 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Sang1Lee
Date: 2007-12-28 23:52
SO, i'm a high school student and i recently (by recently, i mean.. about 4 months ago) Really started playing the Eb clarinet and have my own now
any advice on improving my playing??
EDIT: especially getting a good tone and playing in tune in the high range
Post Edited (2007-12-28 23:56)
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2007-12-29 00:08
Make sure you have at least a good mouthpiece/reed combo. I like my Vandy B40 for my Eefer. (I assume you mean the little Eb not the alto...)
Make sure you have a TUNER to work on intonation in the higher registers. Run through Baermann scales very very slowly (quarter note=40) and work on playing each note in tune, relative to the previous note.
Best of luck...I'm sure others here will have better suggestions...
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Author: Neal Raskin
Date: 2007-12-29 02:10
I agree with Katrina, get a good setup first. I like my Vandoren 5RV with a BG Super Revelation Ligature, and Vandoren Traditional #4 reeds.
Aside from that, focus first on having a very firm, not tense, embouchure. Corners in, top lip firm, bottom lip/chin flat. Then, work on voicing. I have found voicing to be key when performing on the Eb.
I'm not sure how educated on these types of things you are. So I am going to stop there. I can give you much more detail if you want it by email.
Good Luck
Neal R.
PS. Try to listen to good Eb playing if you can. There aren't many recordings, but even listening to Bb will be beneficial.
Tip: my favorite note on the Eb is D right below the staff. It is very solid and resonant. =)
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Author: Sang1Lee
Date: 2007-12-29 03:18
i have a B44 with a 4 Vandoren (or 3 1/2 leger) with a reverse bonade
i'm playing the Eb in mahler 1
my B-C-C#-D (on the high register) are really sharp
D is so sharp that i don't use the Eb key
then it gets flat above Eb
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Author: Neal Raskin
Date: 2007-12-29 03:29
Very nice. My orchestra just performed the First symphony this past fall. what a fun piece. i played the Eb part also.
Since a lot of playing happens in the upper register. I like to tune to the top line F#. Then try to keep your voicing low. But use enough air support to keep the note on the right pitch. Its tricky. Maybe some other BBoarders have some advice. Have fun with the altissimo F# and G trill in the 4th movement.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2007-12-29 20:03
There are many threads on playing Eb. Here's some of what I wrote several years ago:
I played Eb in the University of Tennessee Band and the Knoxville symphony many years ago (jumping up, if you can believe it, from contrabass in the West Point Band).
Mouthpieces can be a problem, particularly with school instruments. I'd advise getting your own Eb mouthpiece. Machine-made mouthpieces (Vandoren, Selmer, etc.) can be decent, but can also be awful, since too few are sold for the companies to keep their machinery in adjustment. It's far better to get one from a Woodwind.org Sponsor -- Fobes, Grabner, Lomax, etc. -- which will be hand-finished and will give you at least a chance of getting out what the instrument has to offer. Remember that you'll keep this mouthpiece forever, and you'll always be able to play Eb, so get as good as you can afford.
I played a Leblanc LL Eb, on which the high B-C-C#-D were, like yours, very sharp. The reason was that the barrel was far too short to be in tune. I went to a hardware store, got some washers for a garden hose and filed and sanded them down to fit in the top and bottom barrel sockets, adding maybe 6 mm. to the barrel length. I also enlarged the interior of each washer to match the bore, using sandpaper wrapped around a short length of dowel. It took a little over an hour, but if you can adjust reeds, you can do this, too. The extra length brought the instrument nicely in tune. You'll need a piece of fairly coarse sandpaper -- such as 40 or 60 grit -- and a short piece of dowel (just a few inches long).
In the end, though, you need to sit in a practice room with a tuner, finding how to play in tune.
You'll be tempted to use harder reeds than on Bb, but you should go at most one strength up. The rest is embouchure and support.
Since the Eb is on top of the texture, your intonation has to be really precise, and Eb often needs special fingerings. Pete Hadcock, the Boston Symphony Eb player, wrote an invaluable book on Eb, with many alternate fingerings, and another on orchestral playing, which you can get from Gary van Cott, items C036 and C043. Find them by searching on the word Hadcock at http://www.vcisinc.com/search/.
