Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-02-15 13:36
Elizabeth/Christine -
Any book that contains scales and arpeggios through all the keys is fine. Baermann III has additional patterns (wider intervals, broken chords), and most people use it. I often begin a practice session with the 2-page exercise in Klose http://javanese.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/2/2b/IMSLP34489-PMLP77801-kloses-conservatory-method-for-the-clarinet.pdf, pp. 100-101, running through all the scales in 3rds. I go quite slowly to make sure there is not even the slightest fluff.
If you're spending 1-1/2 hours a day on scales, you're not doing it right. As Kal Opperman said to me, nobody every won an audition just playing scales. Of course you must phrase scales musically, but that's far short of Mozart or Brahms.
You use scales and arpeggios to engrave the frequently recurring patterns into your muscle memory. This requires doing them dead slow, one note per click at the slowest speed on your metronome, concentrating all your attention on picturing the next note change and then doing it perfectly. Even the slightest mistake or unevenness engraves the mistake into your muscle memory -- exactly the opposite of what you want. Nobody can maintain this level of concentration for more than 10 or 15 minutes.
Give it your best time, at the beginning of each practice session. The moment your attention flags, STOP and play a simple melody. Ralph McLane used the Brahms Lullaby.
Also, remember that Baermann gives you only the material Mozart or Weber used. The only reason the Debussy Premiere Rapsodie seems more difficult than the Weber Concertino is that Debussy's arpeggios are not in Baermann. You come to them almost as a beginner. And then you go to the Bartok Contrasts, where you must learn each of the rips as if they were in Baermann.
People who studied with Leon Russianoff say he let them toss off the Nielsen Concerto at the first lesson. He would then set his metronome to 60 and say "Now play me a C major scale, one octave up and down." Nobody could do that with perfect evenness.
Change your approach, not your exercise book.
Ken Shaw
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The Clarinet BBoard
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