Student transferred from another school. One of my band missions was to check the mechanics of clarinets to ensure the best chance at getting the right notes. Note that some students come into hs playing the same horn they’ve had for 3-4yrs…. Sometimes they are fighting the horn.
Of course, most parentals would never drive a car four years without ever checking the tire pressure or changing the oil. But maintaining a clarinet? I actually had a parent ask me once, “Isn’t this the one you told us to buy?”
Anyway, this clarinet was especially intriguing. Why colored tape? The explanation was the director taught “color-coding”. Guess what I did.
According to the 4-digit serial number, my Selmer/Paris Series 10 clarinet was manufactured in 1967. In 1968, my hs band director told my mother I had to get one. Not optional. He might as well have told her I needed a Mercedes for my first car. Dad made me a 50/50 deal, and after selling lemonade to golfers and hanging ad papers on doors … I got it.
I used it all through hs. It got me Solo/Ensemble medals, traveled with me and Holmes Band to KMEA and MENC, to Murfreesboro, TN and Virginia Beach, VA…. to All-State Orchestra, to band clinic and select bands, to summer music camps at Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State Universities, and followed me to Europe/U.S.S.R. with the United States Collegiate Wind Band in the summer between hs and college. I had to replace it at UK bc the clarinet prof kept saying things like,
“That was awful. I can’t tell if it was you or that crappy clarinet.”
Anyway, I just opened packages of cleaning supplies, including swabs, key and bore oil, silver polish, swabs, disinfectant and more….. I want to see if it still has all the notes and speed it once did. Students have heard me talk about instruments with “speed buttons”.
Oh, working on my 1973-ish Buffet R-13 also. Both are considered “vintage” at this point.
A few years ago, probably the last time I played thru a top-tier piece, I was alone on the local hs stage using Smart-accompaniment on a laptop and audio recording via phone…. I was probably preparing to assign it as I had made cuts for solo festival limits. I did flub the final 38-note run up to that high Ab (couldn’t hold onto it)…. but the rest of the 7-pages went well and fast, phone audio microphone considered.
Anyway… I recently shared the online link for someone to listen for some of the things we’re working on … (scales, arpeggios, chromatics, articulation, ornaments, etc). Told the parental I was going to look for the music. FOUND IT, well Joan did. No, not going to assign (yet), but do intend to use it for the above-mentioned fundamentals.
Cleaning some mouthpieces I used in college (@ 50 yrs ago). The Kaspar seems to be especially valuable on a selling site, but that is not my purpose in the cleanup.
The first time this came up, I was working with a group of 9th grade clarinet students on finger dexterity and breath control. To do that, we were using a simple, one-octave scale they could all play. I didn’t often model my clarinet but had it with me for this rehearsal. We were working together, but I was also having them play individually. The progression of instruction:
Play the scale up and down, one octave – in one breath. Good.
Go one octave, two times in one breath. Got it.
One octave, three times, one breath. After a couple times – good.
Now, let’s go two octaves, one time, in one breath. Not too hard.
Two octaves, two times, one breath.
Two octaves, three times, one breath. “But Mr. Gardner, we’re going to have to go faster to do that.”
Ok. Your choice. Go faster and/or breathe deeper.
Here we go….
Two octaves, four times, in one breath. “Mr. G, a clarinet can’t go that fast.” (I loved hearing that).
I took my clarinet, played a THREE-octave scale up and down about 6-7 times in one breathe.
“How did you do that?”
Without any pause, I answered,
“My clarinet has a speed button.” I expected them to laugh, or to ask more questions, but every one of them took that answer at face value as in, ‘Oh….well, that explains it.’
I could not let them get away with that acceptance. I ripped off a 3 octave (or so) chromatic scale up and down multiple times, and then we talked about how I did that.
Did it look like I had to stop and think about what the next note was? Why not?
Did you see how close my fingers stay to the keys?
We discussed how we took that simple scale and worked on speed. Using that technique, and breaking runs into smaller groups, I was trying to help them grasp the concept of “Play Every Note.”
At the time, our Fall Bands were divided into three classes. There was the Marching Band, a class of 10th-12th graders who did not march, and a class of 9th grade non-marchers.
It was early in the semester and I was working with the 9th grade band’s clarinet section. It is important to note that these students had never heard me play. Clarinet is my major instrument…and way back in a previous century, I was pretty decent.
Anyway, we were working on a scale, but I used this opportunity to also teach correct fingerings, hand position, range, speed and breath control.
