 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2011-01-20 12:27
Above the 'G', that is. These notes are less common in the repertoire. What's the best way to practice them?
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2011-01-20 12:44
Try doing over tone exercises to get control over which register you are in.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2011-01-20 15:23
Skygardener is absolutely right. The high altissimo is reached by proper voicing, not stiff reeds, tight embouchure or biting.
The best exercise I've found is to stuff a cotton swab up the bell, finger middle B, take plenty of mouthpiece and blow like the wind. Blow harder and support more until you bring the note up to a strong 4th space Eb. Then find the Bb above, then Eb, G and Bb. You move from one note to the other by varying your tongue, palate and jaw position. Double lip helps. You control the overtone solely by voicing, not biting. Then play bugle calls to learn how to control which overtone sounds.
See also http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=292768&t=292753 and http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=20&i=757&t=757.
Finally, it's hard to reach the high altissimo if the register key is to far open. You should be just able to slide a nickel between the pad and the vent.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2011-01-20 16:43
I mean, because they don't come up so often they feel less a part of the natural range of the instrument. Like, 'eek, a Bb!'. What's the best way to dispel this feeling and get the finger memory working? Is it just to keep plugging away at the scales?
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2011-01-20 17:54
Bassie -
Don't think of them as "high." When you play the Mozart Concerto and get to the ascending scale from low G to high F, play the high F as if it were two octaves lower, with no increase tightness or strain. Ride on the breath up and over the top.
It's exactly the same with higher notes. The high Bb in the first movement of the Weber 2nd concerto has to be a real note, not a squeezed-out squeak. Play the next-to-the last F with the long fingering (T/R/1-2-3/C# key/4-5-6), add the throat Ab key and the low F key and play it with the same embouchure and breath as the F, with a slight change in voicing.
It's exactly the same with the High C in the Spohr 1st Concerto.
In the first movement of the Bartok Contrasts, the extreme notes must be played mezzo forte at the loudest. Otherwise you'll drown out the violinist and pianist. Play them as the melody -- as notes within the musical line -- not as a bunch of individual high notes.
It's useful to approach the high notes as part of an arpeggio, rather than through scales. Learn to jump to the notes reliably. Then work on playing melodic lines that pass into and out of the high altissimo.
It's your responsibility to play high passages 10,000 times, to get them into your fingering and voicing memory. Go to Baermann III and be sure to play all the way to the top.
There's no short cut. Play melodic lines, in which the high notes feel just like the low ones. Work on removing tension in your hands and fingers, and especially your throat.
Oh yes. Slow practice is essential. Engraving proper tone production into the muscle memory of your fingers, tongue and soft palate occurs just as well at slow speed as at high. If you have a problem, slow down even more -- one note per click with the metronome at 40 if you have to. Otherwise you're only learning how to make mistakes.
Keep at it until you can do it flawlessly. And flawlessly 10 times in a row.
There's no way to do it except to do it.
And it wouldn't hurt to take lessons.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2011-01-20 23:51
If you can play the G well, practice G ot G#, keep your breath support strong, your embouchure secure and voice up a little. When the G# is secure, add an A, when the A is secure add a Bb et.
Make up slow exercises going up half steps, or whole steps and thirds. Also, it's important to know a few different fingerings for those notes because some come out easier than others. I have a chart on my website that might help. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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The Clarinet Pages
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