 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Sea Dog
Date: 2009-03-07 23:52
Hi friends, I'm having problems with going from the mid A to the following B in a warm up excersice that I do. I have no problems with any of the other notes but that move from A to B never comes out clean unless I slow down some. Any sugestions will be appreciated. Sea Dog
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Author: Clarimeister
Date: 2009-03-08 00:28
Air, air, air, and more air. You're going from a note that barely uses any of the tube/bore of the instrument to the most resistant note, which uses all of the instrument, on the horn. Some advanced techniques would be to leave the right hand down on notes G and up. Crossing the break (1st break) is one of the hardest things as a beginner to learn. Practice practice practice. Lean into it from the A and eventually it will become second nature.
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2009-03-08 15:37
On the contrary:
Fingers, fingers, fingers, and more fingers. You say it works fine if you do it slowly. That's because your fingers have time to get into place properly. Years of blowing harder and "trying harder" only masked the problem for me, until I noticed that the extra push I was giving it was, as a side effect, making me push harder on the holes, which made them close properly, bringing the note out. Don't push harder on the holes, though, just make sure that your fingers are all down when you want to play the B. Having some of your right hand down on the A helps that a lot.
As long as you have a decent airstream, B shouldn't be all that much more resistant than A. The exception is if your clarinet is not in good repair, which is very very likely if you're having break problems.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-03-08 15:57
I agree with all of the above but also keep in mind that the first finger LH, the one on the A key, should never be lifted and put back on to the clarinet. That is to say you should roll from the A key to the F# hole. I suggest practicing from the F# to the A rolling your finger so it is always touching one or the other, never lifting it up causing a slight break in the connection. Also, don't let that finger go up high on the A key, keep it as close to the F# as possible. That together with the above mentioned recommendations should help solve the problem. ESP
www.peabody.jhu.edu/457
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Author: Danny Boy
Date: 2009-03-08 16:03
I echo much of what has gone before, and wish to add to Ed's post that a late register key can often manifest itself as a lack of smoothness from lower register to next register, especially from A to B. As well the exercise Ed suggested I would suggest practising throat ('pinch') Bb to F sharp and keeping a careful eye on when you're actually putting down your register key.
You should also see how smoothly you're able to play low E (lowest note on the instrument that is) to throat A - if all is well here it's even more likely that your problem is caused by a late register key.
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-03-08 16:38
One thing that you can do for the A to B transition is that you can actually leave the A key open when you play the B. This tends to eliminate some of the stuffiness of the B (don't do this for C or any other notes, just B), which is why I do it, but it may help train your fingers as well (since you can only play the B with the A key pressed if your first finger's sufficiently low down on the A key)
When I was starting out on clarinet, my teacher would have me do "E-to-A" exercises to practice the rolling movement onto the A key. If I remember right (it was a long time ago), first she'd have me play the "pinch" E fingering, then roll my finger onto the A key while still holding the pinch E fingering (don't worry about the sound). I'd do this a few times, then practice doing the real E-to-A transition with essentially the same finger motion.
If you leave your finger on the A key when you transition to B, then roll off of the A key when you go from B to C, this will also help "force" you to learn the same rolling motion. Just remember that leaving your finger on the A key only works for B (you can also do the same thing with just the G# key when you play B, though).
Post Edited (2009-03-08 16:52)
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-03-08 20:02
Danny and mrn, Two very good points!
I just tried it. You have to coordinate the A key going to the F# key exactly the same time as you open the register key AND cover the thumb hole. If any of those three things don't happen together the B will not speak until they all cover. Keep all you RH keys down and concentrate on doing what I just said, going from the A to B and thinking about all three things covering together. ESP
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
Post Edited (2009-03-08 20:46)
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Author: Sea Dog
Date: 2009-03-10 16:37
Thank you all that took the time to answer my post on "Crossing the Break" I found many of your suggestions very helpful and try to keep them in mind while practicing. EEBaum did make a very important point. I did find myself pressing too hard with the left hand. A softer touch works much better. The clarinet is an R-13 about two years old, which I bought new. I took it to a tech and he went over it to make sure that all was in working condition. Then I had a professional clarinet player try it out and he was very impressed with the sound and said that he found the instrument in good condition. I did all these so I could not blame the instrument for my short-comings. One thing that I did find out while practicing the transition from the A to the B is that I consistently missed the LH ring finger hitting the C/G hole. Once I did the move and there was no sound I held the air flow and moved the LH ring finger until it did cover the C/G hole completely and then the note came out. My LH index finger has a slight turn to the left (due to some arthritis, I'm 75 years old) that I'm guessing throws the rest of the LH fingers out of aligment. Maybe a lame excuse. And yes, air, air, air and more air and fingers, fingers fingers and more fingers is so true not to mention practice, practice, practice and more practice. Thank you all again. Sea Dog
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Author: Lynn
Date: 2009-03-12 14:02
A very good and distinguished pro player with whom I study has a theory that the term "over the break" should never be uttered in the presence of beginning clarinet students. (something he picked up a few years ago from Leon Russianoff) He contends that the description "over the break" automatically instills a mental barrier for the student, which only adds to the long list of things to master when learning the basics of the instrument.
Something to consider, don't you think?
Regards,
Lynn
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Author: kdk
Date: 2009-03-12 18:28
I've heard that said, too, and I don't necessarily disagree that, if by using the term a teacher presents it as a barrier or an obstacle to be crossed, it can be destructive. But students who are first confronting the problems of learning new names for old fingerings and of covering a lot of holes all at once accurately when they first try to go from the throat tones to long B or C know they've hit a problem without being told. I don't know the context in which Mr. Russianoff made that suggestion (or if it was even his original idea) or whether he has experience dealing with very elementary levels of clarinet teaching.
Regardless of the names we apply to any new concept, as teachers part of our job is to make new techniques or ideas fit as seamlessly with the old ones as possible when we first introduce them. If using terms like "upper-lower register" and "changing register" or simply not talking about it at all and presenting new notes one at a time without characterizing their register make it less threatening and, therefore, a little easier, then "the break" or any of these others may be unnecessarily negative terms. But the teacher doesn't really create the problem, and sometimes a student can feel more positive about him/herself, a little more vindicated, if he/she knows that everyone else who plays clarinet has the same problems at some point in their learning process.
Karl
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