Klarinet Archive - Posting 000456.txt from 2005/08

From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?sarah=20elbaz?=" <sarah@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] "Tuning" vs. Intonation (and listening)
Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 04:28:22 -0400

Diane,
There are some "ensemble excercises" that can work.

When we play a new piece I ask everyone to learn all the parts.

Mixing the group: instead of sitting with your voice (1st cl, 2nd cl etc.) I put a different voice in every chair: this way 1st cl sits near basset horn and piccolo and is forced to hear their parts.

When the melody is moving between the voices - I ask only the melody people to play and practice that until it sounds as one voice. Same thing with the accompaniment.

You can ask one of the voices to lead the group (for example 2nd clarinet is leading) and every one has to follow
them even if they dont play the melody.

Every one play PP except of one voice.

and so on...

But most important (as banal as it may sound) is that every player would learn his/her part very well.

Hope that it helps,

Sarah

-------Original Message-------
> From: Diane Karius <dikarius@-----.com>
> Subject: Re: [kl] "Tuning" vs. Intonation (and listening)
> Sent: 25 Aug '05 14:00
>
> --- sarah elbaz <sarah@-----.com> wrote:
>
> > <snip>... but I find my self spending most of the
> > time working on their ability
> > to LISTEN to each other.<big snip>
>
> I'm curious as to how you "work on their ability to
> listen to each other". I recently played with a trio
> of clarinetists for a music festival and, for the
> first time in the couple years that I've done this, I
> (as nominal "leader" of the group)wasn't able to "fix"
> the precision problems we were having because I
> couldn't find a way to help the other two members of
> the trio "hear" each well enough during a particular
> section of the piece.  My usual tricks (devoting part
> of a rehearsal to playing each others parts, etc)
> didn't help to any great extent and in the performance
> we broke apart in the same place we always did and all
> I could do was sit and listen :-( (my part was a very
> nice, but utterly unhelpful (in this context),
> sustained note).
>
> I've racked my brain since then for other ways to
> improve our listening skills and haven't come up with
> anything so I'm very interested in some other ways of
> approaching the issue of listening.  
>
> Diane Karius
>
>
>
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-------Original Message-------

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