I took up the clarinet at the age of nineteen. I am totally self taught and do not read music. In fact, I play the clarinet in concert key not clarinet key. Whatever all that means. I have also lead three bands for a total of 55 of my 57 years in music. (Now you know how old I am.) My third band is the Cakewalkin’ Jass Band which will be 53 years old this December.
Being a non-reading, self taught, musician is not that uncommon. But being self taught and leading a working band for over 50 years might be. What is involved in such an endeavor?
Well, let me go back to the beginning. I had a friend that played trumpet and had a dixieland band that rehearsed once at my house. I also had a cousin that was marrying a cornet player that also played in a jazz band. I started to think that this looked like fun.
I first wanted to learn trumpet and had my friend show me how. That didn’t go anywhere and he suggested that I take up the clarinet. So I borrowed a metal clarinet (which I still have—she never asked for it back) and started to figure it out. I knew that the sound came out from the lowest open hole. So I covered them all and figured out how to work my way up the clarinet. I could do it without the side keys so that’s why I do not use them. I got myself a Rubank’s Elementary Method book to try to teach myself how to read but that didn’t go anywhere. All I learned was F-A-C-
