The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Curious
Date: 2000-03-24 12:12
Ok how do you do the Gliss at the beginning of Rapdsody in Blue. It confounds me.
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Author: Dave Spiegelthal
Date: 2000-03-24 14:40
You smoothly rotate your hands (right hand, then left hand) so that your fingers gradually uncover the rings and holes in sequence, from the bottom of the horn on up, while keeping your embouchure somewhat more flexible than usual. At first, practice it with just a few notes at a time, "smearing" between them (by sliding fingers gradually sideways off the keys) rather than playing the usual legato (where you lift the fingers off each key in a definite upward motion).
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Author: Kim
Date: 2000-03-24 16:07
I watched a special on Rhapsody in Blue once. The conductor kept asking the clarinet player to play it and play it until he played what he wanted.
The best way to play the gliss is to listen, listen, and listen! It is hard to play, but once you listen to the style, you will gradually be able to play it. I have the piece, and I think it is just sounding the way it should.
Good luck and have fun!
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Author: John
Date: 2000-03-24 18:41
You might work at it backwards - starting on the high C, loosen your embouchure until you bring the pitch down to B flat or even G. With that embouchure and sliding your fingers off the keys beginning about the D in the staff, you'll get a neat gliss. The start of the gliss on low G is chormatic, I believe.
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Author: Ray Swing
Date: 2000-03-24 22:42
The way I play that intro is to start on Low G, then slowly start a trill up to A, increasing the trill to about 16th notes. This takes about 3-4 seconds. I then do a run in the key of C up to clarian C, then Gliss from there up to Hi C by sliding my fingers gradually off the right hand first then the left using a very weak embouchure up to Hi C.
Experiment with sliding various fingers on the right hand first. you may need to slide your second or third finger first to give a start to the smooth gliss.
Other people may perform that intro differently, but he gliss is pretty standard.
Good luck.
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Author: sylvan selig
Date: 2000-03-25 05:23
Yeah, its prety much the same doing the gliss on Artie Shaw's "Begin the Beguine" at the end. Just slide your fingers off the holes with a rather loose embouchure and lip/gliss your way up. It takes practice and its not easy. I am 43 years old and couldn't do it to my own satistfaction until I was 22! I started trying when I was 17. Just keep at it. Good Luck.
-ss-
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Author: John Dean
Date: 2000-03-25 21:44
Fear not. Even Benny Goodman made a boxup of the gliss live on radio. Upset him for weeks!
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Author: paul
Date: 2000-03-27 16:04
...with all that said, you know that the "average" member of the audience remembers this special effect years after the performance. It makes the clarinet part of the performance really stand out. Guess I'll have to learn this trick, even if it's only to impress my family pets!
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Author: Frank
Date: 2000-03-28 19:06
I must agree with John: The way I was taught to gliss this piece (and for special effect in the Copland Concerto) was to start with a particular note, say, high clarion C, and see how far I could lip it downward. This technique was taught to me by Luis Beaz, assoc. principal of the San Francisco Sym. Over time, he added, one should be able to lip it farther downward. Then you want to try smearing from clarion D to G (on the lower joint only). Once that's done well, then try smearing from clarion G to C. Then from D to C, then from C to C (keeping the right pinky down on the clarion C key while smearing up the high clarion C.
Do this over a couple months at least.
Good luck,
Frank
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