Klarinet Archive - Posting 000681.txt from 2001/10

From: "Robert Moody" <LetsReason@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Beginners and Chalumeau (was If you are interested)
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2001 12:12:09 -0400

I think I agree with both of you! (Somehow I seem to be finding ways to do
that on this list.)

I do believe that the tonal center and concept of sound should be based on
what the chalumeau "tells" us as players. There is a very strong basis for
this dealing with the harmonic series (just a reminder as I'm sure you
ladies and gentlemen are aware). Flute players spend many hours with
exercises that utilize this principle.

On the other hand, as Karl is suggesting here, beginners are natural
altissimo players from the beginning. I have the absolute LEAST success
teaching students to play in the upper registers (clarion and altissimo) if
I spend too much time "fixing" things dealing with tone production in the
lowest registers.

The idea here is that one reason students can play the altissimo so
naturally from the beginning is that they have not created this restricted
palate that naturally develops when we tell a youngster to create "fast
air", to "flatten the chin", to "make the lower lip firm", etc. I have
very, very good success with my first year students learning to play from
low E to altissimo g''' if they will learn the fingerings. Playing the
notes from the mouthpiece is not an issue for my students. I repeat
(because I know that many do not believe me), playing from low E in the
chalumeau to g''' above the clarion/altissimo break is not an issue for my
students (generally...not every human being is the same, you know ;-) ).

Playing the altissimo is more about voicing physically in the head initially
and THEN adding the restrictions for a "good tone" than it is about learning
to "work around" the rules of what makes a good tone after development has
occured. I strongly suggest that teachers teach the clarinet down to low E
and make sure that the student has a good UNDERSTANDING of what it takes to
produce a good sound on the clarinet, and then move immediately to
"squeaking" the g' to d''', closing their eyes and distinguishing what it
feels like to produce this note so easily...add the fingers standard
fingering for this d''' while sustaining the "squeak" (To THEM it is a
squeak. Later we can explain the idea of overblowing to give words to
something they ALREADY know how to do!). From there, spend some time
working on "squeaking" the g' to d''', sustaining, adding the fingers to the
sustained note and then returning the embouchure to our "good tone" position
while learning to keep the "squeak" voicing on the inside. Of course, fast
air helps here too. ;-)

I'm often surprised at the resistence I get from "traditional" teachers of
clarinet concerning this approach. But I can tell you, honestly, that I
have taken a number of more advanced students who are under the "old school"
tutaledge and tried this exercise and improvements came almost instantly. I
did say "almost", didn't I? ;-)

I'm very interested in this thread. I would appreciate any and everyone's
input on this idea. Have you tried it? How was your success? What issues
do you have with it? Why? Etc.

Thanks,

Robert

----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Krelove" <kkrelove@-----.com>
Subject: [kl] Beginners and Chalumeau (was If you are interested)

> This confuses me a little, Tony. It's always appeared to me to be the case
> that the longer young students remain exclusively in the chalumeau
register,
> the longer they remain able build embouchure habits that make anything
> higher impossible for them to produce. Maybe it's because I'm not
meticulous
> enough with young students who, in general, only do things "because I told
> them to" rather than out of any internalized understanding of what they're
> trying to accomplish. But I find that the chalumeau is so much more
> forgiving of inefficient "addressing" (as you frequently call it) of the
> mouthpiece/reed/instrument that it isn't until they get to the next set of
> twelfths that they begin to have a reason to do basic things efficiently.
In
> other words, they can "get away" with much more below the break and have
no
> intrinsic reason to change anything until the sound won't come out or is
so
> ugly that they can't stand it. Since non-production is nearly impossible
in
> the chalumeau and "ugly" tends to have a different meaning to a ten year
old
> who has never played an instrument than it has for me, I find it hard,
even
> if I hear an obvious problem in embouchure or reed approach, to motivate
> many young beginning students to change until the second register forces
> them to.
>
> Am I missing something in Ettlinger's approach, or is he dealing with
> significantly different students at Guildhall than I do here in
> Pennsylvania, USA?
>
> Karl Krelove
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>

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