 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: marineclarinetist
Date: 2005-01-27 03:49
I have played etudes with these exercises, but with age I have forgotten where the etudes are. Where can I find etudes that work on the use of the right and left pinky fingers and alternate fingerings?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Tom Piercy
Date: 2005-01-27 10:53
Two good books of studies and exercises, which have some specific studies for left and right hand, are the "Modern Daily Studies for the Clarinet - Book One" and "Modern Daily Studies for the Clarinet - Book Two" by Kalmen Opperman.
Published by M. Baron Company
Available from one of the Woodwind.org Sponsors at
http://www.vcisinc.com/clarinetmusicstudies.htm
Of course, you could also make up your own exercises as you intimately know your strengths and weaknesses in this specific area.
Tom Piercy
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Brenda
Date: 2005-01-27 11:40
Vede-Macum. Not etudes, but excellent for building proficiency.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: William
Date: 2005-01-27 14:11
I have an old etude book called "Little Finger Key Studies" that is, unfortunately, out of print (I think). (FYI--written by Floyd Low, pub Neil A. Kjos Music Co., Park Ridge, Il. Kjos Library Edition No. 105, copyright 1949) It contains many insanely "evil" etudes involving little finger combinations that realistically occure only in composers nightmares, but are nevertheless (or more) somewhat fun and definately challenging to do. A copy may surface on eBay...............
The Advanced Rubank, bk 2, also has a section of little finger excercises, but these are only for specific excercise and are not etudes. Good, however.
Post Edited (2005-01-27 14:30)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2005-01-27 15:13
Near the beginning of one of the big 3 method books (Klose, Langenus, Lazarus - I don't remember which), in the section recommending that players switch to the Boehm system, there's a series of short passages, usually only a couple of measures, of "patterns that are impossible on the simple system, but become easy on the Boehm system." Almost all of these involve the little finger keys.
The "you can't get there from here" problems, involving the Ab/Eb key and the C#/G# key, occur in keys with 4 or more flats or sharps.
A sequence such as (at the bottom of the chalumeau register) G#-F#-#-G# requires you to slide, probably from the G# key down to the F# key with your right little finger (unless, of course, you have the left little finger lever for the G#).
This problem occurs in, for example, the Baermann exercise of a sequence of 3 descending notes and an upward third (clarion E-D#-C#-E, D#-C#-B-D#, etc.). You have to know where to make the slide, and program it into your fingers.
Even more difficult is the slide of the left little finger from clarion Ab to C in the Ab broken arpeggio (Ab-C-Eb-Ab).
There's no solution other than to work it into your muscle memory. It's worthwhile to go through your Baermann part 3 and circle the spots where you have to slide and then single them out for special practice.
Ken Shaw
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-01-27 15:30
Ken, you forgot a note name in your first example. Would it be "G#-F#-E-G#"?
Also a good slide to know would be the LH pinky from clarion long B to C# (such as a sequence as B-C#-D#-B-C#-D# in the clarion).
Lastly, does the german roller system (the little black rollers between keys) alleviate the problem that is pointed out in that book? Meaning, is it now 'possible' to hit those sequences? I'm just not sure if the 'simple system' had rollers or not and the now german clarinets have them to rectify such problems.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-01-27 15:34
Forgot to ALSO mention, that the clarinet instructor at my college once told me that even though he owns and uses a set of R-13 Prestiges, he often STILL prefers to slide from the D# to the C# with the right pinky instead of using the alternate Eb lever. I'm not sure why (unless he's just so used to it).
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: idahofats
Date: 2005-01-27 17:13
Alexi, in my limited experience with roller keys on standard Boehm clarinets, they are most useful for quieting noise and compensating for finger cramps. However, one or two German manufacturers have produced clarinets which have a different key-shape for the clarion C/D#---less elliptical across the face of the key---more rectangular with gently rounded corners. In my mind's eye, I picture a pinky moving inward and down from RH C# to RH C, and not hitting the relatively sharp end of the latter key to stall out or generate excess key noise. Of course, people with Franco-American pinkies and tendons may not have such problems...
