 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2010-02-11 13:31
Our wind symphony will probably be playing 10-12 pieces at our concert at the end of April. I play first part (but I am not 1st chair)
I am finding 6-7 pieces have places throughout the piece that I will really need to work out and build up speed and fingerings.
I know there is atleast 1 piece where I'm just gonna have to wing it in some places (And a Multitide Spoke with one voice).
I spent quite awhile last night working out a difficult section in Candide Overture and realized if I spend that kind of time on each piece, the concert will be here before I get through them all.
So...... should I spend a good deal of time getting 2 or 3 pieces really good, or less time on each one but getting 6-7 just ok? (We are also playing Pineapple Poll and The Planets).
Im feeling kinda overwhelmed and dont know where to put my efforts. Usually theres only about 3 tough pieces and I have time to work them up.
What should I do?
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Author: Morrigan
Date: 2010-02-11 14:09
You need to work out which parts will be heard and which have other players relying on you. Tutti sections, if you don't have time and can't play them, could be faked if others around you can play them fine.
Continue to practice technical work though, as a good technical facility will stop you from panicking through tough times.
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2010-02-11 14:12
I forgot to mention - there is only 2 of us on first part (2 seconds, and 1 third). There will be "ringers" at the concert but not at rehearsals.
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2010-02-11 14:52
You've got until the end of April? And you are practicing (on your own) every day for at least an hour or forty-five minutes?
I'd say, just take it one day at a time. You do not have to do it all at once. It appears to me that you have plenty of time to deal with these pieces. You're just feeling overwhelmed right now.
And besides one day at a time, take it one piece at a time, and where necessary, one note at a time. (You can't play more than one note at a time, anyway. right?).
Choose a piece to start with. Don't waste time on the easy parts that you can play at sight. Work out the kinks: identify the problematic passages or parts of passages -- it may be only a few notes that are tripping you up; make sure you understand the rhythms you are supposed to be playing -- clap or sing them to iinternalize them. Use a metronome; slow the tempo down until you can play the spot perfectly; then play it over and over again until you can play it a little faster perfectly, and thus keep sliding up the metronome. Integrate the problematic passage into whatever comes before and after it.
This sounds tedious, but honestly, it is the quickest way that I know of to master difficult passages. And it frequently succeeds much more quickly than you believe it will. And if there's stuff you can't get, so be it. Get what you can. You'll be fine.
Susan
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Author: mrn
Date: 2010-02-11 14:54
I agree with Morrigan--spend the most time on the parts where you will be relied upon the most.
One thing that has saved me gobs of time in the past (and continues to do so) is to try to make clever choices about which fingerings to use. This is especially useful if you play 1st, because you have all those altissimo notes to contend with. Try different alternate fingerings until you find suitable combinations that make your life easier. If you have to make really quick jumps to/from the altissimo register, for instance, there are some fingerings that are really overblown throat tones (like overblown pinch Bb for altissimo E) that will save you having to do a register change. These can be lifesavers in pieces like Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, for example. Some of these fingerings are a little "slippery" when it comes to pitch, but if you have a good ear, you can make these fingerings play in tune.
Don't forget 1+1 Bb (which you can do with any of your right hand fingers, not just the first one). In rapid passages, you can also use this fingering for the Eb in the low register (it's very sharp, but if you go fast enough you can't tell). When I was a kid, I used to avoid this fingering like the plague because I was always wearing down my bridge key cork and never felt I could rely on 1+1 (and you do have to have the bridge key aligned properly and use the proper voicing for it to work well). As an adult, though, I have come to realize that it's really the clarinetist's best friend when it comes to technical passages, especially when it allows you to leave fingers down. (keeping all your finger movement in one hand at a time as much as possible is another key to playing rapid passages well).
