 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: MichaelR
Date: 2007-05-09 17:33
Among the great advice found while mining the archives here is the repeated suggestion to employ teh Marcel Moyse 6 day Practice routine.
For new(er) students, like me, that don't yet know the full set of scales employed by the routine this isn't feasible. Until that knowledge is developed what would be a reasonable substitute?
or
What do you practice to get to the point of being able to practice the Moyse routine?
--
Michael of Portland, OR
Be Appropriate and Follow Your Curiosity
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2007-05-09 20:46
Michael -
Everything depends on what you want. From your web site, I see that bicycling is your big interest. As you know, you need to work hard and over a long time to reach the level where you feel competent and can ride with other good people. A lot of that work is on physical conditioning, which can be difficult and repetitive.
It's the same on clarinet. To get better, you need to dedicate some time every day to practicing. Aim for 1/2 hour. Begin each practice session with 10 minutes of the boring technical work, giving it your best attention.
Technical work means scales. Get the Baermann Method, Part 3, Item C107 at http://www.vcisinc.com/clarinetmusicmethods.htm. Every professional player has mastered every line in this book, playing with a metronome set to a dead slow tempo. Work hard on one exercise per day. Ten minutes is enough to work through that much, so slowly that you have no mistakes and no bobbles. This "engraves" the correct motions into your muscle memory. It's not easy or fun -- just necessary.
There are many good threads on practicing. For one mentioning the Moyse exercises, see http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=189083&t=189070
I can't force you to do this, but it's a way -- probably the best way -- to learn scales properly. You do it to lay the foundation for everything else. You're like a medieval apprentice carpenter. You have to begin by making your own tools, before you can do any carpentry work.
Again, it depends on what you want. It's fairly easy to play simple tunes on clarinet. If you want to reach the next level, you need to learn all the scales, a little at a time. No one can jump in and play the complete Moyse regimen without long preparation, any more than a beginning bicyclist could ride a hilly 100 km. course without proper conditioning.
Do it or don't do it. There's no short cut.
Ken Shaw
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Author: sherman
Date: 2007-05-10 19:12
The very best works for studying scales that I have ever played, or seen, is the following:
Emile Stievenard, Scales
This little book will fool one; it looks very simple. However it is very deceiving. Just simple looking scales, each in a different time signature, each with a contrasting dynamic and each with the same tempo/ The first is of course C major, as is the whole two pages or perhaps 24 lines, each with a different rhythm, and most starting on a different note of the scale.
If you put your metronome at 42 for the basic beat, you will find it impossible to go from two eighths notes played forte staccato, to an eighth note triplet pianissimo.legato. The extra difficulty is that you have only what is left in rests in the measure to make the change, a kind of metric modulation.
What it teaches you is to be able to watch the conductor and change rhythms often employing syncopation, without losing or gaining time.
Your instructor will put the indications for the beats on top of the line. The judge of the rhythm is the metronome, the exercise can be almost painful, playing such easy music, but being unable to perfectly change the rhythim and the dynamic simultaneously, or after a beat or two of silence.
I passiontately hated Rosario Mazzeo for this book, but ended up passionately loving the book and Rosie after time.
Couple this with Hamelin study of scales, and the Eugene Gay book II and you cna just abot play anything, one might think.
After a year, you may be playing the Saint-Saens Sonata, and then more repertoire. Learn to incorporate all this musically, get through the other 200 who come to the audition and you may get the job. ( still, no short cut)
Sherman Friedland
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