Klarinet Archive - Posting 000663.txt from 1999/03

From: "Craig D. Butcher" <cbutcher@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Fingers eveness! How??
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 21:20:43 -0500

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Soo Khoon Goh wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I have been really frustrated lately with my practices because my
> fingers seemed to have a mind of their own. I know it is all my fault, but
> I was wondering if there are any exercises I could practice to get
> my fingers to be even on scales in running passages? Another thing is, I

I don't know what level you are playing at, and I'm hardly in a position to
advise anybody, but I used to do the same thing with (believe it or not)
swimming --stroke and breathe, stroke and breathe, faster and faster and
faster in increasing panic until I was exhausted and drowning. Teachers told
me to "relax" and "take it easy"-- which is absurd, how can you relax when you
have to breathe because if you don't breathe you'll drown, which is why I'm
breathing fast in the first place--to ensure that I get the air in before I
drown. I never did learn to swim until I was 18 years old and someone told me
not to relax but rather to breathe out slowly through a mostly closed mouth;
that made breathing out take longer, and hence regulated my breathing and
stroke. This set a pace, and it worked! All those lessons at the 'Y' and
summer camp and all I really needed was a metronome!

I find myself doing the same thing with scales, chromatic passages, and so
forth, particularly if there are sixteenth notes. You know the sixteenth
note--it's fast, right? If I don't play this one fast enough, the next one
will be here before I'm ready and I'll play it late, and the next one too, so
I have to hurry! In point of fact, the trick (for me anyway) is usually to
slow down, use a metronome, and actually count out the four notes per beat. I
am always amazed by how much time I actually have to complete the passage
compared with what I think I have when I'm worrying about fouling it up as I
play. So I use the metronome and try not to let myself fool myself into
rushing any note. If I screw up or get tense I go back to listening to the
beat of the metrinome, counting the subdivisions (WITHOUT playing). It helps
a lot.

Of course, I'm still not very good, but I do have a good attitude! And at
least by not practicing so many mistakes, I'm not learning to play mistakes as
thoroughly as I would be if I were practicing more mistakes during practice.
(?)

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