Klarinet Archive - Posting 000589.txt from 2004/01

From: RichChPlay@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Best Etudes/Method for Learning Scales?
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2004 08:11:08 -0500

on 1/16/04 10:25 AM, LoriLovato@-----.com wrote:

>It's been interesting reading the comments on your request. Although I
>agree with the importance of working through books like the Baerman,
>Jettel, Ybes Didier (my personal favorite), and/or Stievenard, it is
>actually memorized pattern studies that have made a difference for me.
>
>Even though Annie was talking about the beginning stages of learning
>scales, I think it's the right direction.

Lori - what is the Ybes Didier book? I don't know this one. Can you
describe the book's content for me?

on 1/16/04 Anna Benassi wrote:

>Another good condensed reference for major and melodic minor scales is
>the single-page version in the Klose method. I can't remember what
>page it's on, but it goes through the circle of fifths in what
>basically amounts to a 2-octave pattern for each key. It's a good
>entree into three-octave and extended-range scales.
>
Another place to find two octave versions of major and minor scales,
along with exercises based on those scales is "J.B. Albert 24 Varied
Scales and Exercises". In the USA it is published by Carl Fischer, and it
is also found in Book 2 of the Lazarus Method (also Carl Fischer), along
with a lot of other useful teaching material. If you can find a copy of
Bob Schmidt's "A Clarinetist's Notebook" Vol. 2, he has a whole routine
for practicing Albert scales that is quite effective for good high school
students and early college students, especially those without any kind of
organized scale study in their background.

>PS: Another respected scale book is Gaston Hamelin's Gammes et
>Exercises.
>
This is my absolute favorite. Slow, smooth scale practice over the entire
range of the instrument, with exercises to promote even connections
between notes without the danger of excess finger tension.

A lot of people mentioned Baermann 3. I find I have to be careful with
Baermann, because, for me, the temptation is to go too fast and develop a
lot of unwanted finger tension. I use David Hite's edition (all the
exercises in each key together in one place) even though he adds some
exercises of his own without making it clear that they are not Baermann -
not a big deal, but... Jettel is like Baermann 3 on steroids to me, and
so requires the same sort of care in use. Actually if you use the Hite
edition of Baermann 3, it has a lot of the same extensions of the
exercises found in Jettel.

After a past discussion of Baermann's method on this list, I got the
complete method from the German publisher (Johann Andre, Offenbach),
which supposedly publishes the method the way Baermann originally wrote
it, without the editing found in the common American editions. One of the
interesting aspects of Book 3 is that Baermann laid out the first few
exercises in the broken scales, returning scales, thirds and 6ths, and
expected the student to complete all the rest of the keys from memory!

In my opinion, if one is going to spend nearly $35 (US) for Jettel, it
would be better to spend that money on Howard Klug's "Clarinet Doctor".
I've been having students do some of his very useful pattern studies from
that book with good results. The first pattern in the exercise is written
out, and it is up to the student to do the pattern in all keys. the book
contains many of Klug's articles on pedagogy from "The Clarinet"
magazine. If you don't need to have those, I think you can buy just the
first half of the book (Clarinet Calisthenics) containing the technical
studies (for less money).

Flutists talk all the time about playing memorized technique and
"published" technique. I've come to the conclusion that working on both
ways is good for students. It's interesting that because students have
different learning styles, they often feel much more comfortable on one
side of that fence than the other. The trick for me as a teacher is to
strive to get them equally comfortable of both sides of the fence.

Lastly - sorry, this has gotten rather long - I have to ask - What do
those of you who use it see in Stievenard? I find it distractingly
confusing with all the patterns, some of which are quite challenging.
Most students who arrive with Stievenard aren't ready for that level of
"distraction". Enlighten me, please!

Cheers!

David

David Niethamer
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

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