Klarinet Archive - Posting 000502.txt from 1999/10

From: "Daniel A. Paprocki" <danbascl@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Altissimo
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1999 13:32:42 -0400

David,
I have a student that's fairly advanced. In one of our first lessons I
was listening to him play and noticed that the altisimo register was
somewhat flat and that he was having trouble with high F# and G responding.
I watched his fingers and saw that he was half holing all the altisimo
register notes. I asked him about this and he said that 2 years ago at a
state solo contest the judge (a well known professor in the state) told him
to always half hole the altisimo notes. We are now in the process of
breaking this habit.
I feel that if a passage is slow and the the half hole technique will
not affect the tuning AND you can't play the passage smoothly with the
normal fingerings, then try half hole. A good exercise for gaining control
of the oral cavity and what you have to do for proper voicing in the
altisimo register is to play the chalumeau register and make the notes jump
up the harmonic series for that base note without the register key or
altisimo 1st finger vent. For example: low A, jump to clarion E, jump to
altisimo C#, jump to very flat high G.

Dan

----------
>From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
>To: "KLARINET" <klarinet@-----.org>
>Subject: Re: [kl] Altissimo
>Date: Sat, Oct 16, 1999, 7:36 PM
>

> on 10/15/99 2:14 PM, Rebecca Williams wrote:
>
>>When teaching them the fingerings, do you start with the half hole or do
>>you teach first finger up and introduce the half hole concept later?
>>
>>We are going to approach the notes first by long tones to get them used
>>to not biting for the high notes.
>
> I always teach the first finger all the way up at first. My grad school
> teacher, Leon Russianoff, made us *always* lift the first finger, and
> *never* use the half hole (What never?!?...Well, hardly ever...!). He
> claimed that it made for sloppy connection of the intervals, and in many
> cases, bad pitch on the altissimo note.
>
> When I teach this, I have the students play low A, add the register key
> to 4th space E (my standard long tone routine) and then lift the first
> finger to get altissimo C#. It's usually pretty easy and stable for them.
> When they can do that, I add low Bb/F/altissimo D and Eb (starting from
> the chromatic or forked low B natural), at first minus the Eb pinky. The
> D and Eb are flat that way, but I find that adding the pinky at first
> usually leads to squeaks and frustration for the student. When they can
> do the slur without the pinky, and I see that they aren't doing too many
> embouchure gymnastics, I have them add the pinky to improve the response
> and pitch.
>
> HTH
>
> David
>
> David Niethamer
> Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
> dnietham@-----.edu
> http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/
>
>
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