davejenbarnes

Today is my busiest, cram-packed, most clarinetish day of the week. Not only do I teach a section of 7 bass clarinets before school (CPHS) but I also have thirteen students during the day. Well, today one of them knocked over my clarinet (it was even on a clarinet stand) and incurred damage that prevents it from playing. The good news is that it can be repaired. The bad news is that it has to be repaired in the first place, which costs money, time, and gasoline. The nearest trusted repairman is in South Austin. My preferred place of repair is all the way in Evanston, Illinois, where we used to live. Hopefully this local repair guy will be able to bend the bent rod back into shape without losing the fine-tuning of the Brannen work.

I have been extremely happy with the work that Linda Brannen has performed on my clarinet. I sent it to them when I was in high school and getting serious about clarinet playing and then again two years ago. The level of detail that they took in replacing corks, pads, teflon, etc. is just astounding. I would not be surprised if my clarinet has more precision in its moving parts than my car has in its engine. Well, until today. The sheer ease of playing that clarinet has spoiled me and its all due to the work of the Brannens.

I am sad that another person has to repair it for me now…

Courtesy the teenagers who play bass clarinet at Cedar Park High School who I had the honor of spending my afternoon with:

I was scrounging through the folder of “stand tunes” — tunes a high school marching band plays whilst standing in the stands — and I came across Speak Up Mambo, which I mentioned last night on this blog for being the inspiration for the name of our large, formally dressed, floppy butler, Mambo. Of course, some of the students had already heard this story because every time I see that song, I tell whoever I am around that THAT is the song my CAT was named after! So when I hold up the score to it and start to say, “Hey! Speak Up Mambo! This is the song my cat…” they ended my sentence, “yeah, was named after, WE KNOW ALREADY!!!” This got them started and one of them, (Chris, for Manuel, who I know is reading this) says, “Hey, Mrs. Barnes, when you have kids, you should name your first born Speak Up.” They then proceeded as a group to come up with some crazy classroom situations in which that name would be funny. I couldn’t control myself and I did end up laughing. I hate laughing in front of students when you’re trying to keep them quiet! Especially when something strikes you as being totally hilarious. But Speak Up Barnes is simply a funny name… Reminds me of the man named Spider Web that we met in Virginia!

I guess typing about it now… I can’t capture the funniness of it all, but I tried.

Henry Middle School had the lawncare guys out mowing the lawn today when I walked up to teach today. I guess it caught nature off guard as well, because when I got inside and opened up my case, there was an inch-worm in my clarinet! There are no signs of infestation, and I’m figuring that the little guy just fell from my t-shirt or something into the case, but boy, did that scare me!

Today I am surfing during my lunch hour, but with being self-employed, no one can stop me… eh-eh… but today I put on some music. It has been awhile since listening to my favorite clarinet CD on the first piece, Sonata in E-flat Major for clarinet and piano, op. 167 by Saint-Saens (which is four tracks long… it’s a sonata afterall) and I must tell you that Paul Meyers is one of my favorite clarinetists … after Larry Combs, of course! His interpretations of the pieces are superb. Wow… and the Saint-Saens … so beautiful! Now that the blue car has a CD player (thanks to the kind donation from the red car, which worked perfectly since they’re the same make) I can listen as I drive to my appointments.

I have been toying with the idea of putting together a recital for my students, but with all the web design I have been doing lately, I really have not practiced much at home. Part of my hesitation is not knowing a pianist. If I did do a recital, however, I would want to play the Saint-Saens, something by Carl Maria von Weber, and maybe something I played in the early years of my undergrad like a Tarantella or something fun and dance-ish. My studio is 90% middle schoolers; I wouldn’t want to bore them to death! It wouldn’t be something I would stress over as I have been very good about cutting stress out of my life. I would still have fear, though. Fear of playing for people. Its funny that the easiest thing in the world for me to do is also the source of my biggest fear. To challenge that fear on a daily basis has not done much for my musicality… only for my personalilty… you wouldn’t believe how outgoing I am when I teach! Speaking of which, I do have more lessons coming up and I will need to be leaving shortly to make them in time. (I allow 30 minutes for a 15 minute drive; that’s how I cut most of the stress out of my life.) If you ever have the time to enjoy some good clarinet playing, by all means do.

