 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: honey_pot
Date: 2005-11-11 18:58
hello
I feel as though I have a major issue! I'm a junior in high school and have been playing the clarinet for about 8 years. My band period is pretty small, there are only 3 people (including myself) that play the 1st clarinet part. About 3 weeks ago we recieved a new piece from the band instructor, and I'm having major issues with it. I simply cannot complete the 16th note runs at the speed he's taking it at. I've been practicing really hard almost everyday and it doesn't make it any easier. There is only 1 girl ahead of me, and usually we are the two people the rest of the section hides behind. We really need to nail our parts! It is placing so much pressure on me that I'm considering just giving up!
My private teacher works on it with me a little bit each lesson, but I still can't do it. Now I know I'll never be a proffessional player, but I need some advice on how to survive through my next two years of high school. I don't understand why I usually do well, but all of a sudden can't get through this!
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Author: clarinetist04
Date: 2005-11-11 19:40
It would be especially helpful if you told us what piece and part of the piece you are talking about. Chances are one of us has played it at some point.
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Author: Clarinetgirl06
Date: 2005-11-11 20:18
Ask your conductor to slow it down some. Right now, my band is playing the 4th movement of Pineapple Poll and me and 2 other girls play the solo clarinet part. We're playing this piece for the Missouri Music Educator's Association and my teacher expects us to have it memorized so we can stand up and perform it. My conductor has been almost taking this piece up to speed and there are a few parts that we are having trouble with still. We've only had this piece for 2 weeks and have played it for maybe 6 of our 10 rehearsals so far. All I simply did is ask my conductor to slow it down some so we could try to actually execute the run and she did!
Also, go home and practice this piece slowly. Play it perfectly at a slow tempo and then speed it up notch by notch on your metronome. You should be getting it up to performance speed like that in a couple weeks.
Good luck!
Which piece are you playing?
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Author: Shorthand
Date: 2005-11-11 23:03
8 years of clarinet by Junior High - that's impressive in and of itself.
With runs and other things that are purely technical / woodsheding as opposed to strange rythyms and things that you need to actually rehearse with the band to get the feel of, I would say that all asking the director to slow down will accomplish is giving you some practice time in rehearsal.
There are likely some specific technical issues, and if you let us know the piece, we will do our best to tell you how best to overcome them. If you aren't taking private lessons it WOULD also be appropriate to ask your director for some help outside of class on this (of course some directors are going to be helpful and some are going to be trumpets.)
Also, if you don't have regular lessons, it would also be appropriate to invest in a short series (2 or 3) to master this problem. Teachers are often willing to take someone on for a short stint even if they're totally booked in their normal schedule. If the concert is next semester, you could also arrange a few lessons over the holidays.
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Author: honey_pot
Date: 2005-11-12 13:34
Thanks!
The piece we are playing is called "The Polar Express" from the movie that was out last year I think. There are about 7 key changes and different tempos.
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Author: 3dogmom
Date: 2005-11-12 16:51
I'm not familiar with the band arrangement of that music. Are there particular fingerings that are giving you trouble? Let us know what they are, and we might be able to suggest alternates. I second the earlier suggestion of getting a metronome and playing it as slowly as you have to to get it PERFECTLY, and only then increasing the speed notch by notch until you get it. Until you do that, there's no point in practicing it at performance speed. This won't help at band right away, but it will work if you keep at it. But let us know about fingerings, etc. What keys are the difficult parts in?
Sue Tansey
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Author: BelgianClarinet
Date: 2005-11-12 17:36
I don't think there are miracle solutions.
Practising (lower tempo, playing the passages in all kinds of different rythms, 2 eigths, dotted eight-sixteened, sixteened-dotted eight, staccato, slurred (-is this right) ? ) is the only solution.
One after the other - five minutes per run - not too much because then your fingers get 'nervous', at least mine do :-)
Everyone meets his limits one day (else we all would be as good as Sabine Meyer), but I'm sure a continuous effort will make this work.
And don't mind key changes or tempo changes : the first you learn to deal with by practicing scales, and both by getting older - and playing a lot ;-)
Maybe there is some alternative fingering - but honest apart from a few 'forked' or double first finger alternatives - there are no wonders !!
So back to the music stand and play ...
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-11-13 12:43
Also learn to fake well. I've never needed to, but there is a fine art to faking a part so that the important and visible parts will be heard. Even if you get part of a run and your stand partner gets the other part - it can work!
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-11-13 14:38
Very funny,David. I've never needed to either.
Bob Draznik
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Author: Shorthand
Date: 2005-11-13 22:17
I have seen our director turn to the flute section in an early rehearsal and compliment them on how well they were faking some tough passage. He was being completely genuine and meant it as a serious compliment, but there were giggles all around.
The point it that it WAS a serious compliment. Your job is to do what it takes to make the music happen.
I have recently thrown in the towel on a section of the Bass part of Dello Joio's variants on a Medieval tune. I just can't tongue play that many throat 16th notes that fast, and neither can anyone below the top college level. 5 bpm slower and I'd have it, so we're splitting the 16ths up. Its the right thing to do and will be absolutely imperceptible to the audience, I assure you.
As for key changes, see above, there are no shortcuts until you get the various key signatures into muscle memory, and even then you have to seriously keep your wits about you.
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-11-13 22:31
Iv'e been told by various instructors that while playing pp or ppp, if you accidentally drop out and stop playing, simply to hold your instrument to your lips as though you were CONTINUING to play. Mainly because while the audience can't perceive the sound and say, "Yeah. One person just faded out," the chances of being heard while trying to enter back in at that low a dynamic are much greater. This is one idea of when to fake.
Granted, if it was done properly and we were all pros, I'd expect everyone to be able to sustain that pp or ppp throughout, but hey, accidents happen and you just have to learn how to deal with them.
