 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: noseed574
Date: 2009-12-22 22:22
I'm kind of new to this forum but I know there are a lot of really experienced clarinetists here. I was wondering if some of you could critique my performance of Weber's 2nd Clarinet Concerto that I'm using for a music supplement for a college app (I'm 17). I recorded it with a webcam with the "smartmusic" virtual accompaniment so the quality isn't too good. I know there are a bunch of mistakes, squeaks, and other problems (one time i stop playing to take a breath)...but any criticisms/comments will help! Thanks!
Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaCKkXkiuKs
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Author: srattle
Date: 2009-12-23 00:45
Not bad. You have good fingers for your age. I would however say that maybe this movement of this piece isn't what you need to be practicing for what you need to improve (from my perspective, at least)
I would rather advise you to stick with the second movement of the concerto, and work hard on support, embouchure firmness and very importantly intonation.
You have quite a lot of trouble getting the top register of the instrument to work, and this is because your embouchure isn't strong enough (at least with the set up you're using) couple with the fact that you're not supporting your air enough. I think long phrases and focus on keeping your embouchure muscles working hard, and your air moving solidly will help a lot.
For intonation, you are quite sharp all the time in the recording. A slow movement will again be useful to practice, as you'll have more time to concentrate on the intonation without all the finger technique bogging you down. It's very important to learn how to listen while playing, maybe the most important aspect of being a musician, and the sooner you learn it, the easier things will become.
I also notice that you use very little dynamic contrast. Weber Concerto is a very virtuosic piece, and you have to make it dramatic, and frankly mezzoforte just isn't going to cut it. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that the recording equipment isn't so good, and probably didn't help you. However, especially in a piece like this, you need to exaggerate your intentions much more.
Although you've done a nice job here, and you're on your way, consider finding another piece that you can take more advantage of. Remember, forcing yourself into a piece of music that you're not 100% ready for can sometimes be useful, but usually you will end up not getting enough out of it. The music is so much more than note after note and that needs to come through. There are many pieces that are incredibly beautiful and fun to play (and difficult) but that might help you more than Weber 2. The Gade Fantasy Pieces would be really beneficial for you, for instance.
Anyway, good luck to you, and try to find what you think is the most important next step in your learning.
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-12-23 00:45
Here are my thoughts:
This movement is a polonaise ("Alla Polacca" means "in the style of a polonaise"), which is a kind of dance that has a rhythm that goes "1 and-a 2 and 3 and, 1 and-a 2 and 3 and." I think it would help for you to listen to some other polonaises so you can try to emulate the style and rhythm of this dance. Here are a few YouTube videos of polonaises to listen to get a feel for this dance style:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21dsRBeIy8A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcRiurJ-q50
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZGi49Bnghs
If you listen to these pieces, you'll notice that the notes are generally pretty short. You'll also notice that much of the musical interest comes from the way notes are accented, and, in particular, there is an implied accent on the first beat of every measure and a weaker implied accent on the third beat.
Pay close attention to the accents in this piece. Don't clobber them, but do be sure that on accented notes (especially the first two notes of the movement) you start strong and then let the note relax or decay a little afterward (kind of like a bell or a piano note).
Be careful to stay in rhythm. Don't forget that because this is a dance, you have to keep a steady beat.
At 8 before letter B, because this is a contrasting section, the slurred 8th notes probably ought to be long, not clipped at the end. (The copy I'm looking at is here)
At B, don't be in a hurry to play the 32nd note tuplets. Dwell a little on the eighth note. You did OK with the first two of these, but I think it would be effective if you could still dwell just a hair more on the initial eighth notes in these two bars because they are accented, and in this dance style you can get away with having the first half of the first beat ever so slightly longer than the second.
On the third bar of B, you REALLY need to take longer with the first note because it's not an eighth, but a dotted eighth. Subdivide the dotted eighth into 3 sixteenths so you don't play the 32nds too soon. With the next two sets of sextuplets in the same bar, make sure the first and fourth note of each set lines up precisely with the eighth note and give the first note of each of these sextuplet sets a little bit of emphasis so that we can hear how they line up with the polonaise rhythm.
At the 8th bar of B, you came in early. Make sure you come in on beat 1.
Most of this page (indeed, most of this piece) is marked staccato, so don't forget to play the dotted notes short.
