One of my favourite quotes comes from a famous clarinet performer and teacher:
"Everyone discovers their own way of destroying themselves, and some people choose the clarinet.”
That quote comes from Kalmen Opperman (1919-2010). Opperman started playing the clarinet at age 10 and by the time he was a teenager, he was studying with Simeon Bellison (principal of the New York Philharmonic). After a time in the Army West Point Band and continued study with Ralph McLane, Opperman enjoyed a 50 year long career playing in Broadway orchestras, radio and TV commercials, and was principal clarinetist for the American Ballet Theatre, Ballet de Paris, and the Ukranian Folk Ballet.
I know about him because he was my teacher's teacher (that makes me a grand-student of Opperman, right?), and I was therefore introduced to Opperman's method books. To my non-clarinet-obsessed readers, these are great books. Not too frightening, but just difficult enough to keep me engaged. They spend a good deal of time noodling around in the low range (the development of the low range is crucial for creating a good high range), but transition seamlessly into the altissimo, forcing the player to get really comfortable over the entire (very large) range of the clarinet. And the etudes that appear "easy" have just enough traps to keep the player from becoming complacent. Each etude focuses on one concept to be ironed out through concentrated, methodical practice. And once you get the etudes worked out, you then need to try to play them up to the marked tempos.
Opperman's philosophy of practice and music is inspiring. He had a clear idea of what he expected from his students and himself, which show through in his etudes. He wanted his students (and all students of the clarinet) to have a solid technical foundation. Why? In his own words: "You can't teach music. You can teach the instrument. The basic premise that I work on is that you master the clarinet. You play music."
That's worth thinking about.
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