Klarinet Archive - Posting 000502.txt from 2004/01

From: "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Best Etudes/Method for Learning Scales?
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 22:05:25 -0500

I will give you a strictly personal opinion, for whatever it's worth.

The "scale etudes" that you are referring to are not a way to "develop a
thorough knowledge of the scales," they are (in my opinion) a way to broaden
your ability to use scales you should already have memorized. To begin with,
"the scales" is too broad a reference. Probably, you mean the majors and
some form or forms of the minors. Most of us who grew up with Klose learned
melodic minors along with the major scales in a circle of fifths sequence
(at the beginning of the second part of the Klose Method). But when you come
right down to learning scales, they are simply the same sequence of 7 notes
(plus the first note an octave higher), each starting in a different place
in the sequence, with sharps or flats applied to certain ones to maintain
the scale's interval structure. So, although the written scales can be a
useful reference for people whose best learning mode is visual (you can find
them written out in any basic band method or write them out yourself for a
little more hands-on approach), they really don't tell you much that you
don't have by memorizing the key signatures of the 12 major scales (and
their relative minors).

So, my suggestion is that, whatever tools or even crutches you choose in the
initial phase of learning the scales themselves, the ultimate goal is to
play each scale smoothly with the right notes and an even tone, internalized
(memorized) so that there isn't any longer any conscious deliberation or
negotiation needed between your brain and your fingers when you play them.
Then, the etudes in all these other books can be used to strengthen your
control, focus on the difficult connections and awkward traps that lurk in
some of the scales, apply articulations in systematic ways and in general
make the scales more musically useful. At that point, any of the materials
that have already been suggested will work well - try a variety and come
back to the ones you find more appealing.

Good luck.

Karl Krelove

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Kubit [mailto:m.kubit@-----.net]
> Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2004 3:39 PM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] Best Etudes/Method for Learning Scales?
>
>
> Dear Folks,
>
> What, in your opinion, would be the best method/etude book for an
> intermediate adult player who wishes to develop thorough knowledge of the
> scales? I am looking for a system that possibly incorporates exercises in
> many keys, and might be more enjoyable musically to work through than a
> straightforward book of scale exercises (as I find the one I have rather a
> drudgery to plod through, especially when I am tired in the evening.)
>
> Previously, I have worked with C. Baerman's Complete Method for Clarinet,
> Op.63 (1st and 2nd Divisions (which I think is wonderful), and I
> am looking
> for more.
>
> Apologies for this being a potentially loaded or ignorant
> question (or if I
> am fooling myself that such a method might exist), but I thought
> asking the
> group might help me execute a more productive initial search, instead of
> having to flip through stacks of music books blindly.
>
> Thanks sincerely,
>
> Mike
>
> Mike Kubit
> m.kubit@-----.net
>
>
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