 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Roxann
Date: 2013-09-07 00:52
So that I do everything the right way leading up to try-outs for who-sits-where with our local college's All-Campus Band, I'd be open to suggestions on how to prepare. We have 2 excerpts from Themes from An Original Suite For Military Band by Gordon Jacob...one from the Intermezzo and one from the Finale. How do YOU prepare for such a nerve-wracking three minutes?
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-09-07 01:21
Practice the passages with a metronome, one note per beat at 40. Never permit yourself to make even the slightest mistake. You're engraving the notes into your finger memory. Permitting a mistake teaches your fingers to make mistakes, and slow practice is just as effective as fast practice.
Get to where you can go through 10 times with no mistakes. Then put it away for three days to let the muscle memory "set."
For much more, read the brilliant article at http://www.joearmstrong.info/GILLET21rtf.htm.
Ken Shaw
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Author: ruben
Date: 2013-09-07 07:12
I would give exactly the same advice as Ken: practise at a heart-felt lento tempo over a considerable span of time. This is what the great clarinetist-teacher Mitchell Lurie also suggested. It requires patience, though, and young people are low on this. Once you have the piece up to tempo, the day of the audition, go through your pieces one last time at a snail's pace tempo. Good luck!
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Roxann
Date: 2013-09-07 15:20
We "older" folks are also low on patience...at least this one is:) My try-outs are three days from now. We were given our parts four days ago and I started practicing at about 60 bpm and VERY gradually built up to 80 bpm and 126 bpm for the two pieces. I'll go back to practicing at 40 bpm today. If I'd had a couple of weeks to really do it correctly, how soon before the actual try-outs would I begin playing at tempo?
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Author: ruben
Date: 2013-09-07 16:18
I'm very much in favour of paradoxical methods-there's a school of psychotherapy based on them (the Palo Alto School). Instead of working up to tempo, why not "work down from tempo"? In other words, play "a tempo" at first and then a little bit slower day by day until you're down to 50 beats a minute. You'd be surprised at how well this works. In this way you're deepening you technical and musical command of the piece instead of making it more shallow. Good luck!
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2013-09-07 16:27
Slow practice, yes. How about fast up-to-tempo practice? Fernand Gillet taught that in addition to slow practice, one should play the passage at tempo, but pausing just before a difficult place to allow one's mind to consider what comes next. Do it short sections of the passage as well as the longer complete passage. I find this to be an efficient method of practicing.
John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com
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Author: clarinetwife
Date: 2013-09-08 20:35
Another slightly counterintuitive way I find helpful with a difficult passage is to start playing towards the end of the passage, back it up a measure or two and practice some more, back it up some more until you are playing the whole passage. It gives you a sense of " I can get there!" if you know a couple of measures down the road is a passage you know really well.
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Author: ruben
Date: 2013-09-09 09:17
Fantastic advice! I can't wait to try this out. This is what a psychological unlocking technique. Thank you!
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Roxann
Date: 2013-09-10 14:31
Thanks to each of you who've helped me out with this great advice:) As always, it's greatly appreciated.
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