I wonder how many contributors of this board have honestly NEVER before had to fake something or work around it somehow. Even to the point of getting all the tonguing correctly (ah . . . the famous 'slur-two tongue-two' comes to mind . . . )
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2005-11-14 03:26
Summer before last, I played in a pit orchestra for West Side Story. The first time we ran through the "rumble" music, the music director told us, in all sincerity, "I don't care what notes you play as long as you get the rhythm right."
I've never had to fake either. ![[right]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie8.gif)
Best regards,
jnk
Post Edited (2005-11-14 03:27)
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2005-11-14 08:18
Is the problem fingering (finding the notes) or intonation & tuning (getting the darn things to sound correctly)? There are 'legal' tricks out there that can help. Double- and triple-tonguing do exist on the clarinet, and there's more than one way to skin a Bb...
There's some good advice above. I can add the following oddities from experience...
If it's consistently in a really, really silly key signature you could always transcribe the music for 'A' clarinet. I once had a piece with an 'impossible' section in about seven flats, with a handy four bars of rest each end. The answer? Take a pair of instruments to the rehearsal and be prepared to be a quick-change artist... Band music conventionally has parts in Bb, but that doesn't mean the composer intended for a Bb instrument to play them. I've seen Bb clarinet parts with bottom Eb in them. Now that's a dead giveaway that they're intended for either Bass or the 'A' (or a well-known cheat involving a rolled-up page of the score...)
The same piece was scored stupidy high, too, so playing a reed towards the firm end of my comfort zone was a help. But don't take that to mean that equipment will solve your problems - that way lies disaster. The equipment can help you play, but you're the player...
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Author: vjoet
Date: 2005-11-14 14:11
Hi Honey-pot,
You write, "Now I know I'll never be a proffessional player."
Please don't let mastering one passage right now sway such a decision. Understand that progress on a musical instrument is not linear progress. Rather it there will be times of plateau and then times of sudden marked improvement.
I've just returned a year ago to the study of the clarinet after 35 years away from it. Throughout school I had planned on pursuing a career as a professional clarinetist. However as a senior I discovered I could not flutter tongue. That one lack, coupled with parents' opposition to a musical career, convinced me to abandon my true vocation.
Had I known then there are ways to fake flutter tonguing (and it isn't much used anyway), my decision would have been different. I am now taking lessons, playing in a community band, and find I can offer pointers, and tips and such to the high school students around me.
So, the advice others have offered is good. Practice the runs slowly, speak to the director about the passage, and perhaps as David -- a very fine teacher -- suggested, find a way to fake it--perhaps by dove-tailing with the player next to you. But don't give up ideas as to a career over a single passage. You could live to reget such. :-)
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2005-11-15 09:00
"Your job is to do what it takes to make the music happen."
Good one, shorthand. Musicality is a funny thing. There's always something of a trick to a great performance. Take this: I played in a band where we were having trouble getting decent dynamic contrasts. Every so often there's an 'sfp' marked, followed by a slow crescendo. WOP!aaaaAAAA!
'OK,' says the conductor after much strife, 'here's what we'll do. I want absolute silence from everyone, a dead stop down to nothing, after that first note. And then bring it back in again from nothing.'
And so that wasn't what was written, but in almost any concert hall acoustic I guarantee you that's what you have to do to make it sound like what's written. The difference was electrifying.
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Author: ginny
Date: 2005-11-15 15:46
I have recently had a major break through in speed, I can probably play about half as fast as the hot players here now.
Here's what helped.
Playing without lights, or music and feeling my arms, shoulders and hands. This let me find out that I was lifting my shoulders up and that tension transmitted to my arms. Suddenly my speed is way up as long as the habit doesn't return. Somehow making sure that my throat is open so I'm not tense in my chest or neck helps a bunch too.
Practice anticipated fingers w/staccato and extreme relaxation helps. Play the run slowly with stacatto and move your fingers between the beats. I makes you think ahead.
Start at the end of the run with the last four notes, and relax into them. Add a few more notes, then slowly add more.
Practice slowly and feel any spot that is tense. That's where you're slow, practice that group of notes until it is completely relaxed at a slow tempo.
Practice in different rhythms as said earlier.
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Author: Brenda
Date: 2005-11-15 16:14
BelgianClarinet had the key to learning these passages - change the rhythms, it's the fastest way to learn them. I've had the same situation before and this is what my teacher recommended.
For 16th note runs: 1) Play each set of 16th notes as - 2 eighth notes followed by two 16th notes. Play a few measures of the difficult area this way 10 times through. You'll find that by the end of ten times you're playing it a little faster. 2) Turn it around - now play the same passage as 2 16th notes followed by 2 eighth notes, 10 times through. 3) Now play it as written, but slowly at first to get used to what is now the new rhythm.
Repeat this system for the next few measures until you've reached the end of the difficult spot.
Your poor brain has now been forced to play these note sequences backward and forward, so now the finger patterns are reinforced in your head. It should be much easier - but you still will have to focus during that section!!
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Author: BelgianClarinet
Date: 2005-11-15 17:05
Happy you agree Brenda. It's not really my method as most of you will know, it's just a classic trick that has proven great value to me.
With this technique one puts the emphasis on different notes/changes with every other rythm.
This way you're sure that all note changes get the proper attention. It' amazing how the difficulty shifts with rythm, and even more amazing that the difficulty in the straight rythm (all 16th e.g.) just disappears :-)
By the way, only try to fake that you fake. ;-)
I honestly never faked anything. Mist some notes yes, too late, too early whatever, but always went for it. Sometimes it was even perfect ;-), great moment's you never have when faking !!
Post Edited (2005-11-15 17:08)
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