Superior Performances

So, I remembered a couple of things. I said I would work on getting a recording of myself up (which I am now researching). I've gotta get some kind of microphone (nothing too high tech, besides, anything sounds better than an old tape recorder) and work up something that doesn't make me sound like a kid. The cool thing is that you can download Audacity and record using their open-source software and do whatever you like to it. If you're a techno marvel you can even edit the program itself. Nice! I'll get there, eventually...

Another thing was that I'm a better Clarinet player than I give myself credit for. I guess this requires some backstory:

I started playing in 6th grade (like a ton of people who start an instrument) on Clarinet. Thennnnnnnnnn, I saw a Bass Clarinet on a poster in the band room in 7th Grade and I was like (insert dorky voice here) "I wanna play that." So, they let me play it. Only, the Bass Clarinet has tiny little vent hole on the first finger called the "half hole". If you don't cover it, you sound like a dying/severely wounded farm animal. Guess what genius here never did for all of 7th Grade. Yeah, you guessed it, I sounded like a sick dairy cow (like the one in those Calfornia Cheese commercials, you know, the Grandma cow that's remembering her horrible childhood in the snow(probably Wisconsin, yeah those California jerks defaming the image of that stout Midwestern cheese tradition) and the grandcows are trying to snap her out of her trance, yeah, like that.) Then in 8th Grade I figured out I didn't want to sound like Grandma Cow anymore and I got instantly better.

In 9th Grade I decided to switch back to the Clarinet because "Bass Clarinet is boring." Like I said, I'm an idiot. Big surprise here, I sucked. I wasn't the worst Clarinetist in a very large band, but I was close. Then in 10th Grade I got the chance to switch back to Bass and jumped at it. The rest is history.

The last time I touched the Clarinet seriously was in 1993 to take a District Honor Band audition on both Clarinet and Bass Clarinet. I attached an intense feeling of inferiority with playing the Clarinet and avoided serious study until 2005 (when I took on private Clarinet students.) I never felt like I belonged in the fold of a Clarinet section. Even when I was the monster Bass Clarinetist and all the other Clarinet players respected me I was like "Dude, I don't belong here." In 2005 I encountered a Clarinet section that totally took me in and I began teaching private Clarinet students there. So, I began really "playing" Clarinet again. A year later I got this smooth Selmer Signet "Mazzeo" System Clarinet. It plays better than my R13 (which is the Gold Standard in Professional Model Clarinets. It's like a tank really.)

Now I'm pretty good. I like that. I feel accomplished.

On to the Superior Performance. Santa Clara Vanguard 1999. They were behind all season and jumped in Finals and tied Blue Devils for the title. Yeah, this show is incredible. The commentary is from the PBS broadcast. Everybody loves Steve Rondinero and Mike Cesario. Enjoy.