 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: krawfish3x
Date: 2003-11-10 20:57
while listening to some goodman recordings i noticed that the clarinetists would take a note and bend it 3 or 4 notes up without lifting fingers(at least it doesnt sound like they lift any fingers) how is this done?
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Author: Joel Clifton
Date: 2003-11-10 21:58
With the notes from around high B to high A (the highest note I can play reliably) I can bend the note about a fourth down. You just kind of make your throat move kind of like you're saying "eww".
Something I've just discovered is a new sound effect that I can only do well on high D for some reason. When I bend the note down to A and move my mouth just right (no margin of error), I can make that A and an A an octave above it play at the same time, and if I do it right, I can make the frequency of those two notes work together in such a way that it makes a really weird warbling sound. I've gotten to where I can pretty reliably create that sound immediately. It's a lot of fun.
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"You have to play just right to make dissonant music sound wrong in the right way"
Post Edited (2003-11-10 22:00)
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2003-11-10 22:28
You sure they weren't some sort of gliss? Where you are lifting the fingers, but with the embouchre control it sounds like a smooth bend or slur? I believe Artie Shaw to be the master of the the gliss. Listen to him and he'll gliss up more than an entire octave. And do it well every time.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Irwin
Date: 2003-11-10 23:00
Funny timing on this topic. At my Sunday lesson, my teacher gave me an assignment to work on bending notes down from a high C. When performing the opening gliss in Rhapsody in Blue, he uses a combination of sliding his fingers, and then when he hits G or A, he's able to basically bend all the way up to C. According to him, bending takes place in the throat like Joel reported.
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Author: ned
Date: 2003-11-11 03:54
"anything more specific?"
Not yet - I have not practised this in a long time - it's not used in "true" New Orleans jazz (so we say anyway) - in dixieland - yes it's used, it's a sort of a crowd pleasing effect really. I'd have to say that if gliss is required though, the trombone is the instrument to use.
I can gliss upwards, but have not tried it downwards. I'll have a crack at it soon and let you know if there's anything I can add to the other postings.
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Author: Ray
Date: 2003-11-11 18:42
This smearing of notes or glissando can not be done over any sizeable interval with the embouchure. Either you get so loose the tone dies or you get so tight the note is strangled. You can't do it with your embouchure.
You can't do it by sliding fingers either. You can easily prove that by just doing it. It sounds uneven, rough, stuffy - it doesn't work. Well, maybe for a tiny interval.
A big glissando like the D up to C in Rhapsody in Blue is done in your throat. You move your larynx up or down and open or close your throat to bend the pitch up or down. This is very hard to describe, but you will discover the technique through experimentation. Then it takes plenty of practice. Artie Shaw can do it across the breaks, but there's only one Artie Shaw.
I can do this easily and well on an R13 with a classical-style mouthpiece. It does not take a soft reed and a wide open jazz mouthpiece to do it, although these things make it easier. I don't notice any difference in glissando ease amongst my big bore or silver clarinets, either. The small bore R13 works just as well. Your throat can overpower all these differences.
I'm sorry, but I don't know how to be more specific.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2003-11-11 19:22
Is three or 4 notes considered a sizeable interval?
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Author: BobD
Date: 2003-11-11 20:20
"bend it 3 or 4 notes up ". Just what is a bend?
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Author: Ray
Date: 2003-11-11 21:02
According to one music dictionary, woodwinds can't produce a glissando. It suggests that a violin can produce a glissando when the player slides a finger along a string. A trombonist can produce a glissando by moving the slide while playing.
That's what I think of when someone talks about bending notes. Its going from one note to another the way a trombone or violin could. It is not a chromatic scale.
I think 3 or 4 notes is a sizeable interval when talking about bending or glissando.
If you are trying to get the hang of this, I suggest going from G in the clarion to C above it. Or maybe A to C, or even B to C. I think it is a little easier to bend notes in the upper clarion. Its really hard in the chalumeau.
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Author: potatohead
Date: 2003-11-11 22:15
In one of the songs my jazz band played (I don't play jazz clarinet. :-( I had to take up t-bone). Anyways, we played a song called "Shout It Out" (no, not the song "Shout") and the saxes had to scoop the notes by dropping their jaws. I don't know if that's what you mean, but they seemed to "bend" four or five notes up. I don't know...
-MFG
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2003-11-12 07:04
Scooping the note is not really what I'd consider a gliss. I play a little sax and had to scoop some notes out for jazz band in High School. Scooping a note simply has you finger that note, then start with a looser embouchre so you are flat and tightening until you bend it to the note that you are actually fingering. I wasn't a great scooper, but I could typically scoop about one and a half steps (meaning if I was fingering a high C on a sax, it'd sound like I bent the note from an A to a C).
US Army Japan Band
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Author: BobD
Date: 2003-11-12 13:25
I don't know what the dictionary(which one) says but my own definition of bending is: The alteration of the pitch of a given note by any degree.
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