For example, in the 2nd clarinet part to Ginastera's Variaciones Concertantes, if you play the last movement on A clarinet, there's a really rapid low register Eb-to-throat Ab-back to-Eb-to-Bb below the staff figure. If you try to play this with the standard fingerings, you'll be practicing this forever--it's a real mess. On the other hand, with 1+1, you simply play the Eb 1+1 and keep your right hand index finger down as you play the rest of the figure, which makes it really quite easy. You can't tell the Eb is sharp, because the whole thing goes by too fast.
Another useful fingering is the left-hand sliver key Eb/Bb, because it can permit you to keep all your movement in your left hand in certain passages. There's a cadenza in Scheherazade where I find this fingering particularly useful.
Sometimes you can hold down the left hand pinky F#/C# lever for certain rapid right-hand passages. I've used that trick a few times.
Also, don't forget that in really rapid passages, you can sometimes use trill fingerings instead of the standard ones and no one can tell the difference. Remember that the faster you go, the harder it is to hear intonation or timbre problems with a fingering.
Check the "Alternate Fingering Chart" and "Trill Fingering Chart" on the following page for ideas. A few minutes spent with a fingering chart can save you HOURS of practice!
http://www.wfg.woodwind.org/clarinet/
Post Edited (2010-02-11 15:11)
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2010-02-12 12:27
Musicality is the aim here. Some ideas:
* Practice the exposed parts.
* Some chunks may actually benefit from being soloed by the 1st chair. Discuss this with them and with the conductor.
* Fast runs can suffer an awful lot of fudging and still survive. What's most important is getting all the notes in in the correct time, and starting and finishing on the right note.
* If the key signatures are difficult, a bit of cheeky transposition between Bb and A can save a world of hurt.
* For whatever's left, break out the metronome and start really slowly.
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2010-02-12 12:57
Thanks for the advice everyone.
OhSuzan, I am gone 2 nights a week to rehearsals, but I do try to practice 2 hrs on the other nights after I get home from work. and longer on weekends.
Perhaps I'm panicking but....
I never seem to get things as fast as they need to be. I work slowly and speed up but the fastest I can play it isnt fast enough. I'm always scrambling to stay with the fast sections. You would think after playing for so long I would eventually have good enough technique to do it, but I got to a point where improvement is no longer dramatic. I have to work harder than my peers and it takes longer to achieve what they do (it seems). While I'm at a H.S. (perhaps college entry) level, they are just a bit higher. Though ive taken years of lessons with different teachers I am stuck at this level. So while I enjoy the groups I'm in, its always such a struggle. But somehow in the end - by the concert I pull most of it together and what I havent is what it is and I get through it.
Your thoughts and suggestions have helped me know how to better to approach things.
Thank You
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Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2010-02-12 13:17
Perhaps something else to consider here is the quality of practicing. I have been trying out an approach taught by the long time oboeist of the Boston Symphony, Fernand Gillet. It involves pausing on a note in a difficult passage to give your mind a chance to process what comes next. Similar to changing the rhythm of a passage, but it is a process where you can practice at full tempo.
Joe Armstrong has written a good description of the process....look especially at section III. http://www.joearmstrong.info/GILLET21rtf.htm
I have been using this to good effect, along with the flute book with scale patterns (Exercices sur les Gammes...). I think this is also available as a clarinet book.
John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2010-02-12 14:15
<You would think after playing for so long I would eventually have good enough technique to do it, but I got to a point where improvement is no longer dramatic.>
I was just having this discussion with someone recently. After you reach a certain level of expertise -- perhaps when you reach the top of your innate ability -- it does seem that the incremental gains are glacially slow (although considering the status of glaciers these days, that analogy may need revision . . .).
I was able to break through my own personal glass ceiling only when I started being brutal with myself, and stopped ignoring my little mistakes. This happened several years ago, when I was preparing for my first (and thus far, only) public solo recital. I was pretty well panicked at the thought of having invited all these folks to hear me play, and then playing poorly. What I achieved in the month before the recital was, to me, astounding. I went from being almost good to being really good (on the chosen repertoire), just by focusing my attention on the little glitchy stuff that I usually blew off.
