From Crutches to Clarinets: What Injury Recovery Taught Me About Adult Learning
The Clarinet Ninja Podcast: Clarinet Lessons & Practice TipsShow Notes
🎧 Ever feel like your progress is slower than it should be? In this inspiring episode, I reflect on my journey recovering from a broken foot and the surprising parallels it shares with learning the clarinet as an adult.
Here is me: https://www.clarinetninja.com/
Here is the Dojo: https://www.clarinetninja.com/dojo-landing
James Danderfer: https://www.jamesdanderfer.com/
💥 From pain and patience to tiny wins and trust in the process, this story is a reminder that healing—and learning—aren’t linear. Whether you're nursing an injury or nurturing your skills, this episode is here to lift you up and remind you: you’re doing better than you think.
🛠️ Themes we explore: How rest IS progress Why setbacks don’t mean failure Trusting your teachers—and your body Celebrating the tiniest victories Staying motivated through frustration Building strength, one step at a time
🖤 For every adult clarinetist who’s ever wondered, “Is it supposed to be this hard?”—this one’s for you. 👉 Hit play and let’s reframe how we think about learning and growth!
More from The Clarinet Ninja Podcast: Clarinet Lessons & Practice Tips
Gary Foster played on more than 500 film soundtracks and was one of the finest jazz alto players in Los Angeles.
Dr. Ron Odrich studied clarinet with Daniel Bonade and Robert Marcellus, played jazz alongside Buddy DeFranco, Eddie Daniels, and Clark Terry, and spent decades as an elite periodontist, including serving as Leonard Bernstein's dentist. In this fourth and final conversation, we set the clarinet talk aside and get into the real subject: how he's managed to pursue music, dentistry, painting, and writing all at once, for an entire life, without burning out.
Ron Odrich didn't start the clarinet the way most people do. As a kid, he snuck the clarinet off the stand in his father's house (his dad was a professional doubler), soaked the reed, and taught himself the opening glissando from Rhapsody in Blue entirely by ear. No teacher. No sheet music. No idea what the notes were called.
On February 2, 2026, Ken Peplowski played his last notes aboard The Jazz Cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. He was 66 years old, he was in the middle of a comeback, and by all accounts he sounded extraordinary.
What does it take to build a career on an instrument that modern jazz largely left behind?