In a band, you're not a soloist when you play Eb. The concertmaster is still the 1st chair Bb player. It's very easy to shriek and squeal on Eb. Instead, you have to play softer than you think. You're there to add sparkle to the basic clarinet section sound. Listen hard to the 1st clarinets and blend in with them.
In the Mahler 1st, though, you ARE the soloist. Mahler was very sensitive to instrumental color and wrote specifically for clarinets in Eb, C, Bb and A to get their particular colors. Those little solos are written for Eb because Mahler WANTED them to be bright and "pecky." They're bird calls -- like sparks, or an electronic flash. Therefore, you don't want to sound like you're playing Bb clarinet. Your job is to bring out the squeakiness, not cover it up.
Have fun, and let us know how the concert goes.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2007-12-29 21:24
Attachment: Cl Stand.jpg (144k)
Ken,
Loved the hose washer story. But then, why not.
I have a pal that made me the finest clarinet stand out of a virgin plumber's helper, a square of stainless steel, and a piece of yellow dowel rod. It is hard to top this one; it should last me a lifetime. I can't wait to use it at my next church gig or chamber concert.
See the attached.
HRL
Post Edited (2007-12-29 21:54)
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Author: Ed
Date: 2007-12-30 00:15
There is a lot of good advice here. Get a really good Eb mouthpiece. I have a Fobes that I think works great on my horn. Find the reeds that work well with your set up. That can be tricky- you need soft enough to respond, yet hard enough to get up to pitch in the upper register.
In addition, practice etudes and play the Eb enough so that it feels as comfortable as playing the Bb. It actually can be fun, believe it or not.
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Author: Alexis
Date: 2007-12-30 10:51
For those high register B C C# D
you can also play them without the register the key
I find that quite helpful with high A to high C#.
The advice about firm corners is very good. As far as embouchure goes, I treat it as a smaller version of normal clarinet (which...it is...) so the same principles of normal clarinet embouchure apply. i.e maintaining a consistent lip pressure on the reed allowing maximum resonance.
Its only a fourth higher than Bb clarinet, so don't 'think' higher than it actually is...
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Author: Ebclarinet1
Date: 2007-12-30 15:09
I would add a couple of things to the already excellent comments of the other posters.
Clark Fobes makes an Eb extension that is really good at cleaning up the intonation problems throughout the horn and at least for me it adds a sort of mellowness overall to the sound. That definitely helps in blending in with the other woodwinds. The Eefer should add spice to the section but not dominate. One of my pet peeves is piccolos who truly dominate the band. Everything sounds like a piccolo solo. Don't fall into that trap with Eb even though you could do it!
My best reed advice is to get a brand and hardness Bb reed that you use on that instrument and then cut off the bottom to use on the Eb. It will make a better sound than most Eb reeds. Sometimes this is a little stiff on the Eb so be prepared to adjust with reed rush or a knife. Right now I'm using Gonzalez 3 1/2 FOF reeds cut down.
I started on a VanDoren 5RV and it is a good mouthpiece but the Fobes and Grabner ones are much better. Each has its strengths and I find myself going between them depending on the piece.
Right now I'm using a Fobes barrel and that seems to have cured any problem with the C-C# and D being sharp, although this horn I own now is in pretty good tune with itself, especially with the Eb extension.
Enjoy playing. I started on Eb so it's been a special pet to me all my life. I find playing Bb harder because the notes feel too low!
Eefer guy
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Author: Ed
Date: 2007-12-30 16:28
In addition to Eefer guy's comments on reeds- I have found that the Vandoren White Master (German Reeds) work very nicely on Eb. They are not as wide as the regular Bb reed and fit much better. I also like the tone and response that I get from these as well. You do need to cut these down to fit, but they are a good choice. I use either these or regular Eb reeds.
I agree with the comments on Clark Fobes equipment. The barrels are superb. Mine helps all over the instrument, improving tone and response as well as tuning.
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