Klarinet Archive - Posting 000821.txt from 1999/12
From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Tschaikovsky No. 6, 1st clarinet - Responses
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 03:47:33 -0500
On Fri, 24 Dec 1999 00:44:34 EST, klahall@-----.com said:
[snip]
> To all the excellent information, i would like to add....
>
> finally (at age 40) i have a fast staccato tongue style that i am
> happy with. Getting this to work has involved practice routines that
> work both legato and staccato. First step was to refine
> legato--eliminate any extra sound, thuds, grunts or ghosts in clarion
> and altissimo.
>
> Then i practice slow motion legato; half speed or quarter tempo, then
> immediately play at/near tempo. many passages sound good with this
> because at faster tempo the interruptions are in proportion longer and
> sound more staccato.
I found everything else that you wrote helpful and wise, but didn't
understand this bit. You meant surely:
> Then i practice slow motion *staccato*; half speed or quarter tempo,
> then immediately play at/near tempo. many passages sound good with
> this because at faster tempo the interruptions are in proportion
> longer and sound more staccato.
This is a very good idea that I'd never considered. It's sometimes
quite difficult to get people to modulate the degree of staccato in a
natural way.
(Of course, playing slow motion legato would also be a helpful
preliminary, but I don't think you meant that.)
[snip]
> The principal involved is that a good staccato is based on a good
> legato. ( This principal also applies to string instruments and
> voice.)
[snip]
> Expectations and attitude have an effect too...
> i got much better at repeated notes on clarinet after learning viola--
> so easy and idiomatic on string instrument.
I was once teaching a class on a course in Switzerland, where the
students were mostly American. There were only a few clarinet players
(though one was Marina Sturm, I recall) -- whereas Bruno Giuranna, the
violist, had a roomful of eager students. I could only teach so many
hours a day with few students, so I often went to listen to Bruno's
classes whilst my students went off to practise.
As you imply, it's often very useful to listen to how able players on
other instruments approach technical and musical problems.
Bruno was also very entertaining, of course.
On one occasion, he stopped someone, and after a pause, said,
"I will eat a cat."
<Long pause>
"I will eat a cat....,"
<Pause>
"I will eat a cat,...if......,"
<Pause>
"I will eat a cat,....if you tell me.....that you have practised that
*legato*."
Long pause while the student, a very big macho American, looked at
Bruno. Then finally the student said:
........."You're...*lucky*!"
Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339
... I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory.
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