Don't forget to make big dynamic contrasts. Your pianos didn't sound soft enough to me, and your fortes weren't strong enough. (might be the recording equipment, though)
At D, your rhythm was a little uneven. At the 3rd bar of D, you should make sure not to rush the first two 16ths of each group of 4. Because these are accented here, it's better to stretch the first 16th of each group out--better to be a tad too long on each first 16th note than too short.
At 2 before E you played a B natural; it's supposed to be a B flat. (You probably noticed that, but just in case...)
At E, you could stand to be a bit more aggressive with your "con fuoco."
Watch your tuning on the altissimo notes in the 4th-6th bars of E--you sound flat on those top notes (or perhaps they're in tune and the rest of what you're playing is sharp). Get with a tuner and find fingerings for those notes that are better in tune. Also, remember that it's better to be a tiny bit sharp than it is to be flat.
In general, you seem to have trouble with playing high notes. You sound a bit "out of control" whenever you get up high. That's something you need to work on with your private teacher.
Don't get softer when you go into the low register at the 9th bar of E; it's still fortissimo here. You need to think about playing louder as you go down.
What fingerings are you using for the trills at 8 before G? You should look on the http://www.wfg.woodwind.org website for good fingerings for those trills so you can play them faster. (There is a special trill fingering chart there.)
Great job on the last page sextuplet stuff. Since you've pretty much got that part down from a technical standpoint, if I were you, I would spend most of my practice time on the preceding pages, where I would work primarily on rhythm and style (as well as technical accuracy, of course).
The main thing is to make it sound like a polonaise, which takes quite a bit of work from the clarinetist to pull off, because Weber doesn't really do much in the orchestra to reinforce the polonaise rhythm/style. So you really have to have that style in your head when you play this piece in order to play it well. Most everything else will sort of fall into place once you get the style down.
I think Sacha's advice that you might want to play a different piece for this audition/application is well taken, however. Although you have good finger technique and this piece showcases that, because the technical stuff just keeps coming, it doesn't give you much opportunity to work on what you really need to work on in terms of sound, control (especially high notes), and musicality, because you have to spend so much practice time and energy on technique. You might be better off working up a piece where the only things you have to work on are those things that you need to work on in your playing in general, as the problems with high notes, for instance, will distract whoever is listening to this from your technical strengths. (On the other hand, perhaps a technical piece with fewer high notes is really what you need.)
The other thing you need to do is to impress the listener from the instant the piece begins. The biggest problem with your performance of this piece is that we have to wait for you to make it through the stuff you're not that confident with before we can hear the part where your biggest strengths become evident (the last page). By that time, it's too late. Whoever is listening is likely to have made up their minds about you by that time. I don't want to sound too negative (and please don't take this the wrong way), but having listened to you play the beginning of this movement, I really didn't expect you to play the last page of this solo as well as you did--in fact, I wasn't entirely sure you'd make it through that page. Fortunately, I listened to the end, so I know you are more technically capable than your performance at the beginning of this movement indicates. Obviously, that's the part you practiced the most. However, I wouldn't rely on whoever is reviewing this recording at the university/conservatory to listen through to the end. They might simply conclude on the basis of hearing the beginning that the last page won't be any better, and simply turn off the recording. You don't want that. As they say, you don't get a second chance to make a first impression.
In any case, best of luck to you in your audition(s)!
Post Edited (2009-12-23 01:39)
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Author: noseed574
Date: 2009-12-23 01:39
Thank you so much for your comments!
@ strattle
I know high notes are a weak spot for me and are definitely something I need to work on. I'll try to look at the 2nd movement and the Gade Fantasy pieces.
As for dynamics, some of the fault goes on the recording device but a lot of it is on my part too. I sometimes get too involved in the technical stuff and ignore the other markings.
@ mrn
Wow...thank you so much for making comments on specific spots of the song. I'll try to make it sound more rhythmic (my teacher said the same thing) and more like a "dance." Also, high notes are a huge weak spot for me so I'll be continuing to work on that. Oh, and I actually didn't know that it was Bb...thanks!
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Author: OmarHo
Date: 2009-12-23 13:37
When you tongue, I think you're slightly opening the throat and using too much of the back of the tongue, resulting in a bit of a squawky sound up high. Try slowly tonguing with only the tip and keep the back still.
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