 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: HannahLynnLove
Date: 2011-03-06 04:38
I'm pretty sure you all get this question often. I have tried to use the search but nothing has come up for me.
I've been playing clarinet in school for about 4-5 years now. I would really like to learn how to glissando.
No real reason, I just want to learn it for fun
Any help appreciated!
PS. If there are any threads already started about this, please give a link to it!
Hannah
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Author: Clarimeister
Date: 2011-03-06 09:10
Basically it's a combination of lip and jaw pressure along with throat and tongue voice/position what ever you want to call it. The way I love to think of bending pitches and glissing is thinking the syllables "eeeeeeaahhhhhh" kinda like donkey heeeawwww as silly as that sounds. For bending pitches up just think the opposite if that makes sense going "aahhhhhhheeeeeeeee" while sliding fingers. Though there is a point where you won't need to slide fingers anymore when you get really good at it. A good tip would be to start with the mouthpiece by itself or with the barrel only and blow, and just try to bend that pitch up and down. Hopefully this helps you out.
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Author: kilo
Date: 2011-03-06 09:16
I got a little demonstration of one particular glissando technique last summer when I was fortunate enough to meet Dr. Michael White. It takes lots of practice, but you probably knew that already. His method is sort of non-intuitive — I used to attempt a fast chromatic scale with a lot of "lipping", but what Dr. White showed me is different. As you finger a clarion D, simultaneously slide your fingers off the keys in a sideways, rather than sequential pattern, right off to the side of the rings. Play around with it, keep at it for a while, and see if you can get it to work for you.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2011-03-06 09:41
Your best bet is to search 'Rhapsody in Blue' on here instead of glissando.
Whistle a low to high note (or high to low note) and notice the way your tongue moves and the muscles in your throat are being used to do this (and also the position of your larynx) - then try the same muscular movements while playing an upper register C to see how low you can bend the pitch down.
A useful fingering for the 'Rhapsody gliss' getting from the C# over the break to top C is by fingering upper register C# and take your thumb off the thumb tube (but still on the speaker key) - then use the muscles in your throat as though whistling an upward slide and this fingering will go right up to the top C. You may need to raise/lower LH3 around the middle of the gliss, but you can keep all the other fingers down.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2011-03-06 12:48
RJS wrote,
>> a whoooooooooole lot of practice.
>>
Amen to that. I was fortunate enough to sit just a few feet away from one of the world's best clarinetists demonstrating how he plays a glissando. He explained and then used the usual techniques. He played the Rhapsody in Blue glissando. Then he casually started again, at the bottom of the instrument's range (and this was a replica of an antique, btw -- he didn't even have all the keys to work with that we've got). Then he sailed on up, way into the altissimo, and looked and sounded as if he did it with the greatest of ease. I watched carefully. I listened carefully. I thought I practiced carefully, too -- but I still can't play that Rhapsody in Blue glissando adequately to save my life.
Maybe I didn't practice enough -- or well enough. Maybe I'm just musically defective. Or maybe Shadow Cat was right all along and that guy played a bewitched screech-stick. Anyroads, some folks got it, other folks don't.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Clarimeister
Date: 2011-03-06 19:58
Chris P's example works great too. I never thought of that, but it totally makes a lot of sense. If that's easier for you to understand, go with that one!
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