Sunday, January 01, 2006

Try it Again, Sam

I had my first clarinet lesson last week. Since then I've been dutifully practicing, trying to play good quality notes from C to A. Today I took dead aim at the dreaded squeak. I practiced removing the instrument from my mouth, reinserting it, and trying to get a good note on the first try without hunting around.

Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!

After much experimentation - and a timeout to wrap some padding around my right thumb where the thumb rest was gnawing at my bone - I discovered I wasn't puckering tightly enough. That solved it.

The key word for this experience is one I've come to associate with computers: PERSISTENCE. I've spent many an hour through the years wrestling with computers - or is it software? Sometimes I've finally given up and asked for help, but more often than not I found the answer by keeping at it.

There's a balancing corollary to persistence, however. It's called taking a break and turning your attention elsewhere for awhile. It can do wonders for giving you a chance to come up with a fresh approach to solving the problem, just as wrapping my thumb helped solve my clarinet squeak.

So ... when you tire of banging your head against the proverbial wall, try kicking it for awhile, or doing something entirely different, like taking up the clarinet.

- Al

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