 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2007-07-24 17:06
what would be the one thing i can do to improve technique?
what would be the one thing i can do to improve tone?
regarding tone - my sound is thin in the upper register. if i switch to a harder reed, my tone is stuffy in the lower register. i have tried many different mouthpieces ...ligs etc... im not looking for a hardware solution. it must be something i'm doing. any advice?
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Author: ChrisArcand
Date: 2007-07-24 17:15
The best advice: Find a good instructor, if you haven't already.
Technique: Go get the Klose book or Baermann III excercise books - learn your thirds, scales, and all those things that are the most boring things in the world. They're like your vegetables (for those people who don't enjoy their vegetables, that is). 98% of all repertoire is built on scales and thirds.
Tone: Practice your long tones. Again, vegetables. Also, you need to get the right sound in your ear (instructor plays big part here...). Listen to recordings, get the right sound in your head. Understand that although everyone's sound is different, there is an underlying base in every great player's tone (centralized, even, clear, etc.)
The next best advice, probably: There is a "search" button on the top of this page where you will find hundreds of articles of people asking the same question.
Finally, there are multiple books on everything about the clarinet. Arguably the best : The Art of Clarinet Playing by Keith Stein. Again, use your search function and you'll find loads upon loads of books.
That should get you started (aka: The next decade of your life). Start practicing :-)
CA
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2007-07-24 17:21
i'm in the process of trying to get a new teacher after not having one the past few years. i feel like ive slipped.
i have bearman III edited by hite or something like that. i figured scales would be the suggestion but thought someone might have another suggestion. i do not have the klose book.
may i ask - how will practicing long tones make my sound not thin? i'm just thinking that if i do long tones, i will get a long thin sound.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2007-07-24 17:31
ChrisArcand wrote:
> Tone: Practice your long tones
I've written about this before, so I'll say it again, very briefly -
Long tones, by themselves, holding one note for infinite amounts of time, are a waste of valuable practice time.
Rather, since music is made of the connection of notes, practice slow movements between different notes, matching their tonality, intonation and finger movements...GBK
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Author: ChrisArcand
Date: 2007-07-24 17:31
It sounds like the process of finding a new teacher should be your first priority, then. He/She will be able to show you how to effectively play long tones and build good foundations as a player.
While you're looking, remember about the "search" button right above your first post - you can look for "long tones" and find all about them there.
Good Luck!
CA
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Author: ChrisArcand
Date: 2007-07-24 17:34
GBK wrote:
"Rather, since music is made of the connection of notes, practice slow movements between different notes, matching their tonality, intonation and finger movements..."
I apologize in that in my definition of "long tones" that is really what you should be doing - long tones are not just long sounds. I should have explained what long tones really are more clearly. Thank you GBK :-)
CA
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2007-07-24 17:35
well, long tones wasnt really my question. it was a secondary question from the suggested answer.
so let me reword this - how to beef up a thin sound? i still dont understand how practicing long tones and/or connected long tones will make my sound not thin.
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Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2007-07-24 18:32
janlynn: thanks for your question which is really more searching than it seems. Thanks also for the good laugh about playing long tones and just getting a long <thin> tone. Let me take a stab at it by reference to a section by Ginger Kroft Barnetson in the "Vandoren Etude and Exercise Book for Clarinet" (Carl Fischer, pub).
Barnetson has a "harmonic drill" in the book whose purpose is to eliminate under-tones in the 2nd register.....but I think it might help your situation, too. It all has to do with voicing the note with the tongue, embouchure, and oral cavity.
Start with a low c, then without using the register key, make the note go up to a 2nd register g, and then to an altissimo e and then back down. Do the same beginning on a Db (Ab - F), and going on with it chromatically up to a throat-tone f. You may find as I did that the throat-tone f is easier to do, so maybe you could start there to get things going. The notes you play without the register key will be harmonics and not necessarily in tune, but the idea is to feel the voicing needed to get the note out clearly. Then play the same thing using normal fingerings.
OK, these are long tones, but done with a specific purpose in mind.
