 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Carol Dutcher
Date: 2003-09-15 02:51
It seems I read about how to growl on this website some time back, but my search didn't reveal very much. Can we discuss it again? I just cannot figure out how to do this. Thanks, Carol
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Author: allencole
Date: 2003-09-15 02:56
There are two things which might be referred to as growling. The first is flutter-tonguing. It has a very rhythmic, purring kind of sound.
The second is more conventional growling, like you migh hear on an old jazz or Klezmer record. To growl in that manner, you sing or shout into the instrument as you play. The ragged sound is the intermodulation of your clarinet tone at the frequencies produced by your voice.
Allen Cole
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Author: ned
Date: 2003-09-15 04:24
I believe that vibrating your soft palate will produce the sound you want. It's that part of the top part of the mouth [at the back] around the area of the uvula - that's the dangly thing that cartoonists like drawing. Check out Bart Simpson being strangled by Homer and you'll know what I mean - or you could look in an anatomy book - as I just did.
I'll check out my Johnny Dodds recordings tonight, to make sure, but I recall that he used this device [sparingly] to great effect.
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Author: Carol Dutcher
Date: 2003-09-15 04:33
I have tried with the uvula. Nothing happens except I start to cough. It seems like this should be an easy thing to do. I listened to a sax player today and I believe that he was using the flutter tongue method, it did sound pretty good, but not a true growl. So back to the drawing board. When I try the flutter tongue method it doesn't work that great either. I will try yelling into my horn tonight. This should amuse the neighbors.
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Author: ned
Date: 2003-09-15 05:32
I think it may be a matter of overcoming the gag reflex perhaps. It's probably the best way of producing this sound although it's fairly tiring after a short period.
Flutter tongue seems to me to be the way to produce very quick stacato notes and as for "yelling in to the horn" - I mean, what are you going to yell? I don't know about your neighbours, but I'm amused already!
I think you should persist. By definition - growling is just THAT.
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Author: theclarinetist
Date: 2003-09-15 06:46
I have heard of singing while you play (in fact, i saw an unaccompanied piece that required it once). The way I growl (though I've never done it in a piece I've performed) is just to growl from the back of your throat (like John Kelly suggests above). It's easy to over do it and totally cut off the air though, so be careful. Is there a particular piece you are trying to play, or just curious in general?
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Author: Rick Williams
Date: 2003-09-15 11:37
In Richard Stoltzman's "Aria", the song "It Ain't Necessarily So" has 4 growel'd notes in it. All I did was growl like a very large dog while playing and the effect was pretty close to what Stoltzman had on the CD. Wasn't difficult.
Best
RW
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2003-09-15 16:28
try puting the tip of the tongue on the roof of your mouth which may help l
David Dow
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Author: Carol Dutcher
Date: 2003-09-15 20:25
There is no particular piece, just that I play in some dixie jam sessions a couple of times a month and this would be fun to be able to do on some of the blues numbers. As far as singing into the horn, I cannot figure out how to do that either unless it could be humming maybe. I'll try again tonight. After I wrote last night I did try the flutter tonguing on a few notes and it justn't want I want it to sound like, though after a half hour, it was better. Of all the things I should be practicing, I just got hung up on this because I can't do it. Thanks for your suggestions. The last time I saw Pete Fountain a couple of months ago he did a very magnificent growl on St. Louis Blues. Wow.
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Author: krazykarl
Date: 2003-09-17 18:20
When I growl, I simply hum the lowest possible pitch I can (being a tenor, this is amusing) however I seem not to achieve any particular pitch, then I add a little edge. Listen to old Louis Armstrong recordings (where he sings) imitate that scratchy soud, maybe this will work for you. As the others mentioned the flutter tongue also works, but in my experience produces a completely different sound than I achieve by the growl I've described.
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