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Fontalvo
Date: 2005-01-28 20:41
If you send me a self-addressed envelope I can copy you a set of excercises that one of my teachers in dallas wrote. They are really good. Just let me know if you want to do that and i'll give you my address.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2005-01-28 21:36
Fontalvo -
Could you make a PDF of them and post them here? That way it costs you nothing and everyone can have the benefit of them.
Ken Shaw
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: GBK
Date: 2005-02-01 20:47
Just today I was teaching a clarinet group and was using the Pares Scales for Clarinet.
On pages 44-45 are Studies in Mechanism and Right Hand/Left Hand Exercises. Both pages are excellent for training the pinkies and learning alternate fingerings...GBK
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: jo.clarinet
Date: 2005-02-02 05:23
Rosemary Lang's 'Short Cuts to Virtuoso Technique' has some good little-finger exercises amongst a lot of fiendish-but-useful studies. There's also a section on unusual clarinet fingerings, as well as altissimo and tonguing exercises.
I've never seen it in the shops (here in England), but I bought it new on eBay from someone on the BBoard in the USA - I'm sorry, but I can't remember who it was! It's good stuff anyway!
Joanna Brown
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: SGTClarinet_7
Date: 2005-02-02 15:19
Marineclarinetist,
I'm sorry for straying off topic, but e-mail me off line. I have a military question to ask you, and you don't have an e-mail address listed here. Thanks.
Matthew
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: mystery science dieter
Date: 2005-02-02 22:13
>>>>>Rosemary Lang's 'Short Cuts to Virtuoso Technique' has some good little-finger exercises amongst a lot of fiendish-but-useful studies. There's also a section on unusual clarinet fingerings, as well as altissimo and tonguing exercises. <<<<<
What a ridiculous title for a book.
If there were shortcuts to virtuoso technique, the world would be overrun with virtuosos.
As it is, you can barely find anyone who can play all major and minor scales and scales in thirds evenly for 2 octaves, let alone from memory.
Incidentally, if you do practice your scales, chords, thirds, etc. every day, your pinkys won't give you any trouble. Assuming you are doing in correctly.
There aren't any shortcuts to playing well. If there were, anyone could do it. The clarinet is simply a hard instrument to play well.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: jo.clarinet
Date: 2005-02-03 05:03
Who cares what the book's called? It's the material inside that's important, and those studies are good. 
Joanna Brown
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: mystery science dieter
Date: 2005-02-03 13:04
The point is that the book is not necessary if you spend the proper amount of time with Baermann III, Stark arpreggio studies and the Jeanjean Vade Mecum. The other book (which I do not know) might be fine as a supplement to those but not as a replacement.
The problem with the title is that it reminds me of those 'get rich without doing any real work' seminars that enrich only those who sell the seminars.
Technique on the clarinet is fundamental. If you want to play well consistently you have to build it from the ground up.
If you spend a year playing an hour to 90 minutes a day from the three books I mentioned with a metronome (tempos relatively unimportant but not TOO fast) and then go back to your 'short cuts' book, you will find that most of the technical problems it addresses (and I write this not even knowing what is in the book) have been addressed. In addition to that, you will have built a solid foundation of technique instead of a patchwork quilt of tricks.
There is always a lot of talk about great players like Ricardo Morales here. How do you think he got so great? He practiced (and still does) like crazy. If you have ever heard Ricardo when he is noodling around an e major scale pattern, you know he paid his dues in the practice room to be able to do that. He wasn't born doing it.
Players like Ricardo Morales and Stanley Drucker can play the Nielsen Concerto straight through without a single detectable error. The reason they can do this is because the piece isn't difficult for them. Any time you hear a player play something really hard over and over again without an error it is because they have it 'covered.' They built their basic technique to the level where it simply wraps around the difficult passage or composition with ease.
The next generation of orchestral players will likely all approach this level of technique. It will become common. If you are finishing undergraduate school and the Nielsen Concerto is still a distant dream, you better get to work. If you are considering a career as a performer on the clarinet, that hour to 90 minutes a day of scale practice may not be enough.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
