 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Melissa
Date: 2003-10-21 21:16
I have been asked to teach a fellow student how to play over the break. The only problem is I can't remember what I did when I first started playing, and everything I try and tell her doesn't seem to work. Does anyone have any suggestions to help her play over the break?
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Author: krawfish3x
Date: 2003-10-21 21:37
tell her to think of pushing the air into the room through her instrument instead of just into the mouthpiece. also tell her to keep a steady stream of air and not break it. did you ever check for a leak?
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Author: Melissa
Date: 2003-10-21 21:40
Yes, and I tried her instrument and everything is playing fine. I also let her try my instrument and she got nothing out of it.
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Author: Brenda
Date: 2003-10-21 23:21
A couple things to try - have her play one of the low notes on the instrument, E, F, or G. Warn her ahead of time that you'll press one of the keys, then when she's playing the note, press the octave key. Then she can try this on her own.
Another thing to try is this: If she's able to play, let's say a high G, then have her gradually play down to the C and the B.
These notes need more air support. The column of air should be firm anyway no matter what note is played. Since the throat notes are so easy to play, the contrast between the throat notes and the B and C is great. One of my teachers had me take a breath down into the diaphragm, set the muscles, and then release the air into the clarinet. That way the air column has strength behind it - not always loudness in volume, but the air itself has enough strength to allow the clarinet to voice properly. Does this remind anyone of long tone practice?
I use the illustration of a garden hose. While you're watering the garden with the hose you can control the amount of water with the nozzle, but the water pressure inside the hose is always constant. So the water pressure is comparable to the air pressure inside the lungs and throat. It should be strong and constant at all times. Then the "over the break" notes will come out without too much trouble. With practice it will be effortless until the student gets lazy again and forgets to support the air column.
Is she pinching her upper chest and throat muscles to compensate for weak tummy muscles? That would close off the air column.
Of course she could learn it the hard way like we did; in grade 8 band the kids played "Danse Macabre". The first clarinet part is over the break all the time, and at a pretty good tempo! Sort of like being thrown in the river to learn how to swim.
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2003-10-22 01:05
Tell her to blow the air to the lowest finger down. The tendency is often to only push the airstream to the octave key, rather than all the way down the clarinet.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: OboeAtHeart
Date: 2003-10-22 02:41
I was forced into doing long tones on middle B from low E. ALL the time. It drove me mad, but you might want to check to make sure her pads are sealing in the lower end of the horn. Mine has a tendancy, and I've found most plastic horns do (if she has a plastic horn) to drift off out of alignment, even though I'm very careful with it.
It's probably just a matter of air support though. Long tones are wonderful, yet evil things! Good luck!
-Jenne.
*~"The clarinet, though appropriate to the expression of the most poetic ideas and sentiments, is really an epic instrument- the voice of heroic love."~*
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2003-10-22 06:31
by octave key you mean register key? there is no octave key on a clarinet.
what i was tought is to blow the air up when playing those high notes. it worked for me. if you put the fingers to make a high note but blow the air down it won't come out.
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2003-10-22 08:22
Sorry, register key. Lots of instruments have octave keys, sometimes I mix up the terminology.
On the contrary, you should not play up when going over the break. It leads to sharpness and reluctance of sound. Play the clarinet, not the page. If all your fingers are down, the sound is being made with the whole clarinet, so it requires a LOT more air (though hopefully the same fullness of airstream) to play a B over a break as full as a G under the break. To play the clarinet, the full column of air between the mouthpiece and the last finger down should resonate fully.
Then again, it depends on what you mean by "blowing the air up", and which high notes you are referring to.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: BobD
Date: 2003-10-22 13:16
Yup, there's more to it than just putting your fingers down and blowing....how easy it is to forget
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Author: Tim P
Date: 2003-10-22 13:21
you can turn the mouthpiece around and have her blow while you do the fingers. that way she does not subconsciencely adjsut the air.
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Author: Melissa
Date: 2003-10-22 13:32
Thanks everyone! Oh this poor girl. She joined a band not knowing how to play over the break and the first song thrown at her is Into the Storm by Robert W. Smith. I don't think she had ever even seen a sixthteenth note, and besides that we are performing the song in 2 weeks.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2003-10-22 13:36
We went over this same ground not long back [can you find it for us, GBK?] . I believe my comments included that the mid-staff B is the best clarion note for testing the "tightness" of the cl, thereby the most difficult to make speak easily [some of the common altissimos are difficult also]. My favorite "practice tune" is 76 Trombones starting on open G, both tongued and slurrec! Try it. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2003-10-22 14:24
Melissa -
I agree with Brenda that the best way to teach the first clarion register notes is to have your friend play a low note she feels secure on -- low E, F or G -- and reach behind and open the register key for her. Then, have her practice the same thing, pressing very gently and gradually on the register key, so she won't know exactly when the tone will jump up.
For going over the break, it's easiest to approach it from above. That is, have her play middle B and go to throat A. Have her keep her right hand fingers and her left middle, ring and little fingers down. All she does is lift her left thumb and index finger and "nudge" the throat A key. That removes the problem of putting down many fingers and also going to a different register.
Once she does the exercise a few times and is comfortable with it, have her go the other way, from A to B, sliding/rolling her left index finger back to its hole and putting down her left thumb with the register key.
Let us know how it works.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: markBbclar
Date: 2003-10-22 14:41
what is "over the break" playing?
sorry if it's stupid question, but I'm fairly new player
Mark
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2003-10-22 15:03
Mark -
The "break" is between throat Bb and middle B, between the low (chalumeau) register and the middle (clarion) register. The standard fingering for throat A is just the A key, and to go to the B a half step above, you have to release the A key and put down all your fingers. This is hard to coordinate for beginners, which is why I suggested approaching it from above.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: wyatt
Date: 2003-10-22 15:54
i was told to try and blow out a candle that is sitting on the floor right below your bell. so keep the air going to do the job.
i saw giora feidman turn the horn around for a student during a master class at fest. it worked really well..
bob gardner}ÜJ
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Author: Todd W.
Date: 2003-10-22 17:00
I'm sure the inimitable and sagacious Ken Shaw meant to write "the B a WHOLE step above" the A.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2003-10-22 19:44
Yup. I get so confused when some of my brain cells die.
Waht wuz I sayinginging?
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Author: hans
Date: 2003-10-22 20:00
Ken,
Thanks for your "approach it from above" tip; it's much appreciated. I will use that in the near future, now that I'm teaching 12 and 13 year olds to play.
Best wishes,
Hans
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