 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Jacy
Date: 2002-08-11 00:33
With the new school year around the corner (ugh!) for a lot of us here, it's time to start thinking about band again. The concert band I'm in at school, for instance, plays at a pretty high level, but we seem to be really inefficient. Whether it's about listening skills, seating methodology, or even showing up to practice on time, we don't really seem to be getting things right. Luckily, my band director completely agrees and welcomes suggestions to help improve the band. Question is, what do you think you band does well, and how do they achieve it?
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Author: David Dow
Date: 2002-08-11 02:01
Work on playing octaves in tune...
Work on breathing together exactly together...
Have specialists brought in to work on sections (ie Clarinet sectionals with a symphonic player)
Have the band set specific scale requirements and even have auditions set for entry level.
Make sure all players use decent quality mouthpieces and reeds. Brass players should also try to have matched brands and bores on their respective instruments.
The band should practice long tones together and work on crecendos only on long held notes.
Articulation can only be introduced once one stabilizes held notes and control of these sounds.
The music director should keep an attendance record and encourage and award players for good attendance.
Avoid overworking the band and allow the group a break especially after tiring sections of music, or at the halfway point in rehearsal--Good luck DD
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Author: Erica
Date: 2002-08-11 02:08
Essentially, I think it sounds like your band needs a strong leader to let them know what needs to be done, show them how it needs to be done (lead by example!), and make it as fun and exiting as possible along the way.
It kinda sounds like your band may be bored by the routine of rehearsals and such, so maybe you can suggest changing things up -- not doing the same thing at each rehearsal, and even making rehearsals fun by playing a game or something. For band camp this year what my director and I planned is to end each day with a unity game; this adds a lot of fun, and will hopefully make comming to rehearsals more enjoyable and less of a "chore". By adding an element of fun and making the rehearsals less monotonous, the individual members of your band will most likely feel more inclined to show up on time, ready and willing to work. And anytime you can do something with your band beyond playing music you'll bring them more together, and unity is always a great thing for a band.
I would definately look at getting everyone to rehearsal on time as a primary concern. If you guys are waiting around for people to show up, DON'T! By doing that you're telling the members of your ensemble it's okay to come late. Start without them and make it their embarrassment if they come late.
Good luck!
Erica
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Author: Hank
Date: 2002-08-11 02:24
Hi,
As far as showing up on time goes, Dr. William Revelli of the University of Michigan used to say "To be on time is to be late; to be early is to be on time."
I've heard the story repeated by many Revelli alumni so there may be a large deal of truth to the attribution.
I always make it a point to be early for rehearsals. Nice relaxed warmup, some scales and long tones, see a few pals, get everything situated, etc. Much like golf. Arrive early, stretch, swing a club, hit a few balls, chip & putt, and you usually score well.
Regards,
Hank
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Author: Jacy
Date: 2002-08-11 02:39
As for the suggestions so far:
Yes, we have clinics, but the only clinican we've worked with is a local clarinet teacher who's never proved to be very effective with our group. Even worse, the clarinet section has to share their cinic time with other various instrumentalists because the music department wants to get their money's worth.
No auditions; our director thinks that they kill morale and uses seniority/favoritism instead. Only problem is, some of the seniors are too weak to be playing 1st.
No one pays attention to setup!!! I even heard one person refer to Vandoren reeds as "snobby"! Some of them don't even know what the diff between closed and open mouthpieces are; they think they'll sound alright on whatever they play, either play stock mouthpieces/Rico 3s or B45/Vandy Trad 3s, or whatever else is thrown at them by the school. Problem is, most of these people would probably sound a lot better on setups more suited to them. But of course, hardly anyone seems to know what they're doing in that area...
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Author: William
Date: 2002-08-11 02:56
Every rehearsal should include a listening time when excerpts of fine wind ensemble performances are played and analysed. If the sound is "in your head", there will be a better chance of it coming out of your instrument(s).
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Author: David Pegel
Date: 2002-08-11 03:14
"To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late. To be late is to never be."
Therefore, by law of fallacy... "To never be is to be early."
But seriously...
Our wind ensemble has a select series of "together" warmups. We start with long tones, move on to a simple tonguing exercise, do arpeggios for the woodwinds (Lip slurs for brass, pretty much the same concept.), and then all 12 major scales from memory, going up the circle of fourths. All in all, It takes about five to ten minutes.
(Before you start thinking, "big deal, lots of bands do that...")
Our band director will sometimes play around with the warmups. For example, he'll pick different tempos (arpeggios at 200 bpm) or have woodwinds play their scales two octaves in sixteenth notes and brass play one octave in eighth notes.
Better yet, he encourages the band to make up their own variants on the arpeggios and scales, or to do their long tones in chords. One time while the band played their scales, me and a trumpet player played all the relative minor scales. It sounded interesting and got a few laughs.
All in all, one of the reason we're held in high standard is because we throw routine in the wind occasionaly. We have some good laughs along the way.
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Author: Kat
Date: 2002-08-12 00:10
David Pegel,
Just as an aside, throw in a Turkish makam next time...Hijaz is the easiest, and you can do it without the microtones...
For example, hejaz in D is:
D Eb F# G A Bb C D
It's my favorite mode!
Katrina
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