 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Travis
Date: 2008-01-23 18:53
Greetings all. This is my first post although I read this board often. I am looking for any advice or suggestions regarding my aspirations of becoming a recreational (for lack of a better word) jazz clarinetist. My background will be easy to sum up: I am 36 years old and have absolutely no formal music training. What I do have is 8 years of listening almost exclusively to vintage jazz (I also DJ vintage jazz at swing dances on a very regular basis) so I am very familiar with the works of Goodman, Shaw, Bigard, Buster Bailey, Bechet, etc. I decided to learn clarinet a few years ago and practiced regularly for a few months before life got really busy and I stopped. Now, a few of my friends who played music in high school (but haven’t played since) are getting together once or twice a week to play and they invited me to join them so I’m picking up my horn again and am very excited. We have put together a list of about 10 songs of mostly jazz standards like Dinah, I’ve Found a New Baby, All of Me, etc. to play. I’ve been working on about one song per week memorizing the melody and practicing the scale of whatever key the song is in (based off a lead sheet I have or a recording that we are going off of). Aside from the melody I’m also trying to find simple “licks” or “riffs” (excuse me if I use a term improperly) that I can play behind the melody. If I take a solo I basically just play the main melody as I have no skill for improvising yet. I’m fortunate to have a very relaxed learning environment – the people I play with are certainly ahead of me in knowledge and skill but they are very patient and understanding; and we realize that we are just a bunch of jazz music dorks getting together to try and work through a few songs. We have no immediate goals of playing in public but I think that we are certainly working toward that a long way down the road (even if we just play two or three songs at a dance or some other casual environment).
Anyway, I guess I don’t know that I’m really looking for any specific advice but if anyone has any similar experience or suggestions I’d love to read it!
Best regards,
Travis
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Author: redwine
Date: 2008-01-23 19:28
Hello Travis,
Good luck! What you are doing sounds like an excellent foundation to achieving your goals.
I would suggest some lessons with a local jazz clarinetist. Where do you live? Maybe someone here on the board can recommend someone in your area.
I like what you're doing in the way of just playing the melody during a solo. Next, you should venture away from the melody ever so slightly. Replace a note here or there with another chord tone. Add some ornamentation. Then, make something up completely. Dixieland is a bit limiting, harmonically speaking, which is good and bad. The good thing about it is that there are only a few notes that you have to know within a chord that will sound good. The bad thing is that there are only a few notes within a chord that sound good, so when you play one that is not good, it really sticks out.
One of the hardest things for a beginning soloist to master is rhythm. My theory is that when one starts to improvise, their fundamentals get tossed aside, probably from sheer fear. A great exercise is to have your band (I think it's great that you have a band of live people to practice with--Aebersold records are great too, but live people are always better!) play an accompaniment blues, for instance. Pick a note (I'll recommend the 5th of the tonic chord, because that will sound acceptable in every chord of the blues progression). Play only that note and take a couple choruses of solos. Try to make the rhythm fit in perfectly and not sound "hokey". If you can do this, you are well on your way to being able to "wiggle your fingers" while doing this.
Another fundamental to master is good tone. My theory as to why clarinets fell out of favor in jazz, for the most part, is because a lot of clarinetists had bad tones that noone wanted to listen to. There are a lot of clarinetists that sound like saxophonists trying to play clarinet. Even if you are a saxophonist first, you should try to sound like a clarinetist when playing the clarinet. Other people are successful doing it differently, but I use the same set-up (reed, mouthpiece, clarinet) for classical and for jazz as well.
You're already listening to great clarinetists to emulate. Perhaps seriously listen to other instrumentalists as well for other ideas.
Have fun! We play music, we don't work music (oh, sure, there's a lot of work in music to get good, but even that should be fun).
Again, good luck and if I can be of any further assistance, I am most happy to.
Ben Redwine, DMA
owner, RJ Music Group
Assistant Professor, The Catholic University of America
Selmer Paris artist
www.rjmusicgroup.com
www.redwinejazz.com
www.reedwizard.com
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Author: kilo
Date: 2008-01-23 20:00
Think about the tunes all the time and try whistling, humming, or singing solos when you're driving, waiting in line, walking the dog, etc. Try simple embellishments on the melody, little turns and grace notes, maybe "arpeggiating" the song line. Find little phrases by the clarinetists you're listening to and try to transcribe them. I think the main thing is to keep your enthusiasm, hold yourself to a high standard, but don't beat yourself up if you fall short.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2008-01-23 20:15
Learn pentatonic scales to start with - a lot of tunes and plenty of solos are made of pentatonic scales.
Eg. C Major pentatonic is C-D-E-G-A-C, and D minor pentatonic is D-F-G-A-C-D (which works well with 12-bar Blues). But these are just two examples - they can be played in any key using the same intervals between notes.
Also try these scales in different patterns going up and down - such as C-G-D-A-E-C and back down, or going up starting on C-D-E-G, D-E-G-A, E-G-A-C, G-A-C-D, etc. and down again.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: haberc
Date: 2008-01-24 01:50
Travis, when you practice, do the scales, listen carefully, write out a solo, etc. do it all when you practice - but when you're jamming with your friends, don't work so hard, sing your song. Improvisation is spontaneous. Sing.
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Author: Travis
Date: 2008-01-25 18:35
Thank you for all of the advice. I live in the 'burbs of Seattle, WA. I try to practice between 30 minutes and 1 hour each day (longer on weekends). I wish I had more time to practice...I suppose we all do.
The pentatonic scale looks like something that would be helpful - something simple that I can use for improvisation. I also think some of the Aebersold play along books would be fun to try. I'm certainly not looking to belt out tons of notes during a solo - I just want the ones I play to be the right ones . Also, I'm pretty much sticking in the lower register as I'm not yet comfortable with 'crossing the break'.
I hear so many of my favorite artists play solos that sound so simple and that seem to only be comprised of 3-4 notes...how do they do it?!
-travis
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Author: Travis
Date: 2008-01-25 20:11
Ok, at the risk of totally embarrassing myself here is a clip from our practice last night. Pretty much all of my ensemble playing is drown out because I'm so far away from the camera but my solo comes across pretty well.
Suggestions/criticism welcome!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90367Dfk5n4
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2008-01-25 20:50
"I hear so many of my favorite artists play solos that sound so simple and that seem to only be comprised of 3-4 notes...how do they do it?!"
It's the old 'less is more' thing - it's what they DON'T play that makes it effective.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2008-01-27 17:33
There has been discussion om here on using the Jamey Ambersold CD play-along collection as a practice aid in learning to improvise. Yesterday, at Clarinexus, Prof Todd DelGiudice held an hour long session on improvisation on clarinet, and he used Volume 24 with a class of a couple dozen clarinetists.
It was very cool. He wrote out on the black board the C-major modes, indicating which notes are "legal" resting places. Then, he fired up the Ambersold and played simple riffs for us to repeat. Very, very effective and fun. Vol 24 was ordered this morning.
Now, to get the house clear for a long session. (DelGiudice warned of the likelihood of addiction.
Bob Phillips
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