Wow, yesterday was a whirlwind of clarinet. Mondays are my most packed lesson-teaching days. I had intended to get more of the little stuff out of the way such as putting a couple of bills in the mail, buying a few things I need to make the lava lamp work right, but as it was I was very busy with the lessons. Most of the kids are doing fine. I am more frustrated than they are because I don’t feel that our lessons are structured enough. I tend to jump from one idea to another and haven’t found a format that really works well enough to stick to. For awhile I used my palm pilot with the foldable palm keyboard but that got to be a hassle to remember to bring with me. Now I’m down to the basics: My clarinet and a notebook and a pen and pencil and a metronome when I’m at CPMS.

It’s a beautiful day out! We’re finally getting below 80! Wa-hoo!! Almost December and it finally feels like fall! Ok, forgive me about talking about the weather, but I had to get that plug in since I figured that not everybody reading this has to live in Austin and knows what beautiful weather we’re having. I can remember living in Chicago right after Dave and I got married when this kind of weather was cause to go have a picnic on the rocks by the lake and dip your feet in… and wear shorts! Now, back in Texas, it’s cause to go dig out your jacket!! I miss Chicago, but only in a dreamy-romantic kind of way. It was hell living there so soon out of college and having to find my first job without even knowing if I had passed my ExCET test and would qualify for teaching in Illinois with an inherited and old car (’84 Buick Riviera) and riding the “L” to work then walking 10 blocks in the bone chilling arctic weather! (Uphill both ways, I might add!*) I am contantly amazed at how God provided for us when our rent was more than my salary and when Dave wasn’t working and didn’t have a scholarship or even an assistantship! THAT was a miracle! Those days were the foundation of our marriage. Whew, sounds like I needed to get that out of my system, huh! Sorry ’bout that.

Anyhow, what was I saying about clarinets?

*just kidding

Sometimes something happens that you just can’t wait to get home and blog about. This is one of those somethings. I’m also sure that about 100% of you reading this will not see it as blog-worthy. History: I am a semi-professional clarinetist making a living teaching private lessons and 2 years ago, I bought a Vandoren Optimum ligature, which is, truly, the optimum ligature. [lig·a·ture :: Pronunciation: ‘li-g&-”chur :: Function: noun :: Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin ligatura, from Latin ligatus, past participle of ligare to bind, tie; akin to Middle Low German lIk band, boltrope, Albanian lidh I tie :: 1 a : something that is used to bind; specifically : a filament (as a thread) b : something that unites or connects] in the case of clarinet playing, it is a device or string used to bind the reed to the mouthpiece…

On to the story: this ligature comes with three interchangeable plates which contact the reed in different ways. I had chosen the plate with two horizontal bars to use as it was most similiar to the ligature I replaced. I’ve been playing on the same face-plate for 2 years and didn’t experiment till today. I now believe in the four little bumps plate. Thank You LORD for the inclusion of the four little bumps plate in the design of this ligature. I now have a much more centered, focused, and pure tone. The only drawback I have found as of yet is a diminished ability to play truly forte, but I’ll trade that for the centered tone and better reed response times anyday.

Now that I’ve totally revealed my clarinutty personality, I bet most of you are wondering… what about the design stuff you’ve typed about recently? Well, I’m taking that on as well. David surprised me with this. I’m going to keep the city secret so nobody can follow me, but hey, it’s a neat thing to get me started on the software that I will probably have by Christmas and I’ll be able to test drive all of it on a G5! -Jen

Lessons
Yes, I finally have a lessons site for my clarinet kiddos! Isn’t it nice?! …and to think I did it all with the wimpy little pagewizards. Oh, to have a real piece of software. That’s on my TO BUY list, lemme tell you. The problem lies in finding something affordable for mac.

Well, wouldya look at the time. I need to catch some zz’s. Later!