Klarinet Archive - Posting 000361.txt from 1995/09

From: R Adam Pease <R_Adam_Pease@-----.GOV>
Subj: some thoughts on practice
Date: Sat, 16 Sep 1995 03:30:08 -0400

Hi Kristen,
Here's another post I made to the Klarinet email list. I hope
it is of some interest to you too. Let me know if it's not. Hope
you're doing well.

take care,
Adam

Here are some things I'm doing lately in practice. I went to a
flute masterclass with Keith Underwood a few months ago and he
had a number of ideas about posture and body motion that were
thought provoking. First, I have been trying to assume a
posture that is straighter and more relaxed. The specifics of this
are common to Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Tai Ch'i Chu'an, and
other martial arts. This has had the effect of improving my tone
projection, breath duration, and, to some extent, finger technique.
My next focus is on finger technique and mental games that I can
play to improve the relaxation of my fingers. Currently, I can trace
most of my technical problems in playing fast passages to tenseness in
my fingers or wrists. There is one passage at the beginning of the
2nd movement of the Bax sonata that involves the low F# key. It isn't
hard but I couldn't get it to play clearly until I realized that
when I was playing the notes following the F# bit that my wrist and
hand were still tense from stretching the pinky to the F# key. If I
remembered to relax my hand to a neutral position for the next
passage then I was ok.
Another passage at the bottom of the page has messy stuff in the throat
tones. There, the first staff line F# serves as a "pivot" with a higher
wrist position before as opposed to after. If I remember to lower and
relax my wrist after the pivot, I'm ok.
Final idea. My teacher often reminded my not to "beat time" with my
elbows and clarinet, especially in fast rhythmic passages. It is
definitely a good thing to eliminate body motions which are caused by
technical reasons rather than by musical ones. By this I mean that a
series of rising arpeggios in 16ths should not require the performer to
bounce on every group of four but a gradual small rise in clarinet position
over the length of the phrase seems natural and ok. Here's the useful
thing to try (at least for me). If I'm having difficultly I try to
alter the natural change in position, ie. lower clarinet position gradually
during an ascending phrase. This also works for single notes. If I have
difficultly slurring to a D above the staff I lower the clarinet slightly
during the slur and it works more cleanly.
Hope all this doesn't seem too obvious. Any comments?

Adam Pease
r_adam_pease@-----.gov
pease@-----.gov