 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: mike C
Date: 2000-02-10 22:46
I have found a teacher after looking for 2 years .Her main instrument is flute but plays other horns one of which is clarinet after talking on the phone I felt she could help.
So my first lesson with a teacher happend yesterday and To my supprise her comments on my playing ,tone ,fingering,were all good.
But my timeing needed work and playing with someone else was
like starting to learn again.
This is when she said I was playing A DOTTED CROTCHET TO SHORT. I have always tryed to play a dotted note adding half the value of the note it is beside to the notes length,
So a dot beside a crotchet at 4 crotchet beats to the bar
would be played 1 and ,off to the next note.
If I have made this clear .But she insisted that it should be played holding on a bit more to 1,2 and off to the next note,the next note was a quaver in this case which was played quite fast I felt.
THis is my first teacher ,my only other tutoring has come from books so in the real world this may be so.
I am an adult learner and had to stop myself arguing with the teacher on this point.
How do you folk see this dotted note question.
THanks in advance Mike
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Author: Katherine Pincock
Date: 2000-02-11 02:37
Actually, the way you play a dotted note can differ depending on the situation. (I'll use 4/4 bars divided into half beats for examples.) In a large ensemble, for clarity, you generally hold the note for 1 and, leave a silence on 2, and play the next note on the and of 2. This prevents coordination problems with the whole ensemble. However, the actual definition, and the one you'll usually use for solo playing, is to add half the note's value again; therefore, the note would be played for 1 and 2, and the next note would come on the and of two.
The way that I understand your description of how you're playing is that you're using the previous method. However, an additional possibility is simply that your rhythm is not quite accurate. It's very easy to rush long notes, and it's possible that you're thinking the right rhythm but playing the long note shorter than it should be. Work with a metronome would help you figure out if this is a problem.
I hope this clears things up a bit; it's pretty hard to describe things like this by text. If you're still confused, you might ask your teacher to demonstrate, first by playing the rhythm as it should be, then as you were playing it. That may make the problem she's hearing more clear.
Hope this helps!
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Author: Eoin
Date: 2000-02-11 07:34
Try clapping and singing the rhythm. For a dotted crotchet followed by a quaver, first of all clap twice as many beats as you would normally have. A crotchet is 2 beats, a dotted crotchet is 3 beats and the quaver is one. Count 1,2,3 on the crotchet, then come in on 4 with the quaver.
When you are used to this, slow the clapping down to half speed, so now there is one beat per crotchet, one and a half beats on a dotted crotchet and half a beat on the quaver. Continue to "think" the other beats that you are now longer clapping.
Only when you are finally comfortable singing and clapping, try playing it on the clarinet.
In my choir, even though everyone understands the principles of dotted notes, we have huge problems singing this particular rhythm.
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Author: paul
Date: 2000-02-11 14:43
Dotted notes and rhythm coordination continue to bedevil novices like me, especially for ensembles versus solos. I tried to play in correct rhythm with my pro tutor for simple duets and I too was stopped for rushing through too fast on longer notes and not counting dotted notes properly. As a fellow adult novice, it took me lots of time and patience to constantly be stopped to listen to my tutor's corrections. He was polite and patient, but this is a great challenge. It took me months to find the right fit between the written music and the feeling of the music as a duet. Once I understood what was needed to keep proper timing for the duet, it sounded great.
Watch your tutor, listen for timing, listen to her hints and explanations. I agree with Katherine's and Eoin's comment about clapping your hands to double time. I've used it and it works. You can use a metronome for this, too. Another one of the things I did that seemed to help was cutting the speed of the music way down and still keeping the rhythm, stretching out the counting to great detail. Then, as the counting becomes more natural feeling, I gradually sped up to almost the proper speed within my own accuracy to learn the rhythm. I continued practicing the music to reach full speed with total accuracy and totally proper rhythm.
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Author: HTW
Date: 2000-02-17 01:54
I would just like point out that nothing, especially in the music world, is set in stone and it is open to interpretation. It also depends a lot of the context of the notes. Still, when a teacher tells you to do something, you pretty much have to do it, that's what you're paying her for. When I disagree with my teacher, I usually do it her way but keep my way in mind. Next time I see another clarinetist I ask his opinion on the subject. Keep an open mind and get as many opinions as possible. If you disagree often with your teacher, maybe you need a new teacher. Getting someone to teach you principals you don't agree with is pointless and redundant.
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