 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: pcook
Date: 2007-03-30 13:23
Well here's another one for everyone..
As I mentioned in another post our son is a passionate clarinet player and is mildly autistic. He has a tutor and practices 6 days a week for 1-2 hours per day (including piano practice).
But one of the things we are working on with his tutor and our son is getting better a tonguing the reed.
For him some sensory stuff is hard to overcome. He doesn't have a problem with playing in a band and he can listen to each instrument separately in the midst of the band or orchestra pieces....I have had many discussions about this with him.
But the sensory feeling of touching the reed while playing has been a slow but steady process.
Have any teachers or players here had similar experiences? Any suggestions for improving the process? Thanks.
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Author: stevesklar
Date: 2007-03-30 15:40
That's a hard one.
For me I try to have students practice initially without a mpc. basically tonguing on the back of the teeth. Then they are able to listen and feel how hard they tongue.
Then after they start learning their 'sensory' etc. I'll have then tongue with the clarinet in their mouth, and blowing, but not enough to make the instrument play. This allows them to tongue to the correct position to the reed/mpc and still hear the tonguing
Then of course the next step is playing an easy note, like low C, and just practice tonguing.
then speed training, starting slow then continually speeding up - normally to a metronome. But this can be practiced really anywhere anytime too even w/o a clarinet.
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Author: Meri
Date: 2007-03-31 17:34
I teach a 13 year old high-functioning autistic clarinet student, have so for the past 2 1/2 years, he's working towards his RCM Grade 2 clarinet (got an 81 on his Grade 1 last June)!
When he first started clarinet, he was almost literally honking through the horn. He always practices, most days he plays with a nice sound, and his mom helps him with things that I have found a challenge to teach him. This past Christmas, he even played 3 Christmas pieces at their family's church! Still puffs his cheeks, though not as much as he used to.
The parents of my autistic 13 year old clarinet, his mom has helped him (at my request) with so much, such as embouchure, note reading, rhythm clapback, ear training, posture, and getting the notes in the clarion register. His mom also plays the piano, and we work on easy solos for clarinet and piano.
I've made recordings of how he's progressed, first on tape, more recently on a digital recorder.
An approach to tonguing I teach all my students, which I found even worked with my autistic student, can be found here:
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=189855&t=189805
Meri
"There is a difference between being flat and sounding in tune, and being in tune but sounding flat. The first I can live with; the second I cannot."
Post Edited (2007-03-31 17:38)
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