Klarinet Archive - Posting 000271.txt from 1997/03

From: "David C. Blumberg" <reedman@-----.COM>
Subj: Starr/ Sax Teaching from Dave Hite
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 12:23:15 -0500

To all,
David Hite sent me this to forward to the list:

If you want a reference to some good teaching materials, and some
references to teaching objectives, call Southern Music Company at:

1-800-284-5443

and ask them for a free copy of the Saxophone Study Guide.

I have edited several study books that are very popular in the "studios"
now -- Melodious And Progressive Studies, Books one and Two: Foundation
Studies (scales, chords and intervals) and duet books -- Forty
Progressive Melodies and Four Sonatas by AMR Barret.

You can also request these by Email at:

smcinfo@-----.com

The web site:

http://www.southernmusic.com

will offer the opportunity to purchase directly from the publisher if your
local music store doesn't have these items in stock.

The secret to getting the low notes, not always considered, is that the
mouthpiece must be faced very accurately, especially around the tip area.
Many mouthpieces which are finished by machines are very poorly made and
will defy every effort to achieve good response in the low register. When
this happens, one will also find the upper register -- especially high E
and F -- will be rather flat in pitch. Yes, you can "bite harder" and make
it play in tune, but on a "good" mouthpiece you don't have to do this.
And the low C, B and Bb start without hesitation. Joe Alard taught
"flexibility" but many of his students had their own personal way of using
that flexibility.

You might want to try our Premiere line of mouthpieces for clarinet and
saxophone (alto and tenor) at your local music store. They will help you a
lot. Remember, the best doublers on Broadway are basically clarinetists
who double on the sax and flute. Saxophonists who "double on the
clarinet" have a great deal of trouble and go to bizarre extremes sometimes
to trying to solve their problems. Flutists who decided to "go commercial"
have to work very hard to get into the "meat of it" with clarinet and then
sax.

Clarinetists first playing the sax usually play "up in the tessitura" of
pitch at first. Some will complain, "Why do they make saxophones so
sharp?" -- I have to pull the mouthpiece "way out" to get down to pitch.
If this is so, you are a "rank" beginner. But, you'll be surprised to
find out what you can "learn" about the saxophone when you start "teaching
it".

Best wishes. David Hite david@-----.com

David C. Blumberg
Principal Clarinet Riverside Symphonia
reedman@-----.com