 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Roys_toys
Date: 2008-12-07 13:07
I’ve always loved clarinet and on retirement almost 2 years ago I started to play again after a lapse from when I was a teenager Too long !
I can play pieces rated to ABRSM Grade 4 or 5, and my problem is whether I can ever get much better.
The thing that I worry may be terminal for me is that (a) I’m not able to hear a score in my head from reading. I need to play it. This means I am forever sight reading and – amongst other problems - for really quick pieces I cant read and think fast enough to direct fingers and tongue.
Probably, I guess, coming from the same lack of ear is (b) I cant identify a sound to its pitch on the scale ( although I do notice when I go wrong ! ) (c) Its difficult to remember almost anything by ear, away from the dots.
I know you guys are all way beyond this, but is there a way of developing my ear, or do I just have to face the miserable fact that I wasn’t born with an ear to support my desires ? I think progress here ( if possible) will do me more good than technique etc studies, though I do hope to live long enough to one day understand what “blowing and support” is all about.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2008-12-07 14:38
Roy,
There are plenty of instrumentalists who have no singing experience, which would have been really helpful. Looking at your part in a choral score, sight-reading starts out with determining the key, and where in the scale your voice starts out. You then look at each note based on its location in the scale. My high school choir director taught this; as a band member, I was amazed how well choir members without any other musical training could sight-sing.
Many years ago, I was surprised to find that after working intensively on a solo which began on concert Ab, I could hear that note before playing it, and before the accompaniment started. This was the result of intense repetition, over a period of months. That note didn't begin a particularly difficult passage, but it anchored the first page, and the repetition was critical. (Uh, I just tried it, 40 years later, but I guessed a half step high!)
So, try this: Pick a note, any note. Every time you pick up your instrument, play that note. Concert A is good if you play in an orchestra, Bb if band. Don't expect quick results, but do this every day and you will probably see some progress.
Mind you, this may not work. In my congregation, the same song always occurs in the same spot in the service, after a long interval of only spoken material. Every week, several of us try to second-guess the pitch before the piano's V-I progression leads into it. While we are not usually more than a whole step off, realize that years of repetition may not do it for you. But you may get close.
There is that guy who advertises his perfect pitch CD-based training on the back of the International Musician ever month for $139 (sale price). Has anybody on this board tried it?
With regard to being a "slave of the dots", you are in good company as this is not a skill that is commonly taught. If you are not playing music by ear, or at most from a "lead sheet", then the only way out is to start memorizing pieces. People I know who have "good ears" also have literally hundreds of tunes in their heads.
I have seen people teaching beginning ethnic music stress this by working on a simple "ear piece", taught by playing it for the students, without printed sheet music. For this to work, they confiscate the dots should anyone write the piece out. I think that everyone who works on this enough gets it.
Any piece will do. Start out simply, say with "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", in C. Once you have it down pat, learn to play it in another octave (not a self-evident task on clarinet.) Then learn it from memory a step higher. When you can play both keys well, keep doing this until you play it in all keys, and all practical octaves. (Alternatively, work from C through the circle of fifths - 1 sharp, 2 sharps, etc.) Tonal accuracy the issue here, not speed. Once you have mastered this piece, repeat the process with a slightly harder piece.
Plan on this taking months or longer, but work on it every day. If you can't do this now, and work the process, you will learn something. Even if by the end you cannot pick any key and play the tune perfectly the first time through, if you can do it in two tries, you will have made a real difference. This is soft knowledge - you are trying to wire your brain to accomplish new tasks, and it won't happen immediately.
Regards
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2008-12-07 16:09
You might, also, find yourself a clarinet (maybe voice) teacher. Next to practice, the best thing I do for my playing is to get that expert insight from my teacher every week.
Bob Phillips
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: clarnibass
Date: 2008-12-08 06:22
Maybe the first thing to do is find out what is the situation right now. This is a subject that some people are just very talented, for example can repeat just about anything they hear, and the worst being, for example, not being able to tell if a melody goes up or down.
When you hear a note, and then another note, can you tell if the second notes is higher or lower than the first? If you can, that's already good. If you hear two or three notes of a meldy, can you repeat them by singing? If you can, that's good. If you can but not very accurate, that's not bad too.
I would start by getting to know the basic intervals. If you can have a piano (or keyboard) and a friend (or similar) to help you it's best. For beginning one excercise could be playing a base note, and then a second note (at first, one after the other, not at the same time), always noticing what the second note is and trying to remember the sound. Then after you leared a few intervals, look away and see if you can recognize accurate. You can start only with two or three intervals, and then once you are familiar with them add more intervals. Maybe start with the most basic like octaves, 5ths, 3rds, then add others, still in the scale, then add chromatics and change the base notes too, etc.
Another thing is developing your ear on your instrument, which is a little different. We played sort of a game for this in university. There are two players, and in turns each plays a simple melody or a few notes. In the beginning it started with only two or three simple notes, and the next phrase always started on the last note of the former. Later in the year it turned into some much harder phrases, atonal, with a lot of jumps, etc. It is best to be familiar with most intervals reasonably before doing this game maybe.
I found that it's better to practice this for a few mintues every day, or most days, than a lot of time just every few days.
These are more standard excercises that I noticed helped a lot of people. Actually I didn't practice them much, and although they did help some (considering how little I practiced), what was the most helpful is putting on a CD and just playing with the CD.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Roys_toys
Date: 2008-12-08 15:28
Thanks Ralph, Clarnibass. Plenty to think about.
Its encouraging that there might be a way forward from what I had been rather dreading might be the end of where I could get to : ie improving your fingers and tongue etc only gets you so far.
Thanks Bob. I did have a teacher but he retired and I got the impression that if you are not studying for the famous Grades, nor young enough to be considering a career, then they have better students to teach. I'm a ( wanna be) clarinettist for the love of it ! I can understand this attitude, but it makes one a bit hesitant to take up a scarce resource, ( Hope you guys on the bulletin board dont feel the same ! )
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Brenda ★2017
Date: 2008-12-09 02:52
Well then just play for the fun of it, if that's what you want to do!!
This helps me understand how critical it is to sing to babies and small children and to applaud them when they start to sing back to you. In my family we always sang and whistled tunes, always. It was the thing we learned to do while doing house chores and while travelling in the car. We took out our parents' extensive collection of 78s and 33s and played stuff, and danced around the room if we felt like it. So now when it comes to taking a tune that's in my head and making it come out of the instrument, it's not a tough thing to do at all. And to change keys? It never occured to us that it could be a problem. But this thread helps me understand how to assist students who could have this problem. My husband cannot tell one note from another, but if he wanted to try then perhaps these techniques would help. Thanks for bringing this up.
I wish you lots of joy in your playing!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
