 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: yearsofwisdom
Date: 2012-03-23 04:36
My school is playing a piece called Blue Shades by Frank Ticheli. It involves a 60 measure "jazzy" solo. I am a very rigid classical player and i need to learn how to bend and basically turn the solo into something exciting and wonderful. How do i do the bends and glisses like the person in this video: starting 3:23 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3JHY5DzskI&feature=plcp&context=C4907503VDvjVQa1PpcFOc3UliUVk787rMcO1UWTxP_JO-F12BP8k%3D?
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Author: mvjohnso
Date: 2012-03-23 05:17
Coming from someone who really likes bending, it involves a lot of things to do correctly but fortunately in the world of jazz you do not have to be completely correct. I like to think of glissing as the combination of three techniques: finger bending, lip bends, and air bends.
The easiest thing to learn is to start sliding your fingers on the tone wholes, this is a finger bend. I would start with individual notes first then work up to multiple note glisses. All one has to do is slide ones finger across the tone hole slowly and it will create a bend. Bending multiple notes cleanly with this technique is possible but you are limited to only the tone hole notes, and it takes some practice (as for it to sound clean one must start the finger bend of the next note before you completely uncover the hole. For bending notes with R1, 2, and 3 I usually like to imagine that R1 is my pivot point, and I rotate or peal my fingers in that manner.
Lip bends are also fairly easy. For this you just bring your bottom embrasure from a relaxed position to a more stable one. Talk to an oboeist or a jazz sax player (or better yet learn one of these (sax is much easier)) about this as they may be able to pass on a few tricks. Some people use the jaw and some just lip. You might want to practice a double lip embrasure to learn this one. And, our friends at the klezmer board will probably be happy to help you. But, I wouldn't perform blue shades with a double lip as one would need an embrasure of steel to play those high notes with a double lip. However, it is always a good learning exercise at the very least.
The final of these may be somewhat controversial, but it does exist. In fact, it is necessary for extreme high note that require the firmest of firm embrasures. That is, what I like to call the air bend. The trick here is to change where or how you throw your air into the horn. One really good practice for bending (IMHO playing in general) is to raise the back of ones tongue while keeping the bottom flat (one might achieve this by putting the tip of ones tongue at bottom of their teeth the slowly sliding it back. Used in a minor way it will narrow your air stream into a more focused stream. But, when over bent it can cause the air to move in a circular motion causing some "fun" effects. This is really hard to get the hang of, but using it a little bit can really help with the other two techniques.
Sorry if this seems like a lot. My advice to you is to try all three and to see what sticks, and just work on that (maybe try to throw in part of the the other two once you get one down pat.
Post Edited (2012-03-23 05:29)
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Author: ttay1122
Date: 2012-03-23 07:36
I started glissando in high school. Our field show was Fiddler on the Roof and I had the awesome klezmer clarinet solo. It takes a lot of practice but I am not going to write a long article on gliss I'll just give a few pointers for you.
1. Start on high C, and drop your tongue very low in your mouth. If you start up there and you can voice with your tongue to make the pitch drop it will help a lot.
2. After that try the same thing with a high B and after you have dropped your tongue and your pitch slowly remove your finger from the tone hole as you voice back up to high C.
3. Repeat steps one and two and keep working your way across the clarion register to see if you can't play some crazy fun exciting glissando passages.
4. Practice a ton and have fun.
Hope this helps.
Taylor
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2012-03-23 09:35
Good answers above.
For starters the key to what worked best for me are softer, more flexible set of reeds. I favor hard reeds in general even on the sax as well as the clarinet. I have trouble with hard reeds bending notes. Try a 1/2 to 1 strength. or even more and follow the advice above. I actually wouldn't be opposed to a soft plastic reed, because of consistancy vibrant and easy to play with doing weird things to notes. Added to this they won't change when playing. The plastic reeds will sound the same the day you buy one and perhaps the same a year later.
