 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2008-12-23 20:52
Well, it's time again for me to go back overseas. Good 'ol OIF round two.
So last time I found that I really was able to increase in skill once I got into the swing of things and established a practice schedule/routine. The only problems were that I was seriously lacking in fundamentals (spent a lot of time LEARNING my scales!) and had no organized method for practice or any real "goals". I just eventually got into the habit of warming up with pg 123 out of Klose, then threw in every variation of minor scale and the arpeggios after it's relative major, and then played the diminished sevenths and thirds from that same book. Then I'd pick some piece of music I just happened to have on hand and play through it a few times and work on little mistakes here or there, but not working ANY solos up to performance level (with the exception of two or three pieces of music, only one of which I had to perform). Granted I had clarinet quartet and WWQ stuff to rehearse/work up, but that wasn't really for self-growth. That was for the troops (although some of it was certainly challenging enough that I NEEDED to grow in skill in order to play it)
So what recommendations do you have this time around? I figure one year can spur a LOT of musical growth if I do it correctly. So I'm gonna try to have a gameplan this time around when I get there. Off the top of my head, I figure I'll be working on my tonguing technique, trying to learn double tongue and working scales/thirds/arpeggios up to quicker tempos with a metronome both slurred and tongued.
As far as solos, I'll probably start really focusing and polishing up Solo De Concours, Artie Shaw Concerto (current favorite to run through and that should turn out REAL nice after a year!), and for a real challenge to myself (since it seems almost amelodic to me), Martino Set for Clarinet (just the first movement, if I can even get through THAT!).
Any ideas on anything else I should work on? I was thinking maybe focus an hour a day to working on improv (so I can maybe flub my way through a dixie set). Or maybe other techniques I should add in addition to working up scales, thirds, etc. and tonguing?
I plan on being able to practice about 4 hours a day in a practice room. NOT including performance/group rehearsals. And I'll probably shorten rehearsing to about two hours on Sundays as to take a break and relax. Thanks.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2008-12-23 22:25
Alexi -
You can certainly use the time to perfect your technique. I strongly suggest that you use Baermann III exercises, which cover the entire range of the instrument, while the ones in Klose begin and end with the tonic. Thus, when you practice the exercises in Eb, you leave out nearly an octave at the bottom, and you lose the same amount at the top when you're in Ab.
You should also use as much as you can bear of Robert Spring's routine at http://www.woodwind.org/OCR/Spring/spring1.html; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Z1y7E7_04; http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=278229&t=277976.
You should also work in hearing the harmony as you play and shaping your phrases to match. I recently read Sound in Motion: A Performer's Guide to Greater Musical Expression by David McGill, the principal bassoonist in Chicago http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Motion-Performers-Greater-Expression/dp/0253219264/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230073577&sr=8-1, which is a treasure-trove of material on doing exactly this.
A Soprano on Her Head by Eloise Ristad http://www.amazon.com/Soprano-Her-Head-Right-Side-Up-Performances/dp/0911226214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230073784&sr=1-1 is another great source for getting beyond the notes.
The Inner Game of Music by Green and Gallwey http://www.amazon.com/Inner-Game-Music-Barry-Green/dp/0385231261/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230073784&sr=1-2 is nearly as good, though a bit slow and not particularly well written. Still, it has many good ideas.
It's even more important to take along CDs of the great musicians. Lipatti, Cortot, Ignaz Friedman, Callas, John McCormack, Szigeti, Kreisler, Rostropovich, Casals, Leonard Rose. Listen to what Mabel Mercer did with almost no voice http://www.amazon.com/Art-Mabel-Mercer/dp/B00005MKCN/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1230074382&sr=1-1.
This is more than enough to keep you busy. You're lucky to have a year with only a few other obligations.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Bubalooy
Date: 2008-12-23 23:19
I agree with the Baermann suggestion. Plus, I suggest you keep a practice journal. You should, after every practice session, be able to write down at least one thing that you can now do that you couldn't before you started to practice, even if it is only, " I can play the 3rd and 4th measure of such and such an etude one metronome mark faster" Being able to concretely state things you have accomplished will, I believe, make your practice time more focused and thus, more productive. If you also record your musical insights, a new approach to phrasing in a piece, or a new understanding of an articulation, the journal will also serve as a history of your musical growth (something to look back on when you feel you aren't getting anywhere.)
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2008-12-23 23:33
Thanks. I was planning on trying to follow Robert Spring's routine, but for some reason Baermann III completely skipped out of my head. NEVER woulda thought of it (sorry!). I'll be sure to get the edition that doesn't separate it by key, but rather by exercise. That way if I have a limited amount of time, at least I will have been able to play broken scales in EVERY key instead of getting through most of ONE key and not getting to the next key till the next day or something. I'd rather practice a little bit of every key every day than a lot of one key one day.
And something I forgot to mention that will be keeping me busy is I'll be borrowing the other parts to our clarinet quartets and experimenting with my mac and a microphone. I want to see how I do recording each quartet one part at a time on my own. I tried it a little a few weeks back with "Send in the Clowns", and while it wasn't great and I can certainly do better with more practicing on each part and syncing them together a little better, it was pretty neat anyway!
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Ed
Date: 2008-12-24 03:03
I would consider going through some of the great etudes out there. There is certainly the Rose, and also Jean-Jean, Cavallini Caprices, Labanchi Etudes, and countless others that could keep you busy for ages.