Try it and let us know if it works for you.
johng
John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com
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Author: SVClarinet09
Date: 2007-07-24 19:10
I believe playing long tones "builds your chops". It also helps out with breathing. I believe breathing is the first thing responsible for a good tone. Do breathing exercises before you start playing, make sure you're breathing correctly. My middle school teacher who I used to take lessons with taught me to blow from open G down to E (not chromatically but just straight down) and play each note for 2 beats and use as much air as you can. Once you reach the Low E, pop the register key and play your B for 4 beats. I used to do that ALL the time and it really helped. Eventually you can build up to doing each note for 4 beats or however long you can.
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Author: DougR
Date: 2007-07-24 21:14
Hi Janlynn--
"thin tone" sounds like a mouthpiece issue to me, but I defer to the wisdom upthread on that one.
"the one thing" to improve technique? I echo ChrisArcand's post at the top, and suggest the following, which I've been doing over the past couple of months, with notable results:
go to this link in the archive:
http://web.archive.org/web/20041012235645/www.ocr.woodwind.org/articles/index.html
It's the Robert Spring warmup routine that uses the Baermann and Klose. I've only been doing part of it--the pp. 123, 126-9 in Klose (scales, thirds, broken chords, articulation) at quarter note = 60 and 120 (only I'm doing 110 instead of 120). WITH a metronome! Been doing that every day without fail for 2 months, and I'm amazed at being able to breeze through stuff that used to give me fits.
So if you want ONE thing, that's MY suggestion. It has worked wonderfully for me.
(Incidentally, I was at an Eddie Daniels master class not long ago, and he referenced the P.123 Klose scales specifically--even flew thru a few measures--as a foundation of his technique. I saw a bunch of the grayheads in the audience laughing & nodding.)
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Author: marshall
Date: 2007-07-25 03:46
The Klose (or 'The Really Big Book' as it is jokingly known as in my teachers studio) is a phenominal technique book...my technique has improved an immesurable amount in the two years in which I've been using it. It covers all the bases: fast finger, legato finger, tone, articulation...drills for practically everything. It's a little intimidating at first because theres an awful lot of black on the pages (I've seen many people here say things like 'It gave me nightmares for a week' and such...) but it's a lot of slow metronome-utilizing work.
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Author: DougR
Date: 2007-07-25 04:38
Yeah, if there's anything I'd add to what I posted above, it's that there's a real payoff in doing the same damn warmup every day, especially when it covers all the keys. And at quarter note = 60, you're going slow enough so you can listen minutely for finger slop, and focus on making as beautiful a sound as possible, and also going slow enough so your musculature "learns" the quickest, most direct and efficient movements to get the notes clean, even when you up the speed to qtr = 90 or above.
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Author: Aequore
Date: 2007-07-25 05:46
I have to defend the ''Long tone'' tecnique...
through my junior years of playing I had always done long tones or like
the above comments ''eaten my vegetables''
Long Tones help in the fact that while your playing the note for some time your mouth muscles or embouchure tends to change or twitch in a differrent direction, by this the sound starts to change. You must know that by moving even the slightest muscle of the mouth or lips the sound or tone will change. if your ear could hear it aleast.And also hearing how a clarinet really should sound like will help lots. In conclusion, the long tones should help you adjust your embouchure the way it would be or positioned for the sound to be rich and clear.
PB
Juilliard Student
Post Edited (2007-07-25 19:12)
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2007-07-25 12:06
From personal experience? Form a quartet.
Most people play solo and in a large ensemble. But in neither of these environments can you really hear what you're doing: solo you have no reference point except your own ear and ensemble you're drowned out. Four is about right.
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2007-07-30 17:25
I have two suggestions. Play your high notes flatter.....try with a tuning meter.......purposely play them under pitch and hold that level......the tone will be fatter. It is my contention you are playing on the top side of the pitch on all your high notes. As an antidote practice playing on the bottom side. Also try playing octaves and focus on not stretching the interval....ie keep the top note down. The pitch alteration should be done with your mouth/oral cavity not by pulling out the barrel. I've changed my mind on the second suggestion . Suggestion #1 should work. Let me know.
Freelance woodwind performer
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