 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: brahma
Date: 2008-12-14 17:34
Hello everyone.
Another beginners question I am afraid - I hope you dont mind?
I am having trouble with my breathing as there are times when I really struggle when I play. I wondered about whether there are any exercises that I can do that can help?
I have just bought a metronome - can I use this to help with my breathing? When do I know what tempo to use?
And now a daft question: are scales where you go up and dowm the notes on the clarinet and play all the notes? Or is there some structure to it? As part of my warm up, I play all the notes up and down the clarinet - is this right? My note range at the moment is only G thru to A - is there a way that I can do "scales" on these notes?
Many thanks,
Andy
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Author: pewd
Date: 2008-12-14 17:38
metronome on 60
play an open G, hold it for 4 counts.
try again, 5 counts, 6, 7, etc. try that 5 minutes a day, see where you are in a few weeks.
all the notes - thats called a chromatic scale. start with a low E (once you extend your range down that far).
you should consider taking a few lessons to help you get started right.
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: brahma
Date: 2008-12-14 19:38
Hi Paul.
Got my first lesson just after Christmas!! Really looking forward to that!
Right so low E - thats using 8 fingers isn't it? and I'm on the chromatic scale. Should I stay on chromatic for now or try and move on to the others?
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Author: Sambo 933
Date: 2008-12-14 21:18
an interesting lesson i learned about breathing is that you can keep inhaling long after the point where most people consider "taking a deep breath"
before you start a song or long passage simply inhale and keep inhaling....it may surprise you how much air your lungs can actually hold.
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Author: NorbertTheParrot
Date: 2008-12-14 22:22
"Should I stay on chromatic for now or try and move on to the others?"
Let's make sure you've got the terminology straight. Look at a piano keyboard. You'll see a repeating pattern of twelve notes, seven white and five black:
WBWBWWBWBWBW
where the lowest of those twelve notes is C.
If you play every note, for example C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B ..., that's a chromatic scale.
You're probably asking why there seems to be no E# and no B#, or, to put it another way, why not have the same number of black notes as white ones. Don't ask that question just yet!
If you play only seven out of the twelve notes, that's a diatonic scale.
The easiest diatonic scale, on the piano anyway, is when you play just the seven white notes, starting on C:
C D E F G A B and then C again
This is called a C major scale.
You can play a major scale starting on any other note, but you need to replace one or more of the white notes with black ones for it to sound right.
Right now, you only know how to play the notes from low G to throat A. (Have I understood you correctly?) With that range, you can play three of the twelve major scales:
G major:
G A B C D E F# and G again
Ab major:
Ab Bb C D Eb F G and Ab again
A major:
A B C# D E F# G# and A again.
You'll find G major is much the easiest of the three. I think you'll find it's a lot easier than the chromatic scale too.
Once you can play the scale ascending, play it descending as well:
G (up) A B C D E F# G (and down again) F# E D C B A G
Major scales aren't the only sort of diatonic scale. There are also various minor scales and modal scales. Don't worry about those just yet......
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Author: pewd
Date: 2008-12-14 23:08
sure, start on the others
email me offline if you want a pdf of the scales written out
learn the f scale next (1 octave)
once that is mastered, add the register key and you get a 2nd octave c scale
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: Nessie1
Date: 2008-12-15 09:00
Here's another breathing idea for you - one my great, long-term teacher used to swear by.
Set your metronome - about 60 or 80 should be about right.
Now lie down on your back on the floor - without your clarinet. Relax your limbs by picking each one up and letting it drop a couple of times. Shake your head a couple of times from side to side to relax.
Take a breath in for four counts of the metronome, hold it for four and breathe out for four. Then repeat for six counts, eight counts etc. May be try up to ten to start with. As time goes by you will be able to increase the count and also reduce the speed of the metronome.
IMPORTANT - When you have finished this exercise, get up SLOWLY - otherwise you can make yourself feel quite dizzy or even faint.
I still start every practice with this (or even find a quiet corner before a performance if I can) and it definitely helps. Part of the point is that you learn to use the lungs from the bottom.
Good luck.
Vanessa.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2008-12-15 12:13
You aren't very explicit about what kind of problem you're actually having with your breathing. The answers you've gotten are based on the assumption that you aren't getting enough air in a breath to sustain a sound for very long. Sometimes a short breath span - running out of air too quickly - is caused by inefficient use of the air as you blow into the clarinet. That's one reason why lessons with a competent teacher can help. If you're blowing into a too resistant mouthpiece/reed setup or letting air escape around the sides of the mouthpiece you'll run out of air too quickly no matter how much you manage to take in. At a more experienced level, the sound itself that you produce can affect how long the air you take in will last. So, while you do those breathing exercises, which certainly can be useful, you and your teacher need to try to make sure the air you're taking in gets used as efficiently as possible.
