Klarinet Archive - Posting 000973.txt from 1998/10

From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Hi!
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 16:25:01 -0400

Dorothy Clark wrote:

> Are there any hints to share on standing and playing? I stand
>at church with my clarinet for about 4 hours (not continuously) each Sunday.
>This includes praise and worship service plus two selections for both
>services.

Can't you sit during Scripture readings and the sermon? I also take
advantage of the musicians' prerogative to sit during some parts of a
service during which the congregation stands. Of course, I'm at the organ,
and getting off and on the bench without sounding a pedal or two is a problem.

>Also, how can I get back into improvising. I'm studying the scales.
>However, I'm having a hard time remembering how many sharps for each scale.

Most teachers of improvisation have their students learn the rudiments of
piano or keyboard playing, chords in all keys and the scales that go with
them. It's the fastest and best way I know to learn harmony, because the
chords are spread out right in front of you on the keyboard. And learn the
Circle of Fifths, which will be in any book on basic harmony.

As for improvisation, the old noodling on the chords style of improvisation
(1930s and 40s) still works, but the more modern approach uses tone rows
(scales plus some of the interesting notes like the flat fifth and major
seventh tones). If you want to get into this very deeply, Book I of John
Mehegan's Jazz Improvisation series is incomparable. It's also heavy going,
and is best studied at a keyboard, not on a solo instrument. Since I worked
through that book, I find that on the clarinet and sax, as well as on the
piano and organ, there are no difficult chords or remote keys for me any more.

Is there an easy memory game I can associate with this?

I don't know of one. The best way for a would-be improviser to learn scales
in all keys is to play them, play them, play them until they flow easily.
Probably for your purposes you will need to concentrate on the scales Eb,
Bb, C, D, A and E, since you will be needing to go to two more sharps or
two fewer flats to play a Bb clarinet with instruments in concert keys.

Unless you have a terrific ear and a fertile imagination, there is no
shortcut I know of to improvisation. You could, however, take the scores
home and work out some fakes during the week. Write them down in a
looseleaf blank music book if you aren't sure you'll remember them. There
were and probably still are big-name swing and jazz players who sometimes
worked out solos ahead of time (Artie Shaw and Gerry Mulligan, for two).

Whatever you do, blow long tones every day.

Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.net>

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