 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Jeff
Date: 2000-03-23 01:32
I am working on this piece, and there is a gliss in it, and the sliding finger thing just is not working. I have tired everything I can think of, but I just can't get it to work.
Please Help!!
Jeff
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Author: Tim2
Date: 2000-03-23 01:58
I worked on this about a year ago. I'm afraid I didn't do the gliss as a gliss. I just just the few notes in between as a pickup.
The notes are tougher to gliss starting on D.
When you take that fourth finger off the hole that makes the not a D, you are sliding it off. That's good. At the same time, enough breath support and a firm embouchoure will help keep the note alive and sloping in tone upward.
When you still have half of the finger or even 1/3 of the finger on the hole yet, begin with the next finger up. Air supply and stamina is very important. This is something that takes consistant practice. It also takes a well developed embouchoure and breath support. It doesn't come easily to many.
I know that for myself, G upward is much easier to gliss than starting below that.
It's the counting at the end that was giving me trouble. Still does. Takes so much concentration.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2000-03-23 17:40
Jeff wrote:
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I am working on this piece, and there is a gliss in it, and the sliding finger thing just is not working. I have tired everything I can think of, but I just can't get it to work.
Please Help!!
Jeff
Jeff -
Do you mean the gliss in the **third** movement, from third line D up to the A above the staff? If so, here's how I learned do it:
First, defocus your sound on the D. Drop your jaw and pull the tip of your tongue back along the bottom of your mouth so that the back of your tongue bunches up and almost cuts off the air. It feels like you're saying "gghhh" -- the sound you make when you gargle and are trying to keep liquid from going down your windpipe. Another way to think about it is that it's like the voiced "th" sound (as in "then"), except made all the way at the back of your mouth.
When you do this right, you should be able to bend the D down to about Db. The upper A can be bent down almost to D. It may help to duck your head slightly, and don't be afraid to sound like a beginner.
Second, practice pulling your fingers sideways off the holes. Bend your right wrist horizontally to the right, so that your right index finger almost touches the trill keys and your fingers are pointing diagonally downward. (It's like a flutist's left hand position.) Continue the movement, pulling your right hand fingers off the holes sideways, one after the other from bottom to top. Each hole starts to get uncovered before the one below it is completely open. Then, work your left ring finger into the pattern.
Finally, combine the embouchure and finger movements. Since the sound is out of focus and the intonation is unstable, you will need to blow a little harder. Also, as you gliss up, you will need to move your jaw and tongue back to the normal playing position, so that you get all the way up to the A and are ready to continue the phrase.
Glissando is a recurring question on Sneezy (mostly about the Rhapsody in Blue opening solo). Let us know whether this technique works for you. If not, we'll try something else.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Jeff
Date: 2000-03-28 11:44
The technique that Ken descirbed didn't work. Perhaps I am not doing it right, but I am not sure.
Jeff
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2000-03-28 17:49
Jeff wrote:
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The technique that Ken descirbed didn't work. Perhaps I am not doing it right, but I am not sure.
Jeff
Hmmmmm.
OK, let's try something else.
Put yourself in a "who cares" mood. It's time to be sloppy, obnoxious and childish. It's time to play a little jazz (which is a lot of what the Bernstein sonata is about).
Take your softest reed, put it on just the mouthpiece, and play "sirens." Drop your jaw **way** down. Purse your lips out beyond your teeth as if you were whistling. Don't worry about how awful it sounds. At this point, you *want* it to sound awful. If you have a dog, it should be howling. If you have a cat, it should run two blocks away. Keep going until the tone cracks and you get the worst squeak you've made since the day you started playing. Then do it again. And again -- until you *know* in your muscles how it feels.
Then, wrap your thumb and index finger around the mouthpiece cork and start to "shade" the opening with the palm of your hand. This will make the range of the siren much wider, and will also make you fit to be in the same room with people with ears. Practice until you can do a siren with a not-too-bad (though still not really nice) sound.
Then, put the mouthpiece on your clarinet and play a clarion high C (second ledger line). With the reed so soft, you will have to relax your embouchure a little and not blow too hard. Get the C going and then do the siren exercise, except drop your jaw and pull it back, and purse your lips out twice as much as before. With a little practice, you will be able to make some truly horrible sounds, including bending the C down almost to the G on top of the staff.
A smear starts out dirty. There's plenty of time to clean it up later.
Don't think this is a joke. You have to be prepared to do *anything.* Play with the reed on top. Play lying down. Play with a dozen grapes in your mouth. Play with two mouthpieces in your mouth. Play while you're laughing, crying and sneezing. After all of that, you'll hardly notice a little glissando.
Then come back and tell us what it's like.
(If you still can't get a gliss, I'll have to suggest something truly outrageous.)
Ken Shaw
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Author: Jeff
Date: 2000-03-29 17:28
I tried what Ken reccommended, but i have trouble being able to drop my jaw that much. It is getting better though.
By the way Ken, what was the really outrageous advice you were going to give??
Jeff
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