Klarinet Archive - Posting 000032.txt from 2004/06

From: "Larisa Duffy and David Dow" <duffyl@-----.ca>
Subj: Re: [kl] glissando help
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 21:54:26 -0400

Dear Josh.
----- My belief is the tongue certain can affect pitch greatly....and so
can voicing the sound visa a vis through the throat cavity and it's ajacent
chambers..

.I suspect too the air towards the end of the gliss moves forward as if one
is saying heee and at the beginning from say the syllable whoooo...notice
how the togue lowers naturally in the mouth as you go whooo....heeeeee. Mind
you when you are playing the increments are very small compared to just
simply saying them...the idea here is to use the imagination.

Charles Russo used to tell me a good gliss is one half fingers and the
other half air column...but this was in relation to the Rhapsody in Blue by
Gershwin..

I also think there is a strong tendency today among teachers avoiding the
whole topic of playing glissandos.

I know of a number of professional colleagues who cannot play a gliss to
save there souls...there was an old Leizig Gewandhaus record of the Gershwin
and there was no gliss..just a scale. Man did that one suck!

Naturally you keep the embourchure steady but with a bit of flexibility in
case you want to a bit with the gliss with the embouchure too... I remember
subbing in the Boston Phil and could not believe how much air the Princpal
clarinet beside me needed in order to project the Gershwin gliss too...this
helped me because when I later started playing solo clarinet in orchestras
it meant really working with the air column to achieve the desired ring and
change in the pitch as well...

Another danger ...glissing but arriving at the top note flat...this is very
bad so always make sure you have tuning on the mind as well....it is simply
unsatisfying if the gliss is flat at the penultimate note!!!

David Dow
Symphony NB

'There is simply one thing worse than bad taste...NO TASTE'
-Stanly Hasty to a student

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