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Author: pewd
Date: 2008-12-24 15:59
baermann 3 or the southern music equivalent (Foundation Studies: Southern Music).
stuff an ipod full of as much clarinet music as you can before you leave
how about 12 solos, one for each month? some of the collections have 10-15 per book.
and presuming there are enough other clarinet players in your group, bring some ensembles to work on
orchestral musician's cd rom library - bring those wtih you and you'll have a ton of stuff to work on - i'd love to have a year off of work to just work through some of the major orchestral excerpts
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2008-12-24 16:16
Get on clariperu.org and download, download.
Also, get the Homages book by Bela Kovacs (Publisher
Edition Darok Woodwind Music EDL 2103)
Bob Phillips
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Author: JJAlbrecht
Date: 2008-12-24 21:07
Whatever you decide to work on, Alexi, have a good and safe deployment. Hurry back home!
Jeff
“Everyone discovers their own way of destroying themselves, and some people choose the clarinet.” Kalman Opperman, 1919-2010
"A drummer is a musician's best friend."
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Author: Sylvain
Date: 2008-12-25 22:29
If you have not done so already, on top of all the good suggestions about improving your skills, have a crack at the clarinet/piano "standards". Can't tell which one you like, but there are all the french stuff (Poulenc, Debussy, Saint Saens, Honegger, Milhaud,...), Stravinsky solo pieces, Brahms sonatas, Copland, Bernstein, ...
Check a web site like Michel gingras's for a good starting points of pieces to work on:
http://www.fna.muohio.edu/faculty/gingram/studio/programofstudy.htm
--
Sylvain Bouix <sbouix@gmail.com>
Post Edited (2008-12-27 21:36)
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2008-12-27 21:27
Excellent. I never knew of clariperu. And one solo a month sounds like a great idea. I'll start off with some that I've already worked on a little bit and as I get better as the months go on venture into my fears and the ones that I don't know well.
Leonard,
Just heading to Baghdad AFAIK.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: mrn
Date: 2008-12-27 22:01
If you've got Internet access over there (my brother, who's currently deployed, does), there is a neat online store called "Freehand Music" (http://www.freehandmusic.com) where you can purchase sheet music for download to your computer, which is nice because you not only get immediate gratification, but you avoid the hassles of trying to ship to an APO address.
Among other things (including a lot of standard repertoire pieces), they have Jettel's Accomplished Clarinetist and Preliminary Studies at a reasonable price (especially compared to the printed edition, which is an Austrian import). Jettel's studies (especially "The Accomplished Clarinetist") are quite challenging, but they are also quite musical (and modern).
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Author: Curinfinwe
Date: 2008-12-28 16:43
If you want some sort of special project, why not try to learn to circular breathe, if you can't already? It's really not as hard to get started as everyone thinks it is; I learned how in a few days, but three months later I'm still perfecting it. There's a good, step-by-step by Robert Spring somewhere on this website.
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Author: Tom H
Date: 2008-12-28 17:09
My routine the last 10 years or so: Buy every technique book you can. They must be at your current level or harder. Collect two huge piles. Alternate each pile every month. Make sure that you can play every part of every study perfectly, but don't try to be able to play each one all the way through without a mistake (this means that when you eventually return to each study it is somewhat like sight reading again). Oh, play only one page at a time each day, not one full study if it is more than one page. Use ALL alternate fingurings frequently, even though (and especially when) not required or advised. Buy some trumpet books (for tonguing), some sax books, and flute books (for extreme altissimo). One of the best books I use is "The Most Advanced Clarinet Book"--I got it in Canada and don't know if it's in the U.S. Throw in some solos at certain spots in the pile or all at the end. Have a few memorized things that attack special technical problems that you have trouble with --practise these each day. You can just make these up and write them down at first if desired. This routine will take you about an hour and 15 minutes daily. This has improved my playng immensly, as I used to practise about 15 minutes daily before retiring from teaching Band. I am 54 and at the peak of my playing and have performed the Nielsen and Martino. Don't know what to suggest for the other 2 3/4 hours you plan to pratice--maybe do it all some more, possibly after a break? Good luck.
The Most Advanced Clarinet Book--
tomheimer.ampbk.com/ Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001315, Musicnotes product no. MB0000649.
Boreal Ballad for unaccompanied clarinet-Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001314.
Musicnotes product no. MNO287475
Post Edited (2008-12-28 17:50)
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Author: leonardA
Date: 2008-12-29 19:27
"Just heading to Baghdad AFAIK."
Oy. Stay safe.
Leonard
Post Edited (2008-12-29 19:28)
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Author: Marie from New York
Date: 2008-12-29 20:53
When I was in Denmark for 6 months I worked on the Neilsen Concerto (when in Rome...) It gave me a lot of challenges and also was great fun to play.
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Author: patrickryan04
Date: 2008-12-30 11:54
I just returned from a 15 month deployment I spent allot of time on baerman and deployment is a great time to focus on excerpts! If it's anything like my deployment you won't have much oppertunity to preform much ensemble work so I spent the mojority of my time working on tecnique and excerpts. Good luck, be safe and find an air compressor you'll need it because canned air is outlawed for millitary use down there.
1st Armored Division Band
Clarinetist
Dixie Band
Woodwind Quintet
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