<As a clarinettist and bassoonist I can testify that this is hooey. I have played professionally on every size of clarinet from Ab piccolo to contrabass; it takes about 30 minutes to master any one of these if you play the regular clarinet well, and once you have mastered them you have the skill for life. Bassoon vs. contrabassoon is a bit more complex, since the fingering systems differ, but there too an hour or so of practice will give you a lifelong facility on the contra.>
There is a difference between Eb clarinet, Bb clarinet, and Bass Clarinet. Each one has it�s own problems (and uniqueness) I know many players that do not play Eb or Bass because they are not familiar enough with it. They have a standard with which they hold themselves to. The higher up the food-chain you go, the less you will see players willing to risk their reputation on another instrument. (Yes, there are those of us that double well, but it takes a considerable Daily time commitment to do so.) <it takes about 30 minutes to master any one of these if you play the regular clarinet well> Is practicing an instrument only 30 minutes really enough? Not if you care about quality. Remember, any band director is �qualified� to play all the instruments, but would you want to hire or hear something like that? The farther out you go on instrumentation, the greater the risk of the piece being played only once or sounding good. This is because of: Access to instruments, access to quality instruments (there is a reason why professionals do not play Bundy horns), people who will play that instrument, people who play the instrument well, and the amount of time they devote to making the instrument sound good. � __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM). http://calendar.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