We played the scale several times and got the first octave sounding pretty good. They were feeling pretty good.
“Okay, now let’s add a second octave.”
There were looks and stares, but they stayed with me. Some of them acted like I was teaching them some notes they had never played before.
“You’re in high school now — and you need to be able to do this.”
We played the upper octave slowly, but then gradually increased the speed. The next step…
“Good. Now I want you to play up and down BOTH octaves in ONE breath.”
Not bad.
“This time, we’re going to go up and down both octaves TWO TIMES in one breath.”
STUDENT: “Mr. Gardner, to do that, we’re going to have to go faster.”
“EXACTLY. We’re going to go faster — and you’re also going to need to take a deeper breath and control your air. Remember…..TWO times…..ONE breath. Ready?”
I was gradually increasing the tempo and they were surprising themselves with the fact that they were getting it.
When I said we were going to go THREE TIMES in one breath, one of the freshmen stopped me.
STUDENT: “Mr. Gardner, clarinets can’t go that fast.”
That was my cue. I got out my Buffet R13 and zipped up and down those two octaves several times. I really don’t remember the number, but it was much higher than the “impossible” three where they thought we were.
I finished.
Big eyeballs. And silence….until one of them asked shyly,
STUDENT: “How did you do that?”
I started out by saying that,
“Mine is a professional model clarinet…..and it has a special SPEED BUTTON.”
To my dismay, that explanation immediately and completely satisfied them.
THEY BOUGHT IT.
Of course, you can go fast if your clarinet has a special speed button on it. I was almost speechless. I thought I was telling a joke.
No, I didn’t leave it there. I couldn’t. I talked with them about technique (how close my fingers stayed to the keys) and some practice technique, including what we had been doing with, 1) get it right, then 2) get it faster and 3) keep increasing speed.
More on practice technique in another post. And maybe I’ll share the story about the clarinet student who told me the section we were working on was “too hard”.
I just found this recording, which may be one of the last times I played a piece of this level. I recorded it privately using a recorded accompaniment. To my former students, I would asy “find the wrong note” … but I did almost lose a couple, although one of those was so far above the staff…..
Anyway, there is a short “Introduction” followed by the “Theme” and then gradually increasingly difficult “Variations”.
One of the best things my high school band director ever did for me was to secure me an “audition” to take clarinet lessons from Robert Roden, the director of Simon Kenton High School, and undisputedly the best clarinet teacher in the area. There were two challenges. The first was that he was very selective in who he accepted into his studio. And second, he was more expensive than my mother was going to be able to afford. I’m not sure what Mr. Copenaver told him in advance, but he seemed to know something about my family’s financial situation.
I was a high school freshman when Mom drove me to his home in Taylor Mill. He was in a lounge chair listening. At the end of the “audition”, Mr. Roden presented his “offer” that went something like this:
“You play well. I can help you get better. But you can’t afford me. As it turns out, I have a bad heart and can’t do yard work or heavy lifting. So, if you would be willing to cut my grass or shovel my snow, or do any other jobs around my house as needed, then I will provide you clarinet lessons until the day you show up here unprepared. Do we have a deal?”
Of course, we had a deal. I knew the significance of what had just happened.
It took about an hour and a half to cut his grass. Typically, Mom would drop me off and come back about three hours later. The Rodens always had a drink/snack break for me. I was either their pet or their adopted son. They were very kind to me. I only remember shoveling snow once or twice. There were a few times where he would have me move the living room furniture around. Sometimes I think he tried to come up with something just so I could feel like I worked for my lessons.
I kept my end of the bargain by always being prepared. And so did he. By senior year, after studying with him four years, I had earned the first chair in the All-State Orchestra, full-ride scholarship offers from Morehead State University, Eastern Kentucky University, and the University of Kentucky — and 1st chair clarinet in the United States Collegiate Wind Band, which toured Europe and the U.S.S.R. in the summer between high school and college.
I played Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsodie for Solo Contest in Junior Year. That was the hardest piece I had ever worked on until he gave me Variations on Au Claire de la Lune by JeanJean. He did something senior year, however, that was either genius or cruel.
I was his student as 1st chair clarinet from Holmes High School in Covington, KY. He also taught the 1st chair clarinetist from Campbell County High School and from his own school, Simon Kenton. He gave all three of us the same solo. Rival schools. Rival bands. Bragging rights.
