 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Piper
Date: 2004-09-29 00:23
I've just sat for (and passed) 6th grade (Australian Music Education Board, don't know what the US equivalent is). My playing is OK, but I was not so good on the technical work, scales etc etc.
I have put hours & hours into scales & arpeggios, but I don't seem to have mastered them, they are not second nature to me the way they should be. Someone suggested working with the cycle of 5ths, and that has made a lot of sense. Start with C scale up & down, play the tetrachord up to G, play a G scale, tetrachord to D etc That helps in 'placing' the scales.
Any other thoughts, recommendations for books, studies etc would be gratefully received. I'm obviously not going to get any further until I've integrated this into my playing.
Persistence furthers!
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Author: GBK
Date: 2004-09-29 00:52
Buy a copy of Baermann III (Hite edition)
Place it on your music stand - Never remove it.
Practice one key signature a week in the beginning of each practice session.
Use the book every day for the rest of your life.
After 6 months you will see significant improvement.
Guaranteed ...GBK
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2004-09-29 01:10
Much better than the Baermann III Hite is the Galper "Upbeat Scales & Arpeggios" published by Mel Bay.
Easier to read and more musically set up.
Also includes a lot of fingerings - Vancott probably carries it. If not, just click on the music link here to the right for sneezy's sheetmusicplus affiliate link.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2004-09-29 01:12
btw - the Galper is also based on the Baermann III (the scale bible like GBK posted).
Also there's the Klose book with the 2 pages of scales at the end of it - those are a great warmup too.
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Author: Piper
Date: 2004-09-29 10:41
Thanks, I'll certainly look into those books.
I guess what I'm also looking for is some kind of philosophical approach into the art of music. How do I get into all those different modes ie scales, so that they become second nature to me?
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2004-09-29 12:19
After about 1000 times repeated they will become second nature.
Maybe quicker depending on talent level.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2004-09-29 15:33
Piper -
The Klose exercise is about in the middle of part 3 in my book. It's a two-page exercise in thirds that goes around all the major and minor keys. Klose says "I consider this exercise as one of the most important.
As to mastering the scales, there's no short cut. I described the way that worked for me at http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=24907&t=24731, which involves isolating each change and working it out individually.
If you're a member of the IDRS, read Allan Vogel's wonderful description of his studies with Fernand Gillet (principal in Boston), Lothar Koch (Principal in Berlin) and Robert Bloom (principal in the NBC Symphony) http://idrs.colorado.edu/Publications/Journal/JNL6/vogel.html. Vogel describes Gillet's method of working out difficult passages:
You practice each difficult change between two notes, going very slowly, getting each change crisp and perfect. Never go fast, and never permit yourself to make even the slightest bobble. If you do bobble, practice the finger movement without playing, to get the movements perfectly aligned and simultaneous, and then play even slower.
Go so slow that you have plenty of time to think about what the next note is, visualize the change, and then do it perfectly. This gives you the experience of perfection and trains your muscle memory.
You then put the practice "cells" aside and let them "cook" for three days, so that each perfect change becomes automatic, and part of your muscle memory. If you were to play the passage fast, and should there be some imperfection, this would be tantamount to throwing something rotten into the pot just before allowing it to simmer for a few days. Gillet said, "You can destroy in thirty seconds what you have done in thirty minutes."
Going slowly engraves the change into your muscle memory just as effectively as going fast.
This advice is pure gold, from one of the greatest players and teachers in history.
Your assignment, then, is to work out the passage as Gillet taught. Begin with each difficult interval. Then start putting the groups of two notes together, playkng three notes at a time, then four, and so on.
It's really, REALLY difficult to discipline yourself to "never practice faster than perfect," but it's the best and maybe the only way to perfect your technique.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2004-09-29 16:40
Also, bear in mind that young minds (those up to the age of 15 or so) are the ones that are capable of learning things "into the hind brain" with ease. Do the drudge work while you are young, and you'll pick it up much better than if you wait until you're mature enough to discipline yourself to do the work (say at twenty years or so).
