 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: thepinesofrome2416
Date: 2011-11-30 00:27
I'm very interested as to how to do this... I've heard it a few times from some professionals and here in this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCPw2XR_6xw&feature=related
and I was wondering how to do it. Does anyone happen to have a tutorial/tips/links that show how? Much appreciated!
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2011-11-30 01:43
He's simply singing while playing, which is not terribly difficult to do (except of course when your fingers are moving a million miles an hour, as in the video). But then it's Martin Fröst, who does easily what the rest of the world finds impossible.
Start by singing a monotone and then add the clarinet. Since clarinetists do just one thing at a time, it's not easy to keep two things going, but pianists do it all the time, not to mention Rahsaan Roland Kirk http://www.last.fm/music/Rahsaan+Roland+Kirk/+images/28126305. And pipe organists play one voice in the left hand, a second in the right, a third split between left and right and a fourth with their feet on the pedals.
I can sing and play, but I can't come close to growling, Cootie Williams style, to get the voice and clarinet tone to merge.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Laurelin
Date: 2011-11-30 22:47
Oh, he's doing that new thing. He isn't just singing and playing. He's using circular breathing - air in the cheeks - to play the clarinet, and singing with the rest of his air. So if you wanted to do what it looked like he was doing right there, you'd have to be able to both circular breathe and sing/play.
Sing/playing is actually pretty easy to figure out - I just sang with the mouthpiece in my mouth, and then added enough air to it so that I could play and sing. Requires a LOT of air, which is probably why Frost decided to go the circular breathing route. It also interferes with the actually sound you are producing - you can get a pretty nice growl if you sing close to what you are playing - but that doesn't appear to happen if you are circular breathing at the same time.
My major problem(s) with circular breathing right now is getting the note to sound - if I'm using my cheeks, there tends to be either no note, or an accented/loud one that pops out. I'm not sure if this is an embrochure thing, a cheek strength thing, or a 'you have to figure out the complicated part first' thing.
Complicated part would be where you switch from using lung air to using cheek air without breaking the note....
Of course, Martin Frost can apparently play without using lung air at all, so I'm going to take a leap and say it isn't because I'm not playing a note before trying to use my cheek air.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2011-11-30 22:57
Laurelin wrote:
> Oh, he's doing that new thing.
Shhhh! Don't let the aborigines playing that digeridoo know ....
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2011-12-01 06:40
>> Shhhh! Don't let the aborigines playing that digeridoo know <<
Obviously it is more complicated with a clarinet so it took 1,500 years longer to learn...
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Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2011-12-01 21:00
I've tried it and I can do it, but I don't find it to be very comfortable. The last time I did it, I found myself feeling slightly hoarse with a very dry throat. It seems to put a lot of strain on the vocal cords. Has anyone else had the same experience?
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2011-12-01 21:43
"He's simply singing while playing"
That's not true. He has actually invented a new technique. To understand the technique, you must first understand the difference between singing and humming. Humming is singing with the mouth closed. During humming, the sound comes out of your nose.
If you sing while playing the clarinet, then you get a distortion of the sound, because both the air used to play the instrument, as well as the air used to sing, is all going through the mouth. Jazz players use this to get the "growl".
What Fröst is doing is puffing out the cheeks, as you do when you circular breathe, which means that the clarinet sound is now being produced solely from the air stored up in the cheeks. While doing this he hums, so that all of the vocal sound is coming seperately out of the nose. This enables him to produce vocal tones without distorting the clarinet sound. Co-ordinating all of this is pretty difficult, and Fröst must have spent many, many hours working on this technique.
There was a clip on YouTube of him doing the whole Bach/Gounod Ave Maria like this, but I can't seem to find it now. It was some kind of live outdoor event in Sweden. If anybody finds it, please post, because it will clarify what I'm trying to explain.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2011-12-03 04:48
>> because it will clarify what I'm trying to explain. <<
It's clear. Yes, humming and singing sound different played this way so I guess someone might want the humming. It's cleaner. But, it is not correct that you necessarily get the distortion when singing while playing, or at least not the obvious distortion, like when growling. It is possible to sing (not hum) a second voice. For example I've played Debora by Armand Angster, where the opening is bass clarinet low voice plus singing the upper voice. It's not as clean as humming but it's not distorted like growling at all. Humming laso makes it impossible to do certain things for example the length of the notes, when to start the notes, etc. e.g. in Debora it's two voices with pretty much the same rhythm and some of the notes are long.
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Author: salzo
Date: 2011-12-05 11:31
Its easy. I simultaneously played and sung SHepherd on the rock last year on a recital.
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Author: Remus
Date: 2017-05-21 21:56
Bringin this thread back real quick! I'm trying to learn to sing while playing for my upcoming recital and I'm having some difficulty - when I sing through my instrument (just singing, no reed vibration yet), my voice starts and stops. I can sing away from my horn just fine, but when I put my instrument in my mouth I can't sustain a pitch. Has anyone experienced this before? Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!!
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2017-05-26 21:33
Practice without the clarinet. Hold your hand about 4 inches from your mouth. Sing "ah" with your mouth aperture similar to when you play the clarinet. Practice so you feel a constant air flow on the palm of your hand. It might be that we just have to blow stronger than we do in normal playing. Think fff
Freelance woodwind performer
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Author: Remus
Date: 2017-06-27 06:19
Thank you so much for your advice! I'm totally doing it now!! : )
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2017-06-27 07:38
"What Fröst is doing is puffing out the cheeks, as you do when you circular breathe, which means that the clarinet sound is now being produced solely from the air stored up in the cheeks. While doing this he hums, so that all of the vocal sound is coming seperately out of the nose. This enables him to produce vocal tones without distorting the clarinet sound. Co-ordinating all of this is pretty difficult, and Fröst must have spent many, many hours working on this technique."
..and does he double/triple tongue while doing this too, maybe play two clarinets at the same time like Bob Spring does here?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGa7s9qxPbA
Perhaps you've sensed my tone, implying, "when is enough enough?"
Maybe I'm biased as I cannot do these things and wish I could.
Make no mistake Frost is, apart from all this "dog and pony" show stuff a remarkable musician, not just a remarkable technician.
Maybe he's...bored....when you've performed "Mozart" (the Mozart Clarinet Concerto) 100 times in front of audiences, maybe you're entitled to feel this way. (I thought maybe that's where his new conducting direction came in.)
But a part of me asks, "is there a line drawn where musicianship ends and showmanship begins?" Maybe not. As musicianship is itself showmanship.
Maybe Frost is pushing artistic boundaries I should respect as I would art itself, even if it doesn't "float my boat." And especially since you'd never find him doing this stuff while performing the classical clarinet repertoire.
I truly don't know how I feel here about this clarinet "plus" type stuff, and if it detracts from the clarinet itself.
Some sitting respected orchestral players don't (i.e. can't or aren't good at it as they live without it) double tongue or circular breath. And among today's up and coming auditioners, I suspect few can't.
Post Edited (2017-06-27 07:39)
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Author: Cappuccino
Date: 2017-06-28 09:01
Showmanship is for the ego, music is for the soul...
Alexander May
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFZta2RG4iM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh8O5DC4Tqs
"Looking at art, you're looking at the result of a philosophy." - John Emmett
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Author: Johan H Nilsson
Date: 2017-06-28 23:34
Technique should be a tool, not an end.
Humming while circular breathing is a good exercise.
Circular breathing is a great tool for playing works not written for woodwinds, but what is humming a great tool for?
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