Needing PERFECTION

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I tend to have the bad habit of setting my standards way too high and beat my self up over it for not meeting my own expectations. It tends to lead to a bad meltdown in the end sometimes accompanied by self harm.

I actually have many difficulties in the social part of playing with others. For instance, I pretty much -never- recognize visual cues, like gestures and glances during practices where, for example, the lead singer is wanting me to sing along or something like that. People will glance at me, and I won't do something they want me to do

I've seen those videos of the contrabass clarinet and of that flute before - I think instruments like that are awesome. The sax player in one of my bands got to play a contrabass saxophone once, when he lived in Florida. I've never gotten to see any of these instruments in person, though. Also, unfortunately, the only wind instruments I really play are ocarina and melodica - I'd love to pick up sax though - my grandfather played sax with Tal Farlow - he died in 1975, so I never got to hear him play or anything, and I thought it would be cool to learn sax. Plus saxes just sound awesome.

through elementary/middle/jr/high school, i played a succession of wind instruments [clarinet, alto clarinet, bass clarinet, contralto clarinet, tuba] adequately well for the time, though i never got beyond 2nd chair on clarinet, due to my lack of sightreading ability. i've always had a preference for low-pitched instruments, so i tried to play bassoon but i couldn't get the embouchure right, and just squawked horribly on it. so i went to tuba, but that wore out my lips which became chronically chapped. i'd love to own a BBb contrabass clarinet, those are such sephulchral beasts that vibrate the floor and air around them. below, is the deepest clarinet ever made-
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilXI7Z8oUzo[/youtube]
below, is the deepest flute ever made-
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8p_Qv7UXKs&feature=related[/youtube]

you are very advanced, AFAIC. you have a quick brain and a quick body, compared to many. in a way, being a successful musician requires one to have great/quickthinking social intelligence to be interacting with other human musicians.

p.s.- speaking of singing and playing simultaneously, the late karen carpenter [who was a very good drummer, btw] could drum and sing seamlessly together. same for ringo starr and the late "the band" drummer. they amaze me.

That contrabass clarinet isn't a LeBlanc, perchance?

I played that piece of garbage instrument made by G. LeBlanc et cie. when I tried to get my teacher certification in the early 1980's. That horn was in the repair shop every other day. I'd rather play a Selmer or Yamaha than any Leblanc's from that era. If it weren't for the fact that Buffet does not make a contrabass clarinet (as far as I know), else I'd be blaing that horn. To be fair, I wouldn't mind trying the Maury Backun-designed LeBlanc, as I have heard quite a good bit of positive press about those horns.

none other. they were the only ones to make octo-contra instruments- that is, horns pitched an octave lower than contra clarinets.


wow you must have lots of money to be able to afford those pricey horns. I realize that the leblanc horns were temperamental but for their boosters, a labor of love. I love the paperclip design, it is so much easier to haul around.