with a rose in his mouth. Unfortunately, the school principal deemed this photo inappropriate for publication in the school yearbook at the end of that year which was disappointing. Another disappointment for us was to discover that the video tape of the opening night had been selfishly and callously edited by one of the witches of the A.H.S library to cut all of the orchestra’s overtures, stage changes and other musical interludes – for some reason, she must have thought that this wouldn’t matter much to the musicians who slaved their guts out 12 hours a day for five weeks to make this performance happen. Oh well, karma will soon see to that….

Twelve years after the blessed event, I look back at the time I had in that ‘hastily thrown together orchestra’ during that tumultuous time - aside from all the anger, the tears, the frustrations – and the moments I remember the most are the friendships I cemented and the lessons I learned. I will be forever indebted to Isobel, to Aleta, to Gillian and Stephanie and most of all, to our MD, those people I worked so closely with during this time for the learning experience of co-operation and musical togetherness which will prove invaluable in my later musical career, esp in the area of musical theatre. School experiences will always mean something very close to people because they happen in times of high emotions and adolescence, at a time when the people you meet and the actions you take will shape your life from then on and make you the person you are destined to become. I’m sure this crazy chain of events will be no different.

AMEB and beyond

So, I was playing again after a short break after high school.

But something was missing. A good teacher. I wanted to get better. I had a secret desire to play professionally - I loved playing more than anything else. I spend most of my high school years in the music dept at school. I was a band nerd before I even realised it.

So now that I was working full time, I could afford a teacher. So I found one in the local area who turned out to be a wonderful teacher and friend. She was so encouraging of me and got me involved not only in solo playing (I did my first solo performance at one of her student concerts) and AMEB exams (which I did quite well in up until 5th grade), but also in ensembles such as the Adelaide Clarinet Choir, now unfortunately extinct. All these things made me improve dramatically as a player and give me more confidence to try harder things. The clarinet choir was a particular challenge for me as the players involved in this ensemble varied from amateur musicians to music teachers to professional players and students of clarinet and saxophone. I was introduced to the conductors of this ensemble, one of whom later became my teacher, and they were most enthusiastic about sound and clarinet technique and all other information relating to playing which I found very helpful in learning more about the instrument. I didn't know very much before....just simply that a reed vibrates. I didn't understand the complexities of reeds and mouthpieces until then.

I was soon to find out though. I mentioned to my teacher (who incidently also played in the choir) that I was interested in studying music at a certificate level (although I had applied for the Bachelor of Music out of pure interest) but I wasn't sure if I was good enough. Looking back now, I probably wasn't ready, but she was very encouraging anyway. She helped me prepare for my audition meticulously and that involved 3 contrasting pieces plus my scales etc. I was already learning around a 6th grade level at the time (which probably wasn't high enough a level but oh well.... that's the beauty of hindsight!) and so I chose to play the first movement of William Hurlstone's Four Characteristic Pieces 'Ballade', the last movement of Howard Ferguson's Four Short Pieces 'Burlesque' and "Prelude" from Gerald Finzi's Five Bagatelles. I think for the most part, I played quite well.

I obviously did. I got into the Bachelor of Music. And this freaked me out. So after some rigmorale, I changed my SATAC application so I could get into the Certificate 4 instead. And I was accepted.

Uni was an eye opener. I wasn't ready for it at all, technically. I fit in quite well in the theory, history, piano technique classes, composition...everything. Except performance. My first teacher (who later turned out to be wonderful for my development as a player and under whose tutelage, I did the most improving) and I clashed big time and after a rather heated discussion, decided to completely start again from scratch. I did quite well in the C4 and as a result, was prepared enough to audition for the Bachelor of Music again and got in. By then, I was actually ready to study properly as a tertiary music student. I would recommend anyone who is interested in the Bachelor of Music to take this path also (Certificate or Diploma courses first help you settle in and ease you into the scary hectic lifestyle and particularly the practice schedule that is thrown at you at the conservatorium).

