 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Clarinetgirl06
Date: 2005-03-30 03:38
My solo is Concertino by von Weber. Our contest is this Saturday and it's going really well! She said that I am playing a I, which makes me happy!
BUT.........
In the 6/8 part when in has the diminished Eb thing (i think) and then it goes up a G major scale with a 13th rip up to an Eb and back down the Eb diminished thing again I am having trouble. But it's weird.
My teacher said that when I go up the G major thing that I am glissandoing and I DON'T KNOW HOW TO GLISSANDO! She and I are trying to get it where I finger every note fast and audibly. I just don't know how to stop the glissando. I've never learned how to glissando, but I played it for her about 5-8 times and she confirmed that it was a glissando.
I kinda think it's cool that I can do it, but I need help in how to stop it and fast!
Has anyone else ever had this problem?
PLEASE HELP ME!!!
Thank you!
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2005-03-30 04:51
Slow practice will help, but I've never heard of this problem before...
I know that when I gliss (aka "smear") I am "bending" the pitches of the notes with both my tongue and my embouchure.
Therefore, during your slow practice of the passage, ensure that NOTHING in your mouth changes AT ALL.
Katrina
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2005-03-30 08:26
It sounds as if you have done a lot of practice of exactly how you do not want it to be played. Once something has been well practiced, it is difficult to UN-practise it. It is like UN-learning how to ride a bike.
Start VERY slowly, and play it many times for every time you have done it incorrectly. And every SINGLE time you do it incorrectly in future, go back to the slow practice, say a dozen times correctly for EVERY incorrect time. focus hard on exactly what every finger is doing, and every thing to do with blowing and embouchure. Get this conditioning in while slow practicing, very thoroughly, so that when you speed up the brain and coordination linkages are automatically correct.
Practice consists of reinforcing something you are doing CORRECTLY, not repeating anything that is incorrect. Prevention is far easier than cure. This is why there is universal advocation for slow practice. You cannot play anything fast with accuracy and control unless you can do it slowly - very slowly. Playing fast without this base of control is UN-practice, and a total waste of time.
Once the damage is done, there is no quick cure.
IMHO.
Post Edited (2005-03-30 08:27)
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-03-30 10:10
If clarinetists during von Weber's time could have glissed it maybe he would have preferred it that way. I sometimes get miffed with teachers and other pedants who presume to know just exactly how something should be played. I'm not advocating ignoring your instructor's direction but suggesting that you keep an open mind about the subject as you progress in your artistry. There is room for innovation in music.
Bob Draznik
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-03-30 12:52
What you need to do is to practice the run beat by beat.
Break down the beats into sub-beats.
do this with the same notes: (so low G to D)
ba da ba da bah
ba da ba da bah
ba da ba da bah
ba da ba da ba da ba da bah (that time to F#)
make sure that each note is clearly played.
Slowly first and then fast. Do that for the entire run until each note is clearly played.
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Author: mystery science dieter
Date: 2005-03-30 13:30
>>>If clarinetists during von Weber's time could have glissed it maybe he would have preferred it that way. I sometimes get miffed with teachers and other pedants who presume to know just exactly how something should be played. I'm not advocating ignoring your instructor's direction but suggesting that you keep an open mind about the subject as you progress in your artistry. There is room for innovation in music.<<<
I think this post is two days early. Anyway, good one.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2005-03-30 13:39
BobD wrote:
> If clarinetists during von Weber's time could have glissed it
> maybe he would have preferred it that way.
They could and didn't.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2005-03-30 14:33
Is there any way you can record the section? Even a video camera with sound will work, to let you listen to yourself outside of the context of playing.
If you can hear the notes one after the other (rather than an upward smear), I think your teacher is not talking of the Rhapsody in Blue thing, but rather is saying that the fast run is out of control.
You have two full beats to get from the low G to the high Eb, and the run has to fit **exactly** into that space. It's not as fast as you think. Don't play it so much as a rip, but as a quick scale. That is, accelerate only slightly on the way up.
Remember that you have three even bigger "rips" and one smaller one after that, and you need to save something for them.
A good exercise is short scale passages up and down. Start on low G and play G-A-B-C-D-C-B-A-G in sixteenths, concentrating on making everything clean and precise. Then go up a step, A-B-C-D-E-D-C-B-A, and so on.
Then go into sextuplets, ascending, an 8th, four 16ths and an 8th: G-A-B-C-D-E, breath, A-B-C-D-E-F and so on.
Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
Ken Shaw
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Author: William
Date: 2005-03-30 14:42
Perhaps the battery in your teachers hearing aid is running a bit low......
For the upcoming performance, play it "your way" and then, try to refine that "problem" section for future use. You may just need to firm up your embouchure a little to let each individual note speak more clearly.
Good luck.
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Author: Clarinetgirl06
Date: 2005-03-30 19:22
Thanks for all the help! I have noticed that I have a very lose embouchure, but yet I produced I really nice tone and sound. That could be a part of the glissing problem and also I know how to bend my pitch down, but I can't bend it up. I'll try practicing slowly and then getting faster. That is the only run out of all 4 that I am having a problem with. It's weird. I'm going to be working on my embouchure after State, because I don't want it to get bad. Well because usually when you change things it gets worse before it gets better, and I just don't want the worse stage to fall on State contest. I hope I'm making sense! Thanks for the help!
What should I do if my bottom lip hurts really bad because my teeth have been going into it? I played my clarinet a total of 5 hours yesterday and I'm feeling the pain some when I play.
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Author: bobmi74
Date: 2005-03-31 03:42
Okay, here's somethething all the other people haven't told you....HOW to practice it, besides going slow.
Sure, going slow is cool. But there's a special trick. Snappy fingers. Pop the fingers down and move them up as fast as you can. MAKE SURE that when you lift your fingers, they go to the "home base" position. Don't have the "fly-away" fingers. Keep them hovered directly over the tone holes. Now, when I have a speedy little passage to play, here's what I do to work on it. Start slow, and work the snappy finger way. If that doesn't do the trick after a few times through, I change the rhythm. I keep the snappy fingers. I don't just do a dotted 8th-16th rhythm. Hmm....let's start on a long C. I'll play that, snap up to the D and immediately snap up to the E. It's more of a tripple-dotted 8-128th note rhythm. Maybe i should have said that to begin with. Okay, I run the first half of the passage that way, still going slow. Then I reverse the rhythm, so the first note of the passage is the really short one, the second one being the longer. And I STILL GO SLOW! focus on what your fingers are doing, and make sure you don't move your embochure or tongue. After running the snappy messed-up rhythym a few time, i take it to the regular rhythm and start it slow and snap the fingers still. See the idea?? Hope you do. Good luck!
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-03-31 11:28
"Okay, here's somethething all the other people haven't told you....HOW to practice it"
no exactly Bob, several have written how to practice it in this thread
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Author: bobmi74
Date: 2005-04-01 21:39
Actually, if you look at it, everyone was saying to "play it slow" and "repeat" a lot. If the problem is the fingers inherently not moving fast enough, then the problem will still be there, and possibly even worse if the mindset is on "slow". See what I mean? that's all i meant about the "HOW to practice it." She just needs to move her fingers faster from note to note, not tempo-wise. Hope it helped!
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Author: Andrewcn
Date: 2005-04-02 03:55
Bob's advice sounds interesting to me - it is very specific.
Also try what my teacher has been trying to drum into my head, and that is: you don't play a piece with your fingers, you play with your mind. ie put your clarinet down and say the note names for the relevant passage over to yourself until you can say them quite smoothly. Visualise the finger positions for each note. Then pick up the clarinet. You should be pleasantly surprised.
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Author: Clarinetgirl06
Date: 2005-04-03 21:08
Thanks for the advice! We had district contest yesterday and I got a I! I was SO HAPPY! (I have always gotten I's but I was still stressing out.) I totally screwed this line up though, but I will intensely be working on it for State which is about 3 1/2 weeks away. It was so awesome because people said that I played it extremely musical and that I was made to play Weber. It was so cool and some people said that I played about a I at State, so that makes me feel confident! I'm still striding for perfection though, which we all are.
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Author: Clarinetgirl06
Date: 2005-04-04 18:44
Ken, thanks for the info. I have already read it because GBK pointed it out to me! Thank you! I'll go look at it again though. I have a question though:
My judge said that he thinks that I could stretch out the rips at the end a little bit for State. Is this appropriate thinking?
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2005-04-04 19:49
I'd trust the judge. The rips shouldn't be even a little bit smeared. They have to be like a string of pearls. Start the first one even a bit slower than tempo (particularly the first couple), and push them only at the top.
Keep something in reserve. If you do them all super fast, people's jaws will drop. If you make each one a little faster than the one before, their jaws will drop three times. "I can't believe how fast that went." "Hey, she played it even faster." "WOW, she topped it again!"
Ken Shaw
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