James Burke (the author of Connections, and a very interesting guy in person too, by the way) did a nifty demonstration of this many years ago, with a guitar and an EEG, showing how the mental activities needed to play a guitar by a "learner" were centered in the "forebrain" (the "reasoning" portion of the organ) while the same activities being performed by a "skilled" player were located in the "hindbrain" (the reptile portion of vertebrate brains, that portion where our walking and speaking abilities reside). That's why a "beginning" guitar player can't sing along, while a skilled player can actually carry on a conversation while playing. (The second is hard to do while playing the clarinet, by the way...)
It also accounts for the problems that I've encountered over the years with particular instruments. I have lived on the bass clarinet since I was a wee one, spending far more time there than on the soprano or other instruments of the family. All of those endless trips up and down the horn in thirds and such, along with the embouchure and diaphragm adjustments that accompany them, are pretty well ingrained in my mind.
My usual bass clarinet warmup consists of running all of the major scales (up and down) for two octaves, starting from low F to first line F, then the thirds in a similar fashion, a couple of rips through the chromatic scale over the compas of the horn (with differing articulations each time) and finally running through a fragment of Russian music (Ippatov-Ivanov, I think; Procession Of The Sadar?) for general finger agility, all of it while wondering what time the meal break is going to be granted. It's all on auto pilot (more or less), and it's all a function of long, long, LONG practice many years ago.
I can pick up a bass and sight read music with little problem, even the more complicated stuff that gives many players pause, and THINK ABOUT SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT at the same time. (As in "Who's that good looking babe up on stage in the second female lead part, and where should I offer to take her to dinner tonight?") Clarinet's about the same (with some distraction in the extreme upper register, since I've never spent much time up there on the soprano).
But, put an alto sax in my hands and suddenly I have to start doing a little "thinking" as to what to do next. It's a relatively subtle difference ("Loosen up, dummy!" when diving down to low C, B and Bb, and "You're getting ready to play some high notes now; remember to start from the bottom on the palm keys, yobbo!"), but the difference is there nonetheless.
Move to baritone and I get a little more comfortable, but change to bassoon (as I had to do during No, No Nannette last spring) and it's a completely different story. Then, it's "Think about the lip", "Think about the various vent fingerings", "Think about reading bass clef", "Where's the stupid water cup?", and a myriad of other little "things" that make fag playing a lot more "stressful". On bassoon, I have to focus to the extreme, and there're no spare "processor cycles" left to watch the girls in the chorus. One wonders what an EEG of the brain would look like under those circumstances...
I have noticed that, with the relative intensity of my saxophone playing these last five years or so, my facility has improved on the brass horns. And, now that I own my own bassoon (currently sitting up in Saint Louis following a complete rebuild; I get it back sometime this fall), perhaps I'll get enough flight time in on the horn to avoid a bit of the double reed anxiety.
But, with certain instruments (soprano sax (intonation), flute (air flow and just holding the stupid thing), English horn (double reed and balance issues, combined with limited opportunities to play it), and (shudder...) oboe (embouchure issues)), I am reconciled to never accomplishing the degree of mastery that I've achieved with the others.
I've seen learning theory studies that suggest the minimum number of iterations to "learn" of a single operation (a transition from one note to another on a horn, for example) to the point that it is "habituated" is around three hundred. Based upon my learning of the series of thirds (I consciously set out to learn those at about age 14), I'd have to agree.
Short version of the above:
If you're serious about music, you need to obtain the grounding in the "fundamentals" while you're "young enough to learn". You only get a limited window to master them before your "brain" stops "learning" the automatic stuff; don't waste the opportunity.
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Author: Piper
Date: 2004-09-30 06:33
"If you're serious about music, you need to obtain the grounding in the "fundamentals" while you're "young enough to learn". You only get a limited window to master them before your "brain" stops "learning" the automatic stuff; don't waste the opportunity."
Great. I am a 52 yr old mature age student, been playing nearly ten years, but this old dog has learnt a lot of new tricks, and I'm not about to stop trying now!