The repertoire I have studied (* or in some cases briefly studied) since I have been studying music includes (and doesn't mention the evil that is Alfred Uhl's study book):

Certificate 4:

Camille Saint Saens - Sonata
Don Banks - Prologue, Night Piece and Blues For Two
William Hurlstone - 4 Characteristic Pieces
Andre Previn - Fancy Passing and Passing Fancy
Carl Nielsen - Fantasy
Ferruccio Busoni - Elegie

First Year BMus

Igor Stravinsky - Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo (part)
Paul Harvey - Etudes on Themes Of Gershwin for clarinet solo
Johannes Brahms - Sonata No 1 in F Minor (part) for clarinet and piano
Carl Maria Von Weber - Concerto No 2 in Eb Major (part) for clarinet and orchestra
Malcolm Arnold - Sonatina for clarinet and piano

Second Year BMus

Csaba Deak - Sonatina for clarinet solo
Malcolm Arnold - Fantasy
Gioachino Rossini - Introduction, Theme and Variations for clarinet and orchestra
Margaret Sutherland - Sonata for clarinet and piano
Joseph Horovitz - Sonatina for clarinet and piano
Alec Templeton - Pocket Size Sonata for clarinet and piano

Third Year BMus

John Mayer - Raga Music
Carl Maria Von Weber - Concerto No 2 in Eb Major for clarinet and orchestra (part)
Johannes Brahms - Sonata No 2 in Eb for clarinet and piano
Claude Debussy - Premiere Rhapsodie
Aaron Copland - Concerto for Clarinet, Piano, Harp and Strings

Honours

W.A. Mozart - Concerto for Clarinet in A and piano
Carl Maria Von Weber - Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra *
Darius Milhaud - Duo Concertante for clarinet and piano *
George Gershwin - Three Preludes for Clarinet and Piano *
Gerald Finzi - Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra
Krystof Penderecki - Three Minitures for clarinet and piano
Bohuslav Martinu - Sonatine for clarinet and piano
Arthur Benjamin - La Tombeau de Ravel (Valse Caprices) for clarinet and piano
Ferruccio Busoni - Concertino for Clarinet and Small Orchestra
Robert Muczynski - Time Pieces for Clarinet and Piano
Jean Francaix - Tema Con Variazioni for Clarinet and Piano


It doesn't need to be said but I think I did improve somewhat over the 6 years that I was at the con. I had some enormous setbacks emotionally (some not related to the con or playing at all) and there were times when I didn't think I'd get through it but I did. I pushed my way through the hard stuff and came out okay. My ability to sightread got even stronger. I was always really good at it but I'm pretty efficient at it now. My technique has improved (as is probably evident with the repertoire I was tackling in the last 3 or 4 years) although I am really quite disappointed that it is not quite there yet. I was hoping I would be better than this but oh well, you can't have everything. There's always room for improvement. I was never truly happy with performance. I did remarkably well in every subject BUT performance and that wasn't an ideal result for me. So I had a lot of pressure this year. And my final result for my recital which was 2 weeks ago was extremely disappointing - tear inducing in fact - but as usual, and to uphold the last six years' traditions....... I'm not a quitter.

I don't give up that easily. I'll get there eventually.

Bring on the community bands

Bring on the community bands!



So, where was I? Oh yes, the uni years.

I left high school after doing year 12 twice and the first year of it, getting to participate in the school musical (another blog entry). It only took about 2 months for me to really start to miss playing. I hadn't had lessons in almost 2 years and so I had no repertoire to practice and I was really worried that I was going to lose my fledgling skills on the instrument.

Then one day, my mum told me that there was a community concert band that had advertised for players in my council area in the local Messenger and so I went along on a Wed night. I didn't know what I expected after high school but it wasn't this. This was a band with only 2 people younger than me and mostly older men. I was introduced to the band secretary (who later became a very close friend and father figure, may he rest in peace) who immediately heard that I had played until year 12 and shoved me on 1st clarinet. This music wasn't like high school though. Very old school band music that looked like it had been in their library for centuries. I began my journey through community banding with pieces such as Hootenanny (which, if anyone has heard it, has a quite amusing clarinet 'chicken reel' up in the altissimo register for 1st clarinets, a bit that at first eluded me, technically). We opened EVERY concert (gulp!) with the Sousa march, The Thunderer, and played horrible marches like Mountbatten March (which partially caused my dear friend M to leave the band in a huff...) and old school tunes such as Keep Smiling Through.....

I have both fond and shudder-worthy memories of the old Hal Leonard arrangement of The Wizard Of Oz, the annoying chromatic dixieland piece Jazzamatazz (which sadly had a piccolo solo), My Heart Will Go On (and on and on and on....) and Bands Around The World (complete with narration and the clarinets acting like bagpipes).

