 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: DNBoone
Date: 2011-03-13 04:25
Hello,
I have recently been coming into two different beliefs on how to start notes. Do you build up air and stop the reed with tongue on it and remove the tongue to start the note? or do you simply start the vibrations of the reed with air?
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2011-03-13 04:49
Both attacks are important tools in your expressivity.
Starting without holding the reed still, a breath attack, provides a subtlety that a percussive instrument (e.g., guitar, piano) is unable to duplicate. This can be done by winds, voices and strings.
Tonguing can provide an infinity of attacks on its own.
A combination of air and tongue adds further colors to your palette of articulations.
I was just looking at my notes from ClairinetFest 2007 and notice a couple of places where breath attacks were used to "enter from silence" in impressive performances.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2011-03-13 10:36
"Do you build up air and stop the reed with tongue on it and remove the tongue to start the note?"
That's the best and most immediate way to start a note as you're already primed (the air is where you want it to be) and the tongue acts like a valve to release the air into the mouthpiece with no delay.
Avoid 'bulging' - start the note at the volume you want it (and continue at that volume) instead of starting quietly and getting louder (as in oooowwwaaAAAAHH).
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: PrincessJ
Date: 2011-03-13 14:07
However, there, like all things, is a time and place for the "oooowwwaaAAAAH effect" and that should be practiced when necessary as well.
But don't do it when it's not supposed to be done.
-Jenn
Circa 1940s Zebra Pan Am
1972 Noblet Paris 27
Leblanc Bliss 210
1928 Selmer Full Boehm in A
Amateur tech, amateur clarinetist, looking to learn!
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2011-03-13 16:49
One does need to be able to both types and a combination of both. Most of the time, when entering softly, my tongue is on the reed but I don't build up the air pressure. I take the air in and gently release my tongue at the same time I gently add air to the reed. If I want a strong attach I do build up the pressure somewhat before releasing my tongue depending on how load I want to play that that first note. When entering softly I use the tongue release more as a timing devise to begin the tone rather than using the tongue to actually begin the note. That way there is no "tongue" sound when the note begins. It's a bit like starting the note without my tongue on the reed but it gives me a bit more control in the timing of the actual entrance. I hope that was clear. It's easier to demonstrate it than to explain it. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2011-03-13 17:57
I was just thinking this very question. The first time I was struck with the idea of the 'tongueless' entrance was at a Marcellus master class where he unequivocally stated that the 'cuckoo' in the second movement of the Beethoven Sixth is executed with a breath attack.
Much more recently, in the thread 'great master class with John Yeh,' there is a link to a master class with Karl Leister. I just watched the first half hour as he worked the First Sonata of Brahms with a student. For many of the notes in the beginning of the first movement he was insisting that there be no attack at all, just beginning with the air.
MUCH good stuff in there.
.................Paul Aviles
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2011-03-14 01:35
The biggest issue I have when trying to start a note with just air, is getting it to sound at the right moment. So I use Ed Palanker's method above. Build up pressure for whatever volume level I need to be at, and "release" the reed with my tongue to let it sound. If I need to play very softly, I still blow air through the horn and get a stream of air, it just won't be as fast/high a pressure as a fortissimo. Then I release the reed when I want the note to sound.
There are a FEW instances where I don't use the tongue to start the note at all and it's all air. A piece I'm playing in a few days calls for me to literally appear out of nowhere on a sustained note for two bars. It's not really important that the note appear on beat one, two, three, etc. It's more of an affect of getting the audience to suddenly wonder WHERE I came from and "realize" that I'm there. For that, I start with the air gradually increasing the air speed to grow out of an extreme pppp to about mf-f at the highest point and disappear after that.
Both good to know how to do, but realistically, using the tongue start/stop a note while keeping air moving is the method I use most of the time for most music.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Tobin
Date: 2011-03-14 02:51
I saw Leister give a masterclass shortly after his retirement from Berlin. He was adamant that in "cantabile passages" to never start the phrase with the tongue.
I agree with the great advice above: both "attacks" (horrible word!) should be available to the performer. I have *never* been worried about starting a note exactly when I would like without the tongue. With the tongue was something I had to learn (and obviously the reason why I'm comfortable with the wind).
James
edited 'cause my sentence said the opposite of what I meant.
Gnothi Seauton
Post Edited (2011-03-14 16:56)
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