 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Cindy
Date: 2002-03-22 06:31
We are plaing the song Molly on the shore by grainger(which I know many of you have heard of) in our band, We have a six person clarinet section, so our conducter divided the parts as 1 first, 1 second, 2 3rds, and 2 4ths. I am the only one on first. That is all fine and dandy for the first page or so. Then the contimuous playing with no places to take a break because no one else is playing your part and you are covering the oboe part really starts to get to you. By the time we finish the sang I feel very tired and out of breath. That is very fun if you end a concert that way, but the band we are plaing that in is right before another ensamble I am in. How (or what) can I do to make this less grueling, and is there any advice from anyone out there who has played this song way too many times?
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Author: jez
Date: 2002-03-22 12:20
Cindy,
you could suggest to your conductor that he re-arrange the section so you have 2 players on the first part. (surely makes more sense than 2 on 4th.) If he doesn't want the whole thing doubled you could arrange to have the other player just cover some less important passages to give you a break.
This is very commonly done in orchestras where principal horns and sometimes other brass have a 'bumper'
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Author: Cindy
Date: 2002-03-23 01:39
That's a good suggestion Jez, but unfortunately I have already thought of that and gone through with it. My band director told me that " the second clarinet can hardly handle the part he has, let alone partly cover yours, so I guess you'll just have to work on it." Then, he followed that with "and, don't kill me, but you need more air on that last passage." Aaaaah!
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Author: ron b
Date: 2002-03-23 18:02
Good Golly, Miss Molly - er, ah, I mean Windy Cindy... whatever, aarrrghh.... (please; don't hit me again ouch!
...The reality of it, Cindy, is that whatever you do in your musical future, you're gonna needa lotta long-tone practice anyway. Deep, diaphragm breathing, long tones. May as well grit into it now
Your job is to make it look and sound easy :
From the tone of your post(s) though, Me-Myself-and-I have confidence that by performance time you'll be showing 'em ALL just how that's done :]
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Author: Kim L.
Date: 2002-03-24 20:26
Also, he wouldn't be putting you on the part if he didn't think you were capable. Show 'em what you've got!
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Author: gretchen
Date: 2002-03-25 16:02
The conductor could help out in a couple areas. 1) In the future DON'T program music unless they have the bodies to cover all the parts and play it right! 2) Ask him/her to trim down the tempo so the the clarinets can play all the notes and the music ITSELF can "breathe" more...excitement is not necessarily tempo-related. 3) Only expel half of your air, never allow yourself to run out. Take half-breaths and sneak more in between phrases. It's going to be choppy anyway, it's more important to get all the notes out.
4) Don't hurt yourself! Negotiate the part as best you can, if chops are an issue, pace yourself for the rest of the performance and don't worry about chips, clams or what anybody else thinks! <;-)
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