Klarinet Archive - Posting 000118.txt from 1993/11

From: Anne Vacca <AVACCA1@-----.BITNET>
Subj: clarinet tips
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 09:44:35 -0500

Shari-
Here are the exercises that I promised:
Last Year I did a lot of work on my altissimo register and my
professor MR. Schmidt gave me a great bunch of exercises to do. So here
are a few of them:

1. Starting from Bb3 slur to F5 to G5 back to F5.
This can also be done starting from C4 to G5 to A5
JUst keep going up chromatically. Try to make the skip
up when you depress the register key smooth and w/o any
bumps.
2. After that is working smoothly, go up to the next partial
So now you are playing Bb3 to F5 to D6 to Eb6 and back to D6
For the jump into the upper parital you can practice using
the half hole with the first finger and also just picking
your finger up off of the hole. These should also be practiced
until they are w/o bumps. These can also be continued up the
chromatic scale.
3. This next exercise is one that I always liked:
play D6 (above the staff) Now keep the fingering and with
embouchure-breath and tounge kick the note into the next
upper partial. (it will bring you up to G6). This is
a good exercise to get you used to that upper octave.
You will need to put more mouthpiece into your mouth
and use more air to boose that note into the next partial.
You shuuld try to play hale notes first, then quarter notes
and finally eigth notes. Oops hale=half :) So its
half notw D6- half note G6 Quarter D6 to quarter G6 and so on.
This can be used for C#6-Gb6, D#6-G#6, Eb6-Ab6, E6-A6, and F6-Bb6.
I found C# and F to be the hardest to do.
4. Another good exercise is to start on E5 and just pick up
or roll your first finger so that you go up to C#6. This
should be practiced slurred and this is a good exercise to get
used to the sound of the next partial. This exercise is
difficilt to get smooth. This can also be practiced with
other notes moving up chromatically. ie: F5-D6, F#5-D#6,
G5-E6 and so on.

As with all of these exercises they will take time to get used to,
it took me a while to get used to the sound of the high notes. I used to think
that these notes were soo high that it would just be impossible to play,
but no more. These exercises can be used as a warm up to your
practice session. I would not suggest trying them all at once, however.
It can become mind boggling!! You should use a lot of air for these
exercises and be sure to play out! Try to keep a nice full sound
while you work on these. I hope that I was able to explain this
clearly enough. I have some other exercises that you might like to try too.
Just let me know if I can help you with anything else. If anything
is unclear tell me and I'll clarify it for you.

Does anyone else have any good altissimo exercises?

Anne
IC
IN%"avacca1@-----.edu"