 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Sam S
Date: 2011-02-25 22:31
Hi everyone,
I've been having trouble playing higher notes. I can play fine until the F above high C (F6, I believe). I usually squeak up to an A/Bb. Rarely, but sometimes, the E does the same. If I half-hole it, it comes out more often, but it falls flat, no matter how little of my finger is over the hole. The F# is even worse, although the G is fine (no matter how I finger it). I'm a junior in High School, so it's sort of embarrassing when I play in class since some of my fellow clarinetists can play cleanly up to C7 (okay, well one one of them can go that high, but no one else seems to be having a problem through the chromatic scale).
What do you think could be the problem and how can I change what I'm doing to fix it?
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Author: Wes
Date: 2011-02-26 02:16
1. If you use a fabric ligature, try washing it thoroughly in soap and water if you don't regularly clean it.
2. Try a slightly harder reed. Or try a newer, less worn out reed.
3. Check the bore to see if it is still polished and clean.
4. Try an alternate mouthpiece. Many mouthpieces play with difficulty above high G. The tip is the culprit. Tip and side rails should not be too wide for playing above high G. Compare your rails with your friends rails.
5. Form the mouth chamber into a smaller tube. Say eau with the lips forward like the girl sipping lemonade in the Parisian sidewalk cafe. Don't say aww.
6. Make sure the instrument has no leaks and that the pads do not have crud on them. I sometimes use Postits for cleaning junk off of pads carefully.
Good luck! Those high notes are not really hard to play.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2011-02-26 14:45
Is this a new problem? If you used to be able to play those notes and something's gone wrong recently, another thing to check is the register key vent, too. No matter how well you swab, crud tends to build up in there over time and that can cause squeaks.
I like Wes's suggestion of a slightly harder reed, but oddly enough, another big cause of squeakage is a reed that's slightly *too* hard.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2011-02-26 22:41
I gotta say I LOVE the Parisian Cafe analogy.
No two ways about it, the altissimo does require more "energy." Don't really think ........ 'biting' (the "B Word"), think using more emouchure muscle. And that is ALL around, the upper/lower lip muscles and the cheek muscles along the sides. For me the ONLY true effort one expends playing clarinet is in the embouchure and in the abdominal muscles. All else is cake.
......................Paul Aviles
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Author: John Peacock
Date: 2011-02-27 10:45
These notes are not as stable as one would like - even very good players get caught out from time to time. The extent of the issue differs between instruments and reed/mouthpiece combinations, but it doesn't mean that there's necessarily anything wrong with your equipment - you just have to learn how to handle the response you're dealing with. I'd make two suggestions:
(1) Find bomb-proof alternative fingerings that you can trust 100% when you have to produce these notes quiet and slow (fast/loud is normally OK with the standard fingerings). For E, use all LH down plus the Aflat throat key; for F use the "long" fingering with all fingers down; for Fsharp use thumb plus first 2 fingers, plus 2 lowest side trill keys. As you noted, half-holing stabilises the standard fingerings a bit, but affects tuning. Better to have a different fingering entirely that avoids this issue. There are other possibilities: experiment until you find something that works for you.
(2) Confront the problem. Play the overblown top A and then do the exercise of trying to make this come down to E. You'll find your embouchure relaxes a little, and there's a feeling of opening up in the throat. Eventually, this method of going to E via A will establish in your mind a picture of what a correctly produced E feels like - so that you should then just do that automatically when E is called for. A related exercise goes in the opposite direction: start with bottom C, overblow to G then to E. When you're at G, have the feel in your mind of E after you've come down from A. Eventually, you should be able to hit E reliably coming in either direction.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2011-03-01 04:39
some useful alternative fingerings:
TR XXO | XXX Eb for F#6
TR XXX G# | XXX (no Eb) for F6
Bob Phillips
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2011-03-02 00:07
The first thing to do is to check the bridge keys to make sure when they close so that he first pad on the bottom joint is sealing tight. You can check that by placing a sliver of pad paper in a few places under the pad and press down gently to see if it's sealing tightly with both joints attached. Assuming that is good then there may be a slight leak in one of the upper joint keys so have them checked. If all is well, it's you. Your reed may be too soft as suggested, your tongue may be misplaced, too high or too low in back or front or you may be choking on those notes or not using enough breath support or pinching in your embouchure, just to name a few. There's a million reasons you may be having this problem. Find a professional teacher and take some lessons, even just to find out what the problem is. If someone else can play those notes on your clarinet with your mouthpiece and reed than you know it's you and not the equipment. ESP
http://eddiesclarinet.com
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