Klarinet Archive - Posting 001171.txt from 1998/12

From: CmdrHerel@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] re:Intonation training
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 11:09:04 -0500

In a message dated 12/30/98 10:22:53 AM Eastern Standard Time,
charette@-----.org writes:

<< Are there any "tricks" to knowing which way to go on clarinet? My ears
don't seem to discriminate very well which way to move the note. >>

Forgive this for sounding over-simplified and somewhat bogus... The only
"trick" I've used is to learn the general tendencies of my horn with a tuner.
Then in any rehearsal setting, when I was out, I would adjust in the direction
that tendency would indicate as a first try.

Then over time I would try to learn the tendencies of the musicians around me:
Both individual players and sections as a whole. (And in college there sure
are a lot of tendencies!) It got so that the flute player and I knew each
other's exact weaknesses. And holy cow was she annoyed when I got a new horn
that didn't play sharp in the upper register any more!

And this is what I still do. Listen listen listen. Listen in to the center
of the winds, listen out to the violins and low brass. I use any chamber
setting as an excuse to work on intonation. It has become so that listening
to intonation is a constant and underlying part of playing.

I'm interested to hear different approaches to teaching intonation. I tend to
mostly make my students aware of it at whatever level they are at, in sort of
the gradual "incorporating it" way that I went about it. Perhaps there are
faster, more efficient ways to go about this.

Teri Herel.

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