Good luck with your first lesson.
Karl
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Author: brahma
Date: 2008-12-15 12:41
Thanks for all of these tips guys. Makes you realise just how much there is to learn!
Sorry to be a pain, but can you confirm the following:
If I have no fingers on the clarinet, I'm playing a "G" - right? Is this low "G"?
With left thumb on I'm playing "F"
1st finger and thumb is "E"
1st and 2nd finger and thumb is "D"
1st, 2nd and 3rd finger and thumb is "C"
1st, 2nd, 3rd and thumb and 2nd finger right hand is "B"
1st, 2nd, 3rd and thumb and 1st and 2nd finger right hand is "A"
1st, 2nd, 3rd and thumb and 1st, 2nd and 3rd finger right hand is "G"
If I understand you correctly, this is a diatonic scale in G major? How do I then play the sharp's in this range - to make it a chromatic scale? Is this where I press one of the levers?
Karl, as far as breathing is concerned, I think I can inhale quite well, but I seem to get to a point where I have to exhale otherwise I feel weird!! Could it be that I am breathing in too deeply? Am I not breathing out quickly enough.
I think I'll do that exercise Vanessa - do you do it every day?
Many thanks,
Andy
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Author: Lynn
Date: 2008-12-15 14:44
Brahma,
Let me heartily recommend that you take Paul Dodd (pewd) up on his offer for his PDF files of scales for clarinet. He gave me a copy a few years ago, and I still use them weekly. The studies include not only the scales, but interval studies for the appropriate key as well. You will enjoy using them.
Lynn
Austin, TX
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Author: kdk
Date: 2008-12-15 15:13
As to the scale you described (that "open" G is also called "throat" G because it's part of a group of notes around the "throat" of the instrument - the area just under the barrel), you need to replace the F with an F-sharp (left-hand first finger, no thumb) to make it a G major scale. As for the other fingerings, any clarinet method book - whether an old-timer like Rubank Elementary or the newer ones like Essential Elements 2000 - comes with a fingering chart included somewhere. Most books also provide a photo or diagram of the instrument to indicate where all the keys are that are indicated, usually by letter or number or some combination of each, in the charts (there isn't any standard way of identifying the individual keys in the charts, so the diagram and the chart need to go together). Needless to say, your teacher can show you when you meet in January, although he/she may be hesitant to give you too much at once.
The feeling you describe of needing to exhale isn't unusual. In fact, many players make a point, if there's time to do it in the specific musical context, of exhaling before taking in a new breath. The explanation I learned, which seems reasonable, is that air remaining in your lungs for a long period of time becomes depleted of its oxygen, which is absorbed by the blood circulating through the lung tissue. The oxygen is replaced by carbon dioxide that is removed from the blood during the same respiratory exchange. So within a relatively short time you become oxygen deprived even though your lungs may have "air" still remaining. It's best to get this stale air out and a full breath of fresh air in (if time permits - sometimes in real music you need to get a breath too quickly to allow for this) to avoid feeling "weird," as you describe it. It's like filling up with air and going underwater - sooner or later, even if you don't ever exhale while under the surface, you have to come up for new air. Another consideration is that you are less likely to run into this problem if you use as much of the air from your lungs as possible before you take a new breath (again, depending on the musical context - phrasing requirements generally dictate where breaths should be taken).
Karl
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Author: kdk
Date: 2008-12-15 16:42
I maybe should have made more explicit, although it was probably clear enough, that the breathing problem you're describing comes from "topping off" the air in your lungs by breathing too often when the lings are still partially filled with oxygen-depleted air. Hence, you avoid this either by exhaling before inhaling or using the air up before taking a new breath.
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Author: Nessie1
Date: 2008-12-16 07:58
Brahma wrote:
I think I'll do that exercise Vanessa - do you do it every day?
Pretty much every day - whatever kind of player you are it's a great warm-up.
Vanessa.
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Author: Claire Annette
Date: 2008-12-16 15:29
When taking a deep breath, be sure you're not moving your shoulders. Allow your belly to fully extend when breathing in. It should feel like you're trying to to fill your gut with air.
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