It does take intense focus, rigorous self-discipline, and time, and achieving success at one level doesn't mean there aren't more mountains to climb on the horizon. But using the techniques everyone is talking about here, you CAN get from where you are to where you are not (to paraphrase T. S. Eliot). And over an even longer time of practicing this way, you CAN recreate yourself as a generally more adept player.
I think this demonstrates truth behind the old saw that "success is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration". Native talent only gets you so far. The rest is a hard slog.
Susan
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Author: Paul Miller
Date: 2010-02-12 15:54
It sounds like you have an organizational problem more than anything else. You've got some time, though, and it sounds like you practice regularly, so you're in a good spot.
Here's what I do when I have to prepare a lot of music and have a lot of time to do it. I got this method from my teacher, who has used it to win several national level orchestra auditions. Essentially, the idea is to organize your practice time by prioritizing the difficult passages, but still giving adequate time to the easier stuff that requires practice.
1. Get a bunch of folders
2. Xerox the music you have to play
3. Find the difficult or important sections of each piece and cut them out of the copies you just made.
4. Rank all these excerpts from 1-3 in terms of difficulty. 1 is easiest, 3 is hardest.
5. Place every level 3 excerpt into its own folder. You'll probably have seven or eight folders.
6. Distribute the rest of the excerpts evenly throughout the folders you've just set up, taking care to make each folder well balanced in terms of amount of material and difficulty of material.
At this point you should have a group of folders, each with a single level 3 excerpt, as well as a couple level 2 excerpts and a few level 1 excerpts. Here's how you practice the material:
Give each folder about an hour of practice before moving on to the next one. Use a metronome and start these pieces at whatever slow tempo you have to use in order to play each excerpt ABSOLUTELY RELIABLY. Over the next several months you'll use your metronome to build these excerpts up very slowly to performance tempo. The idea is that by always playing the excerpts correctly, you'll build up a highly reliable muscle memory for the pieces, no matter what the tempo.
Do not repeat a folder until you've gone through all of the others. The idea behind this is that you want everything you're working on to "rise with the tide." It also keeps your brain from burning out on any particular excerpt by presenting you with a wide variety of material as you're preparing - your brain has time to process your practicing.
As you get closer and closer to the performance dates, you can start condensing the material in your folders to the point where instead of having eight, you might have six, and then maybe three, and then just two. You should do this as the pieces become easier and require less time.
It might seem like a lot of music, but you can really prepare a lot if you plan out your practicing. Remember, slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. The metronome and the tuner are your best friends. Be patient and make sure you take breaks between folders. At a certain point, you'll find that you might plateau with your tempos... that's a necessary and natural part of the process while your brain adjusts to the new way of doing things. Just keep hammering away at it and you'll eventually break through to another level of playing.
Post Edited (2010-02-12 15:56)
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Author: Sylvain
Date: 2010-02-12 16:02
janlynn:
One thing that has worked for me is to try to practice my scales everyday no matter how much music I have to learn. 90% of the fast passages I have to play are a snippet of a scale or arpeggio.
You can probably go over all major/minor scales with associated arpeggios in about 20mn. I started doing this a couple years ago after 25 years of faking my way around technical passages and it has helped me a lot. Of course, this may not work for you as well as it does for me.
GBK or Ken Shaw posted a great practice/warm up routine here. Try to find it.
--
Sylvain Bouix <sbouix@gmail.com>
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2010-02-12 17:22
thank you again for all the thoughts and ideas!
Johng - excellent article! I'm going to pass it on to my teacher.
Susan - it sounds like you understand where im coming from. You are inspiring.
Paul - I really really like your idea. I am going to do it. Going to set it all up tomorrow.
Sylvain - I will start my warm up with scales each time. I basically do that already but not every single time.
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Author: elmo lewis
Date: 2010-02-12 18:57
Take the music to your clarinet lesson. Your teacher can help you with fingerings. He can give you tips on efficient use of practice time. He's not there just to teach concertos and sonatas, he's being paid to help you with any and all musical and clarinet-releated problems.
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