Give yourself time to bend one note then 2 and so on by sliding off your fingers. Don't lift them. Once you start with one or 2 or 10 fingers/notes playing a glissando will be fairly easy. I would say a week or 2 and you will have the concept down. As said above with jaw, throat, lip movements, and air control/support of course, do these practice exercises on the very slow side to train your muscle memory. Playing glissandos fast is very easy once you have trained slowly. Oh, ermember to work on one hand at a time, then add both. Slow and with the soft reed is the way to turn into a juiced up jazz player with that 5 hour energy drink, giving the audience an experience they won't forget.
I personally move my jaw and lips all over the place, depending if it's the sax or the clarinet. Less with the clarinet. The sax is more lip and air support related and this may not be for everyone. You can also open your throat. How does someone really truely open their throat? This is actually a difficult exercise. Try drinking about 2 sodas at once and pick up the clarinet or the sax. While playing a few notes and you feel that burp coming --- let it fly out while playing. The throat opens and the pitch goes way down. Thats opening your throat! This is the only way I can explain it! HeHe- before your 60 measure solo, down a coke fast! Surely it will work. Joking here. Anyway when burping the notes really bend low. For me it's really funny playing a classical piece and then burping. Most of your friends will burst out laughing, unless your friends are nuns and priests and some parents or teachers! Getting serious here again. when doing the note bending you MUST support your air well and all of the time. Don't let the support stop. EVER!
It's a blast to have a 60 measure jazz solo! Try to record it and post a clip for us. Best of luck and I'm sure you will do great.
The band I was in the players were all graduates of assorted colleges with the exception of a drummer. He was a bit slow at first but turned into a fantastic player. Because of the college, when you get into the top bands you start out as an E5 or an E6, compared to an E1, making about $400 a month if that. The military musicians work hard, play hard and if they leave the service they generally get really good jobs in symphonies or teaching college. I'm not sure what happened to the one guy, but he was seen driving cabs in Washington DC. I'm not sure why that happened.
Thanks for sharing the clip with the army band. The skill levels of these top service bands and musicians are simply great. I enjoyed the piece.
Again, try topost a clip!
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Author: Tobin
Date: 2012-03-23 11:52
There are many paths to the same end, but Taylor's explanation is most closely what I do.
My embouchure does not move at all. Not one bit. The gliss is (for me) 100% oral in nature.
Starting with bending a pitch down and discovering how you're going to do that is step one. For me this involves the tip of my tongue coming up and in a bit, along with the soft palate coming down and in a bit. And I mean by soft palate the part of my oral cavity that starts just beyond my top teeth and moves on into the throat area.
I never realized what I was doing until I had to explain it to someone -- read the many descriptions you'll find here but focus on the sound. Your ear will tell your mouth what to do.
Once that is practiced -- bend a pitch down, release some fingers (G to C for example) and then allow the oral cavity to return to normal and the gliss will slide up to a C.
Coordinating the bend down -- fingers move -- bend up into a gesture is the goal.
Good luck!
James
Gnothi Seauton
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Author: mvjohnso
Date: 2012-03-23 18:27
One additional word of wisdom about Jazz. I always viewed Jazz as messing up a little on purpose, or at least pretending that's the case after you do . And, Bob's point about opening the throat is a very good one. This is my philosophy on how to control the openness of ones throat: "The warmer the air the more open the throat." Because, as Bob states it is extremely difficult to cognate the opening of the throat, and even harder to test how open it is. But, you can test how warm your air is. So, dig that warm nasty air out of the bottom of your lungs.
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Author: DrH2O
Date: 2012-03-24 02:25
Burping will open your throat, but the dramatic drop in pitch that comes with burping after drinking a carbonated drink has more to do with the extra carbon dioxide in the burped air. It's denser than the usual air we exhale, so the pitch goes down. Helium is much less dense that regular air so it makes your voice go really high. I hate to think about what that would do to the pitch of the clarinet!
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Author: mvjohnso
Date: 2012-03-24 03:32
You see that's is where we differ, I now need to acquire a helium balloon for experiments...
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Author: DrH2O
Date: 2012-03-24 12:36
mvjohnso -
Be sure to tell us how it goes! I've thought of trying it, but never have a balloon round at the time. It should have a pretty drastic effect considering what it does to the pitch of our vocal chords! I bet you could get a serious gliss on a single note if you to do circular breathing after inhaling helium.
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