Here is a professional rendition of that solo. I do not have a recording of myself.
There is a very long piano intro. If the video starts at the beginning, move it to 1:00, which is just a few seconds before the clarinet comes in.
A couple of notes about the piece. It is set up a theme and variations with piano interludes in between some of the solo parts. Everyone who knew me could tell you my biggest strength was my technical proficiency, which this piece highlighted. And my biggest weakness was endurance or lack thereof. There would have been some ‘cuts’ to get the piece short enough for contest parameters, but I kept at least most of the piano interludes to give me a break.
The three clarinetists were not friends. We were not even friendly competitors. The schools were fierce competitors in sports and bands ….and now, in clarinets. The bands got involved to support their “star” and solo contest that day was one I will never forget. Typically the only people in the room for a solo evaluation is the soloist, accompanist, the judge and assistant, and maybe the next person in line, family or a few friends. This was not a typical day.
I don’t remember which of the girls went first, but she got a “I” (Superior Rating). The room was full. The second girl went in a bit later and also got the highest Superior rating.
My performance was in the afternoon and the pressure was on. Representatives from all three schools tried to fill the performance room. The judge ordered the door to remain open so people in the hallway could hear.
I knew this judge, Earl Thomas, clarinet professor from Eastern Kentucky University. I had worked with him four summers that I attended the Stephen Collins Foster Music Camp at EKU. He really wanted me as a student. I liked him.
The crowd in the room made me nervous. The judge did not ….. UNTIL he said,
“John, I don’t know when I have ever heard this piece played in a high school event and you are my third hearing of it today. The pressure is on you, son because I gave the two girls the highest rating. Are you ready?
Yes, sir.
Oh, and I’ve heard all these piano interludes before……could you just skip those?:
GULP!
As you can see from the old copy of the judge sheet, he didn’t say much. I don’t even remember him closely following the music (which he probably knew well). He just sat and listened.
When I finished, I got a standing ovation from the students in the room — and the judge stood too.
On my sheet, he gave the rating of a “I+”, which I don’t think existed officially…..but it did indicate I had won the three-way battle. Of course, all three of us got medals for a “Superior” rating.
PS
This was the piece I played for my college scholarship audition for Phil Miller, clarinet teacher from the University of Kentucky. I felt pretty good when I finished. His words,
“NASA can teach monkeys how to wiggle their fingers.”
Also, I should note that Mr. Roden played in some “stage bands” at the Beverly Hills Supper Club. This is where my high school prom was held. Roden was one of the casualties in the 1976 fire at the supper club that killed about 165 people. As I understand it, he got out, but went back in to get his music and did not make it out the second time. My father, an off duty firefighter, went to the fire (without his equipment) to help.
In 7th grade, attending a band clinic at Morehead State University, I made the definite decision that I wanted to be a band director. No one on either side of my family had been to college, so I was clueless in many aspects of what it would take.
My band director, James Copenhaver, pulled me aside one day to explain:
You want to be a band director. That means you’re going to need to go to college, but your family can’t pay for you to go (My parents were divorced and my polio-surviving mother was raising five children.)
Your grades are okay, but not good enough for academic scholarships. You’re not athletic, so that is out.
The best chance for you to get to college is to become good enough on that clarinet that by the time you graduate, a college will pay for you to come. You’ve got four years.
Student transferred from another school. One of my band missions was to check the mechanics of clarinets to ensure the best chance at getting the right notes. Note that some students come into hs playing the same horn they’ve had for 3-4yrs…. Sometimes they are fighting the horn.
According to the 4-digit serial number, my Selmer/Paris Series 10 clarinet was manufactured in 1967. In 1968, my hs band director told my mother I had to get one. Not optional. He might as well have told her I needed a Mercedes for my first car. Dad made me a 50/50 deal, and after selling lemonade to golfers and hanging ad papers on doors … I got it.
Anyway, I just opened packages of cleaning supplies, including swabs, key and bore oil, silver polish, swabs, disinfectant and more….. I want to see if it still has all the notes and speed it once did. Students have heard me talk about instruments with “speed buttons”.
A few years ago, probably the last time I played thru a top-tier piece, I was alone on the local hs stage using Smart-accompaniment on a laptop and audio recording via phone…. I was probably preparing to assign it as I had made cuts for solo festival limits. I did flub the final 38-note run up to that high Ab (couldn’t hold onto it)…. but the rest of the 7-pages went well and fast, phone audio microphone considered.
