Klarinet Archive - Posting 000665.txt from 1995/05

From: niethamer@-----.BITNET
Subj: Re: weird keys/scale practice
Date: Tue, 23 May 1995 23:11:43 -0400

On Tue, 23 May 1995, John Baetens wrote:

> I am not familiar with the Klose books, but I still have my Rubank
> books from Junior High School. I seem to remember that the
> Advanced I and II books had scales and arpeggio exercises, that
> between the two books, covered all the major and minor scales.
> Would it be a good idea to go back to these lessons, or would
> the Klose book be better?

I have several thoughts on this post regarding 1.) how to practice
scales, and which books are effective for me/my students, and 2.) useful
things to practice when practice time is limited.

First, I think review of the Rubank advanced scales would be beneficial.
Not as hard as Klose, and familiar, friendly old ground, likely to get
your technical practice off to a more "user friendly" start. Stievenard
Scales (Schirmer?) seem to work well for my adult students. My all time
favorite is Hamelin, "Gammes et Exercises".

I guess my main point is to keep the material fresh - not the same book
*all* the time. The effect of this sort of practice is cummulative - that
is, if you do it 1.) regularly and 2.) *carefully* [not too fast for you,
cleanly, and with good, efficient finger motion] your technique will
improve. If I had only an hour to practice, I'd devote 15 minutes, then
go on to play something more musically interesting.

Once you've developed *Killer Technique*, there's always Baermann for a
dose of humility, and Jettel Scales for Professionals and other masochists!

David Niethamer