 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: RonD
Date: 2013-12-23 21:19
Hello,
Since the instrument purchase seems to be settled,
I would need some of your thoughts and suggestions for books.
I know that there are the popular books such as Elements 2000
and A tune a day etc...
I would like to find books that explain the bridge, what are the throat notes
and to why these are called as such.
The break, and all the other terms that I have never heard of before.
Thank You,
Ronald
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2013-12-23 17:24
Try Clarinet for Dummies by David Etheridge. You can find it on Amazon.com. Etheridge is a performing American clarinetist and an experienced teacher. To really learn the clarinet, though, you need private lesson from a good teacher (preferably one who plays clarinet as their first instrument). The traditional path followed by many outstanding clarinetists in the past, of course, was to take private lessons and also play either in a school band or a band outside of school. Blending with other musicians, listening to them carefully, and getting into the rhythm and phrasing of the ensemble are skills that cannot be learned by just practicing alone. Clarinet duet books are a must. Look up the Rubank series and collections by Hymie Voxman.
A good band method that includes DVDs is Bruce Pearson's two-volume Traditions of Excellence. The clarinet edition is available on Amazon.
Listen, if you can, to Ricardo Morales's Learn to Play the Clarinet series on Youtube. Lee Morgan has another how-to-play series. Check out his staccato on the Midsummer Nights Dream lesson. Get the sound in your memory and in your soul of how these accomplished clarinetists articulate notes and smoothly connect them in legato passages. Listen to how they make crescendos and diminuendos, shaping the tone in a well -controlled air column. Copy them. These are things you cannot learn from books.
Find some other musicians and learn to play in tune with them.
Paul Van Bodegraven's Adventures in Clarinet Playing is instructive for beginners. Amazon still has a few used copies of these.
Post Edited (2016-06-13 01:44)
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2013-12-23 22:39
There are good basic books, but you MUST have some private instruction up front. Leaning the WRONG way will only ingrain bad habits that are much harder to UNLEARN.
My favorite starter books are the complete method books that contain material that you can use for some time to come (along with a teacher) such as the Lazarus Complete method book (comes in three volumes) and the Klose complete method book. There are many other exercise and scale books that are fundamental but as a beginner you need a little time under your belt first.
Throat: More a colloquial term coming from the anthropomorhism of the clarinet (being the 'neck' of the clarinet; not quite the top, but close to it). It refers to the fundamental notes (your written notes) 'D, E, F, G, A and Bb' from just under the treble clef to the middle line.
Bridge: metal protuberances that come together at the center of you clarinet when you assemble the top and bottom joints (you must ensure that you depress the rings of the top joint so that the metal part of the lower joint slides UNDER the metal thingy of the top joint when you assemble). This linkage allows you to play a Bb (written just above the clef) with just the first fingers of each hand (and left hand thumb and register key). This makes arpeggios (among other things) easier.
Break: I don't like this term at all. It makes moving to the next octave sound like a challenge similar to climbing Mt Everest. There IS a bit more air required to move from the "throat A" to the middle line "B" but this is quite simple. You are moving from a note that uses the SHORTEST length of 'tube' to a note that requires the full length of 'tube,' but this is NOT a daunting task!
...................Paul Aviles
Post Edited (2013-12-23 19:52)
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Author: RonD
Date: 2013-12-23 18:16
Thanks Guys,
I need a teacher,
Well can't afford a Skype teacher and I assure you that there are
none in my little area.
Makes me wonder if I can play to a reasonable level without one.
by reasonable, I mean that people actually enjoy your tone and musicality.
As long as your audience are not first clarinetist.
All I can do now is take the Artist course by Ricardo Morales and there is also a series
of video course by Michelle Anderson, clarinetmentor.
Along with has already been suggested.
Ten years ago, someone in my position would have been totally dissuaded
since almost nothing on the net was available.
I still feel a little down since I now realize I probably won't go to an advanced level
without a one on one teacher.
I have already ordered the Clarinet for Dummies by Ehtheridge.
I ordered it last week, before having a clarinet. this is how serious I am.
I also need to order something that the store that sends me the clarinet probably
has in stock.
elements with DVD or A tune a Day
Please let me know your thoughts on all this
Thanks,
Ronald
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2013-12-23 18:23
Paul Aviles wrote,
>Break: I don't like this term at all. It makes moving to the next octave sound like a challenge similar to climbing Mt Everest. >
Indeed. My childhood band teacher never used that word -- as I realized years later, when I started hearing people talk about the dreaded break. At first I couldn't even figure out what they were talking about, until I looked in some of my beginner method books. Then I did remember having read about the break, but what I'd read hadn't mattered nearly as much as what the teacher *showed* us without making any big deal of it.
That smart teacher did start us off in the usual way, in the middle, with open G, then the A-flat, A and B-flat above open G, then downwards to the bottom. And then -- okay, now we're going back to the middle and heading upwards, and that means we'll have twice as many notes, for playing much more interesting music. Nothing seemed . . . broken. I don't remember anybody having any particular trouble going from "pinch" B-flat up to B natural.
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: kdk ★2017
Date: 2013-12-23 23:33
I'm wondering as I read this thread how clarinetists in other - non-American, non-English speaking - places refer to the register change and whether or not the words they use correspond in meaning to "the break" in English.
Karl
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Author: Wes
Date: 2013-12-24 02:09
Hi Ronald!
Keep trying! You seem to be doing the best you can.
I was almost your age when I left a one room school in the middle of North Dakota and moved to a small town in Minnesota. From the one room school on the reservation, one could not see another building in any direction. When I was a little older than you, I bought a simple system clarinet for $7 in a pawn shop and liked it a lot, starting a little German band, which played at parties. Even later, I got to study with some of the finest teachers in the USA for little cost and am still playing many years later.
The complete method by Klose is still a number one choice for a serious text for the clarinet and it is relatively inexpensive. Good luck!
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