I, however, don't have fond memories of the guy I sat next to. He smelled really bad and caused a lot of people to leave, unfortunately. I remember the bari sax player saying "DON'T OPEN THE DOOR! I'M DOWN WIND!" So funny! :) But he helped me a lot. He could play everything technically very well and I felt a lot more confident with him there. But as I got better, it became frustrating that I was almost overtaking him in ability and yet I would never be able to play any of the solos and be able to hold my own. He was there EVERY week, no fail, and so I never really got a chance to play on my own. And the conductor was getting on my goat. He was a lovely man who stepped in when noone else would do the job and so every credit to him. But he was getting old and didn't like change. So my good friend Andrew finally won the job of conducting this band and the band hasn't looked back since.

During this time, I answered another advertisement that my nan found in the Australian about a community ensemble converting from brass band to concert band and looking for wind players. I wasn't entirely happy with just playing alongside Mr Stinky Pants and I wanted another musical outlet. So I went along there. This was one of the best things I ever did for several reasons:

1. I met someone I dated for several years without whom I wouldn't have EVER auditioned for the conservatorium

2. I met one of my closest friends in the world

3. I gained so much confidence about solo playing

Even though I later left this band because of stylistic reasons, uni commitments and also because I improved too fast for the band (it remained a beginner-like band, whilst I improved dramatically), I have fond memories of rehearsals above the bar downstairs, spending many a Thursday night gasbagging until the early hours of the morning, the social times,

I remember some of the terrible gigs we did - the Norwood Food and Wine Festival was a particular highlight. I remember playing the original theme from Neighbours at my first ever performance with this band and a couple of coppers standing by the side of the marquee cacking their pants. It was hilarious. Not at all humiliating... But we also had some great social events such as the annual bbq at the MD's house, the 'Eisteddfod' where our MD played Advance Australia Fair on 12 different instruments and where Matt, Mo and I did a great whistling trio to Mozart's Rondo A La Turk. A fun event that should be mandatory for all bands, esp on band camp.

The AMEB years to come....

Squeak squeak squeak

Welcome to my second blog. Unlike Down With Pants: The Next Generation, this one is serious.


I know what you're thinking, those of you who are readers of Down With Pants....Nix? Be serious?! What a cack!!


But this is my new music blog, dedicated to all things clarinet-y and saxophone-y. And more than anything, it is a tribute to Benny and Stan, my babies.

So how about we meet my babies then....

This is Benny....well, sort of.

And this is Stan....sort of....

Who needs children when you can have Stan??? So shiny.....

They are pretty much my life. I am a single girl, no kids, no ties, with metal and wooden wind instruments as children.

And I am a self confessed band nerd. Gasp!

I didn't have much hope, really. My mum's side of the family are all band geeks. And brass band geeks at that, so I really copped it with the genes. But I have made some of the best friends in the world through banding. So I don't care about being a nerd.

So, a bit about me....

THE EARLY YEARS

I began playing the clarinet at the age of twelve, very late considering that I was bugging my parents about clarinet lessons when I was seven. This older bloke (who I have a sneaking suspicion ended up being my first teacher in high school - they looked very similar) used to come into my dad's music store when I was really little. He played in a jazz band that used to play in the arcade where the store was. He used to carry his clarinet under his arm, not in its case, and peruse all the records. I was fascinated by him. Dad played me the Mozart Clarinet Concerto not long after that and I was hooked. Dad actually asked this bloke how much he charged to teach clarinet to me but sadly, it was too much and my parents couldn't afford lessons until I hit high school and the lessons were free.

I picked up clarinet really quickly. It wasn't long before I was in the training band at school and 1st clarinet, no less. I had a fabulous classroom music teacher (who, as coincidences would have it, became one of my closest friends, married the conductor of one of the bands I played in AND became my boss). She inspired me in so many ways. She was so enthused about music and I loved going to my music lessons. I remember every band rehearsal as she made every one of them so memorable. I remember sitting on first clarinet after only a few weeks and freaking out about the fact that it was 'so high' (when really, looking back at it, it was only F (fifth line) and G (just above the stave). LOL. I have so many fond memories of playing band music such as Tequila (played at just about every band rehearsal because we loved it so much) and When The Going Gets Tough and Fantasia Espanol. My teacher was so encouraging and made everything so much fun that I persevered with the hard things - in fact, it inspired me to practice. I have since then told her about how much she helped me but that'll be a new blog entry later.

However, my clarinet teacher was a different story. He didn't seem to like children very much, ironically, and I didn't feel like I was getting much out of my lessons. I played out of some horrible repetitive method book for 2 years until I finally cracked it and asked for something different. I was lucky however, to have a good work ethic and a natural ability for the instrument. I had a pretty good ear and practiced quite hard. As a result, I ended up being quite competent at the instrument.

Part two, the UNI YEARS is coming up.

Nix

Over and out.