Polka Time

Cuz I felt like it! Cuz I couldn't think of anything else! Cuz it was fun! Cuz, if MG likes Dixieland he probably likes clarinets!
Cheers,
Fred

<center><table border=1><tr><td>Clarinet Polka
clarinetpolka.not (298.5 k)</td></tr></table></center>

Howdy Fred,

Hoo-boy - you'd fit right in around here Polka is bigtime around here (along with naw-thun bluegrass), and you've nailed it to a nicety!

And it is fun

ttfn,
Sherry

Absolutely fantastic, Fred! My wife and I both LOVED it. The world would be a happier place if it included more polka music.


Lee Eschen

Hi Sherry,
Thank yuh, thank yuh vera much! I'll have to try the "naw-thun bluegrass" next.
Fred

Hi Lee,
Glad you both liked it! It's a little out of my genre, but I thought about doing it after I did the Dixieland tune. I was working on one of my own, but it didn't turn out too well. Clarinet Polka was actually an early clarinet lesson, so I decided on that. It was fun. Your right, polka music does make you feel good! Thanks!
Fred

Hi Fred,

Hey, I'm getting too old to have a piece of music grab me from the chair and dance me around the room. Good thing I wear headphones. I'm going to have to make a Fred play list so I don't have to keep switching back to hit the start button.

I think Polkas must have been pretty popular when I was 7-10 years old, or so, because my folks had quite a few on 78RPM records. I also remember that there was frequently a Polka on L. Welk. Later on, I heard them fairly often during my years on the Navajo Reservation. There it's called Chicken Scratch. Although it comes from the reservations down in the southern part of the state, it was popular (but not so much as Country and Western) up north, too.

The instruments used in Chicken Scratch are of the same kind you use, though the clarinet is usually an alto sax, the tuba a bass, and the banjo a guitar. I really like your ensemble. I love the German band sound of the tuba.

BTW, I also like Bluegrass. The first movement's coda of my symphony comes from a piece I have on a tape I copied from a tape of a scratchy old BG record. I think I first heard the piece, many years ago, at a square dance here in Appalachia.

Yeah, I like the clarinet. It's one of those I rented long enough to go through a beginning instruction book. In the case of the clarinet, I got into the intermediate book, and I nearly applied the rental to the purchase price, and would have if I hadn't already owned a flute.

Will be looking forward to your next one.

all best,
mgj

Hi MG,
Hah! I thought that would get a rise out of you! I remembered you're clarinet rental. Believe it or not, I actually played in a polka band in my early days (on a rented clarinet from Ted's Music store in Baltimore). You haven't lived until you have been to Ted's. I don't even remember who the guys were I played with then. It was just 1 weekend to fill in a gap in gigs. I rented the clarinet because my trumpet player was a Dixieland fanatic (still is), and we did some Dixieland as part of our show. The clarinet broke in half in my hand in the middle of a solo, and I handed it to some sailor. When I told Ted what happened, he only charged me $20 for it (if I remember correctly). The sub title on Ted's store was "the musicians' friend". The store was like a bargain basement. He once tried to sell me a box of used reeds. He was the nicest guy in the world, but a bit strange. You could not walk out of his store without a smile on your face.
Take care,
Fred

Hi Fred,

That's too funny. I can see you walking out of Ted's, with a big smile, clutching your clarinet for the weekend and a box of used reeds in your pocket, never suspecting that the instrument would become part of a Victor Borge type routine in the middle of a number.

I imagine that must have been worth the cover charge ;)

best,
mgj

Hi MG,
That was hilarious! Just being in Ted's music store was an experience. It was like a junk yard. I remember sheet music strewn all over the floor in the back room. If you asked him for a particular piece, he knew exactly where it was and would go right to it.
You would think breaking the clarinet in two would have been an embarrassing moment, but it was funny. It got a really big laugh out of everybody. Cover charge? Nah! Not at "Benny's Rebel Room" in Washington D.C. ( 14th and I Sts.)That's the same place I knocked my two front teeth out jumping off the bar with a saxophone in my mouth. I used to go to that place before I played there. In those days, the drinking age in Washington was 18.
Now that I think of it, I did own a good clarinet my dad bought me when I was about 10 or 11, but for the life of me, I can't remember what happened to it. I guess I sold it or traded it in on my sax. That's another wild story. I bought it ($600) when I was 15 or 16. I walked into a music store in downtown Baltimore and walked out with a brand new horn. I didn't give the guy 2 cents, didn't sign anything, and he did not know me from Adam. All he knew is I went to Calvert Hall, a private school 3 blocks away ( not a rich kid. I was there on a full music scholarship ), and that was all he wanted to know. I paid for it all by myself in less than a year. I only made $10 or $12 a night on weekends, but I wanted it real bad and I saved my duckets. I just had to find the girls who were willing to pay for the dates and put gas in my car
Cheers,
Fred