 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Jeff
Date: 1999-11-24 02:31
I am looking for fingerings for the high A, Bb, B, and C(Second A, Bb, B, and C above the staff). I know one fingering for each, and it seems as if it won't pop out very well, no matter how much I tighten my embochure.
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Author: Eoin
Date: 1999-11-24 07:21
Tim Reichart's Woodwind Fingering Guide at:
http://www.sneezy.org/wfg
lists 8 fingerings for the A, 13 for the Bb, 6 for the B and 9 for the C. They are listed in the Alternate Fingering section, and are called A4, Bb4, B4 and C4.
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Author: tree
Date: 1999-11-24 11:22
A can be played as an overblown (third line above staff) F. tree
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-11-24 13:21
Jeff wrote:
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I am looking for fingerings for the high A, Bb, B, and C(Second A, Bb, B, and C above the staff). I know one fingering for each, and it seems as if it won't pop out very well, no matter how much I tighten my embochure.
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Several things must come together for these very high notes.
1. The clarinet must be in perfect working order. Not even the minutest leak, etc. Note that it does not need to be a pro instrument. I can play these on my backup horn, a plastic Vito as easily on my pro grade horn.
2. Proper selection of reed, reed strength, mouthpiece, and matching the reed to the mouthpiece. While you don't need super hard reeds, you probably won't get there at all on reeds that are too soft. Although I believe I have read of some individuals who are able to do so, you'll just be fighting yourself. Tastes may vary but I like a Vandoren 3.5 reed myself.
3. For these extreme notes, the reeds may need a little adjustment to work well. So if you haven't already, now is the time to learn the basics of adjusting reeds.
4. Exceptional breath support is required. The air must have a lot of pressure to make these notes speak.
5. Tightening the embouchure is a poor description. The embouchure needs to be firmer but if you tighten it up, you may end up choking off the reed entirely.
6. To me there seems to be a "sweet spot" on the mouthpiece reed combo that allows these notes to speak more easily.
7. The embouchure needs to be virtually perfect to get to these notes.
8. Play lots of long tones up to the altissimo G to develop a strong, stable embouchure and breath support and good tone quality up to this point.
9. At first don't try to make these notes pop out without any preparation. Work at it stepwise. Play the altissimo G and hold it. Now slur to the A and hold it. Then back down. Once you can do this well and repeatedly, add the Bb. Continue in this manner until you get the C. Once the slurring is good, do this same drill except tongue up and down. Next work scales up and down at more normal speeds. After all of this, your body will have the proper "feel" for what these notes require and you can start working on them from the top.
10. Finally it happens to be my personal opinion that typically a student shouldn't even tackle these notes until they have been playing for about 5 years with at a lot of altissimo work in at least the last 2 years of that time.
Personally, although I can play these notes, I think that any composer that deliberately writes them should have his head examined. Yes they can be played and yes some clarinettists can sound great on them but the real beauty of the clarinet itself lies in its chalumeau and clarion registers. These ultra-high notes are more in the nature of demonstrating how players can successfully push the envelope.
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Author: Kevin Bowman
Date: 1999-11-24 14:22
Heed Dee's advice.
In addition:
1) I re-iterate, do _not_ tighten your embouchure. You should use the same embouchure from the bottom of the range to the very top.
2) I re-iterate, _lots_ of breath support.
3) Something Dee did not mention was voicing. Voicing is extremely important in the altissimo - not only for intonation but just to get the notes to play!
BTW - a previous poster (tree, I think) said that high A can be gotten by overblowing altissimo F. I contend this is wrong. The most common fingering for that A is obtained by overblowing altissimo E. Sometimes this not can be made more stable by adding the LH F/C key (your RH pinky is in the Ab/Eb key). Also, _do_ check the ww fingering guide - there's some good stuff there.
Kevin Bowman
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Author: Kevin Bowman
Date: 1999-11-24 14:33
Dee wrote:
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Personally, although I can play these notes, I think that any composer that deliberately writes them should have his head examined.
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I agree ... in an orchestral or band setting. That's what the Eb clarinet is for (or in rare cases, the Ab sopranino). Any higher, and the composer might as well score a dog whistle
However, in solo work for clarinet (or even small ensembles), I think scoring up to altissimo A is OK.
We clarinetists should consider ourselves lucky in that the altissimo is really quite secure, compared to sax altissimo. Saxophonists venturing into the stratosphere must have an extremely good sense of voicing, a good ear for pitch, know his/her horn extremely well, and be able contort his/her fingers in odd ways. There's one single fingering I use on my tenor sax to get at least 5 different altissimo pitches!
Kevin Bowman
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Author: Gary Van Cott
Date: 1999-11-24 21:46
I have a really great book of fingers and trills by Alan Sim available on my web site http://www.vcisinc.com
(which is actually right here on sneezy.)
It isn't expensive and is small enough to carry around in a case if it has some kind of pocket.
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Author: Rick2
Date: 1999-11-25 04:15
I have a recording of Charlie Parker improvising on his sax so high it sounds like a little mouse singing. It's very impressive.
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-11-28 04:09
Karn wrote:
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Look in a book (duh)
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The most readily available books (about 90% of what is printed) don't go above an altissimo G. Most of the remainder only show a single fingering for altissimo Ab, A, Bb, and C. There are only a couple of books that show multiple fingerings for these notes and you have to know their names and special order them. You will not find them at your local music store or public libray. So you see, saying look in a book is a really poor reply unless you can supply the name of the book.
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Author: paul
Date: 1999-11-29 15:33
Here are a few constructive points for the "look it up in a book" posting. I have the Langenus Book 1. It has at least 4 fingerings for each of these notes, all the way up to "super" C. I also have Ridenour's book, which offers a lot more for the altissimo. His book includes several "overblown" note fingerings for the upper altissimo. What I really like about Ridenour's book is that it has empty fingering templates for the last few pages, so if you discover a special fingering for any note, you can permanently record it in your own copy of the book and keep it forever.
However, even though I have these books, I have to agree with Dee's point about slowly earning your stripes in the altissimo register. It's taken me years of part time hacking practice as an adult novice to get up to altissimo Ab on a somewhat predictable basis. I did it just like Dee said, one half step at a time in slow chromatic scale runs and then with scale drills. Even then, it's still a bit iffy for me whether the Ab note will actually speak clearly when I need it. There is still a lot of work to do. Hite's version of the Baermann III scale drills up in the stratosphere still go very very slowly for me. But, I have noticed something very nice within the last few months of regular practice in the high altissimo. My wife and my dogs don't complain any more about it. Either I'm getting it right, or they have learned to ignore me. 
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