Klarinet Archive - Posting 000990.txt from 1997/10

From: Fred Jacobowitz <fredj@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: bad tone
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 12:17:56 -0400

Pat,
From my experience, it sounds like she is simply not tightening
and supporting enough. Occasionally I have a student like that. Somehow
they manage to get a decent enough tone that you are fooled into thinking
'if the tone is good the pitch should be good'. Basically, she has to
learn how to support so that she can tighten up the way she should be. I
teach my students by having them play screaming, disgusting loud. Then ppp
or softer but with the same push. Immediately the pitch comes up. Then I
tell them to REMEMBER how it felt to push like that and to do it all the
time. Hope this helps.

Fred Jacobowitz
Clarinet/Sax Instructor, Peabody Preparatory

On Fri, 24 Oct 1997 pmedina@-----.net wrote:

> I teach woodwinds in a middle school and am lucky enough to have the
> beginner clarinets all by themselves. I always seem to have one clarinet
> player who plays very flat. The embouchure looks good and when I play with
> the student, she matches my pitch after some work. What is she doing to
> play so flat in the first place? She is on a normandy clarinet, a B45 mpc
> and size 3 Vandoren reeds( I didn't recommend the size, the music
> supervisor does that). They have all been playing for 10 weeks now.
>
> TIA
>
> Pat
>
>
>