 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Pwrmaestro
Date: 2010-01-17 19:52
Please help with suggestions for the opening of Rhapsody in Blue. Does one require a particularly soft reed? Where does the glis begin? Thanks in advance!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: ylock
Date: 2010-01-17 20:20
A soft reed can help, or rather an easy blowing mouthpiece... I can never manage it as good as I used to with my crystal Pomarico (Open +)...
Usually it's played chromatically up to the C and the gliss is simply the octave from the Second C to the third one. Good luck!!
Yehiel
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Eddydavik
Date: 2010-01-17 20:33
It's all in your head. Find LOTS of recordings and listen to them. There isn't ONE right way or common way of playing it, so see what you like and what you are capable of doing (or what you want to be capable of doing).
You can even find the original Whiteman recording (my favorite and with Gershwin at the piano) on archive.org.
Edward Escobar
Suita City Wind Ensemble
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: William
Date: 2010-01-17 20:41
If your *good*, you can play the gliss all the way up from the bottom, as demostrated by this unknown clarinetist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9nG2KyEp2A
It's all in how smoothly you can remove your fingers, chromatically or diatonically (your artistic choice) from the clarinet. Once you get to B4, the rest is realatively "easy" :>)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-01-17 20:48
You can do a gliss on any strength reed and mouthpiece you're used to, and also on Oehler and plateau model clarinets - it's done with the throat and tongue muscles rather than with the lip and jaw.
Someone pointed out on here a while back it's like whistling a low note and sliding up in pitch, which it pretty much is - so think of it as that instead of a lip gliss as you're not moving your lower lip or jaw.
If you whistle a very low note and slide right up to a very high note you'll feel the muscles in your throat and tongue working, then try this playing the high C on clarinet to see how much you can bend the note downwards.
It also helps if you play high C as oxx|xxxEb and also as xxx|xxxC# with the thumb off the thumb tube but still on the speaker key. You should be able to use just this one fingering and slide right up from the C# or the Eb above the break (depending which works best) to the high C.
On non-Boehm clarinets (simple/Albert, German and Oehler systems) play the high C as oxx E/B|xxx or oxx F#/C#|xxx F/C - so when you get to the C# above the break, lift off LH1 and slide up to the high C.
If you're having trouble in the middle of the gliss (around F#-A) then slowly lift LH3 and slowly close it again.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2010-01-17 22:00)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: cigleris
Date: 2010-01-17 21:09
William,
The clarinettist doesn't start the gliss from the low G in the video you posted. I don't think I've ever heard anyone successfully do that. Nice vintage recording though.
Peter Cigleris
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: kenabbott
Date: 2010-01-17 21:24
It's all in the throat. Reed impact has always been minimal for me.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2010-01-17 21:24
The Gershwin Gliss actually begins on the D and it's done with a combination of voicing and sliding your fingers. Some players do it more with one than the other. I've always found that a slightly softer reed makes it easier to voice but certainly not a stronger reed. Although I never heard the gliss done all the way up I had to play a piece a few years ago that required doing that, in that case from low B to high C, I was able to do that except for going over the break so I quickly played a scale from the G# to the C# and continued glissing to the high C. I have heard some Jazz players gliss over the break, it's all about being able to voice it. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: pewd
Date: 2010-01-17 22:17
i just performed that last year in a symphony concert - i used the same reed and mouthpiece as i always do.
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: John J. Moses
Date: 2010-01-17 22:54
On my website http://www.johnmosesclarinet.com, when the site opens, I'm playing the famous Gershwin gliss from a live concert in 2007 at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops.
At that time, I used a Vandoren cane reed #4.5-5, old purple box from the 1970's. I wish I had the Legere reed I now use, it would have made the solo a lot easier!
The solo is easy for some, difficult for others, depending on your flexibility. I've taught my way of doing it to dozens of younger players, with pretty good success. I cannot explain it in a post, I need to demonstrate how I do it, then talk about what the student needs to do, then have the student give it a few tries. The gliss can be done by almost everyone, after you've been playing for a while.
JJM
Légère Artist
Clark W. Fobes Artist
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: USFBassClarinet
Date: 2010-01-17 23:05
I find that when I do a gliss, I form kind of a 'pocket' of air in my mouth and use my tongue to 'push' the pocket and it gives me a nice gliss at any speed I want. I have never done a lesson with a professor on glisses, this is just what I have found myself.
anyone else do it similar to this?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: William
Date: 2010-01-18 00:38
For Cigleris--yes, it is not exactly smooth, but a pretty good effort. The example I wanted to post is no longer available on Utube due to a copyright issue. It was the great Al Golladoro on a 1947 recording by pianist, Earl Wilde. He absolutely started on low G and was seamless up to the high C. If you can find it, it's the best.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Humsin94
Date: 2010-01-18 01:31
It's all in the back of the tongue/throat. It should be very relaxed and in a very low "voicing," just high enough for the middle register to sound. You then slide your fingers off very smoothly.
Buffet-Crampon Festival Bb
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
