Klarinet Archive - Posting 000167.txt from 1995/07

From: James Perone <JPERONE@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Pedagogy
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995 19:16:04 -0400

In reference to undertones, I have students work on starting notes
WITHOUT the tongue until they use the proper air pressure and voice the
notes so as to eliminate or greatly reduce the undertone. Frequently
adding the tongue is then no problem. Sometimes, though, students will
be able to start tones sans tongue with no undertone, but have difficulty
adding the tongue. It seems that many times this is caused by having the
tongue placed too far up in the oral cavity (voicing like "eee").

I don't claim to be original in doing this... When I studied with Ken
Grant at Capital (when he was still in Columbus), he frequently had
students do this -- even in performance. Try, for example starting the
B-flat at the beginning of the Weber Concertino air only.

Come to think of it, the famous Pines of Rome solo on A clarinet works
well sans tongue. I think both Pyne and Grant taught it this way.

James Perone
jperone@-----.com