Ken Shaw's advice about 'never practise faster than perfect' sounds really useful and similar to the way I have been encouraged to learn my pieces. I guess I've not had the intestinal fortitude to totally apply it, especially to scales (but there's so many of them!!!!).
This feels like good advice. I'll get back to you in a year or so to report on my progress!
Thanks
Piper
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2004-09-30 09:36
Just remember that every time that you practice something incorrectly you become one step closer to mastering it
incorrectly
That's why playing something slowly is beneficial as you can control what you play more easily yet are still training the fingers to execute the passage.
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Author: Piper
Date: 2004-10-01 00:44
Yes, I'm beginning to experience the benefits of this approach already.
And I know the problem of repeating mistakes again & again and so 'learning your mistakes'.
But what about when I go to band or orchestra rehearsal and have to sight read masses of new dots at full speed, or I'm part way through learning a new piece, go to rehearsal, and have to play faster than I accurately can?
Piper
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2004-10-01 15:15
Piper -
Sight reading, and "faking" your way through things, is a skill like any other. You learn by doing. When I was in high school, the orchestra conductor was principal clarinet in the local symphony, and he used to pull out 1st clarinet parts from all the band orchestral transcriptions and read through them with me. I dropped out constantly, but learned to jump back in, and also learned how to keep going no matter what.
Your scale and arpeggio work will make a big difference. Tonal music is constructed of these patterns, and once you "burn them in," your eyes and fingers will recognize them. You learn to recognize groups of notes at a glance simply by their overall shape. If you see, for example, a rising scale, you read the first note and your fingers play the rest, while you look ahead for more patterns.
That's why scale and arpeggio work is so important -- not for itself (although you need to play the exercises musically), but because you're an artisan, making your own tools that you'll use for the rest of your musical life.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Piper
Date: 2004-10-02 02:11
"If you were to play the passage fast, and should there be some imperfection, this would be tantamount to throwing something rotten into the pot just before allowing it to simmer for a few days. Gillet said, "You can destroy in thirty seconds what you have done in thirty minutes." "
This is the point I'm wondering about. Do you destroy your slow practise work by playing fast making 'some imperfections' in rehearsal?
Regards
Piper
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Author: GKF
Date: 2004-10-02 13:10
All of the above is great advice... here's a little tip that helped me:
When you're playing scales, don't always start with the easy scales -- you'll do fine up to 3 sharps or flats or so, but then get frustrated. The harder scales don't always get practiced because we give up or run out of time!
This is why I switched to playing through my major scales chromatically. Play E Major, then F, then F#/Gb, etc. That way, you can reward yourself with an "easier" scale after mastering a tough one. Less frustration!
Hope my little trick helps
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2004-10-02 13:23
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This is the point I'm wondering about. Do you destroy your slow practise work by playing fast making 'some imperfections' in rehearsal?
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Concentrate as best you can and do what you have to do. Often reality and the ideal situation aren't the same. You will see those problem passages getting easier and more accurately each time you have to "perform" them after working on them as the posts suggested.
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Author: Avie
Date: 2004-10-02 18:14
I have the Third Edition, C. Baermann, Edited by G. Langenus, OP. 63, By Carl Fisher. Is it similar to Baermann III, Hite Edition? What would the differance be? Thanks. ATV
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Author: GBK
Date: 2004-10-02 18:40
Hite's edition of Baermann Book 3 (which was previously called "Third Division" in the Langenus edition) places the exercises on a more logical sequence, by key.
The Baermann Book 3 is Opus 63.
The Hite edition does remove some of the extreme high register notes which were found in the Langenus edition, making the exercises a little easier on the fingers (and ears).
The printed articulations are only a guidline, as one is free to do the exercises in any articlation pattern desired. (ex: if your tonguing is weak - play the exercises all tongued. If your legato is not smooth, play the exercises slow and slurred).
The Hite edition also offers a few excellent fingering suggestions which help when doing the exercises slurred. He also includes some additional scale and chordal material not found in the Langenus edition ...GBK
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The Clarinet Pages
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