 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: PortBluePickles
Date: 2014-03-19 00:03
Hey there,
This is my fifth year playing clarinet. As a high school sophomore I am starting to get pieces that are more and more advanced thrown at me. I'm starting to struggle because a lot of my parts are heavy in the altissimo register. I can get those notes out easily and all, but getting them to actually sound good has always been a problem for me.
Does anyone have any tips on what I can do to make my altissimo notes sound in tune and have good tone?
I have a Leblanc Bliss with a Vandoren 5RV Lyre mouthpiece and Olegature ligature. I mostly use size 3 Vandoren 56 Rue Lepic reeds.
Thanks so much,
--Emily
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-03-19 00:35
I suggest you play in a room with good acoustics and nice reverberation (not too much echo but not dry either)- like an empty auditorium or church- and record yourself over all registers from a distance of 10-20 ft. A smartphone is plenty good enough. Then you can evaluate the quality of your tone in altissimo vs other registers. Maybe it's better than you give yourself credit for.
I'm fairly convinced it's next to impossible to evaluate tone well from the player's position, in a small dry room (your typical practice room). I get around that myself with barrel mic and added reverb effects, but that's another story. Clarinet puts every note out in a different direction, and the tone varies depending on the position of the listener w.r.t. the instrument (even in an anechoic chamber). Now add all the room variables and it's even more complex- but that's all good, it adds to the texture.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
Post Edited (2014-03-19 00:38)
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2014-03-19 05:49
Make sure you know commonly used alternate fingerings and when to use them..
Freelance woodwind performer
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Author: bmcgar ★2017
Date: 2014-03-19 01:54
Here's an excerpt of a critique I wrote for a student today:
"Your altissimo playing is sharp and becomes thin, especially above D, because you're pinching and backing off on air pressure when you get up there--you unconsciously "reach" for the notes because of some subliminal apprehension that they won't come out. What you need to do is to keep your embouchure stable (no different than in the other ranges of the clarinet), if not a tiny bit MORE relaxed, and add more air pressure, NOT back off. Then the notes will not only be in tune, but they'll resonate.
Playing in the altissimo requires the opposite of what human nature urges one to do; it requires that one be MORE relaxed and play with MORE air pressure than less. If you experiment with the clarinet a bit, you'll find that it WANTS to play in the altissimo--and will willingly do so--much more than it does in the lower registers. (After all, altissimo notes are nothing more than controlled squeaks.) Yet human nature is such that we do the exact opposite of what the clarinet wants us to do."
Stand by for the argumentation.
B.
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2014-03-19 06:15
Quote:
Playing in the altissimo requires the opposite of what human nature urges one to do; it requires that one be MORE relaxed and play with MORE air pressure than less. When I finally figured this out and was able to start applying it, it made altissimo so much more pleasurable and fun and sounding much better.
Enjoy those challenging pieces! Word of advice, save some of them, and pull them out next year in January and see just how much easier they are after a year of practice! It's always nice to see the improvement.
And practice your longtones up in the altissimo as well. The more you do it, the more comfortable you'll get.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: sax panther
Date: 2014-03-19 11:27
Fully agree with you bmcgar - I said almost exactly the same thing to a student this week!
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Author: kdk
Date: 2014-03-19 17:05
This could have been a transcript of any number of lessons I've taught, too.
The one addition I would make is that the reed needs to be the right strength. Sometimes I hear what your critique describes only to find out when I play the student's instrument that I can't do any better than he or she did because the reed collapses or, at the other end of the continuum, needs so much pressure to produce any kind of a response at all that, again, it closes off.
Karl
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2014-03-19 17:22
You play altissimo notes by voicing, not by embouchure strength or air pressure.
Play a mezzo-forte low A and gradually press the register key so that you don't know just when you'll jump up to the E above. Carry the warmth of the A into the E, to partner with the natural clarity of the E.
Do it again and then slowly roll your left index finger down so that you can't tell exactly when you'll jump up to the C#. Once again, carry the warmth of the A and the clarity of the E up to mix with the brilliance of the C#.
Do the same on low Bb, and chromatically on up. Get softer as you jump up, not louder.
Then do the swab-up-the-bell exercise, learning how to voice each overtone http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=158954&t=158878. When you voice correctly, the altissimo notes play with no extra effort.
Ken Shaw
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Author: bmcgar ★2017
Date: 2014-03-19 20:35
Ken,
I wrote nothing about embouchure "strength." I wrote of embouchure stability.
Also, changing air pressure does not necessarily mean changing the dynamic level. Each range of the clarinet has its own requirements for air pressure for a given dynamic level. (Low register vs. throat register, for example.)
Possibly there may be two types of players, those who play with little or no embouchure adjustment through the ranges and those whom I call "chewers," who constantly change things like lip tension and position, tongue position, and so on.
The "swab in bell" trick encourages chewing, especially "reaching" for altissimo pitches by pinching, so if one is a chewer, I suppose it's valuable, but the embouchure changes that are required for this trick encourage precisely what I hope my students will avoid.
I, for one, improved tremendously as a kid when I stopped chewing on the mouthpiece and let the clarinet and reed do the job, reinforced by the proper air pressure for the ranges.
KDK, I'm with you on reed strength. To a certain point, playing in the altissimo is much easier (and usually possible for students who have never been able to get there before) on harder reeds on a given mouthpiece.
B.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2014-03-20 05:14
Doing the swab in the bell exercise properly involves zero jaw movement or chewing. It's purely varying the position of the back of the tongue and the soft palate to force/permit different overtones to sound.
Ken Shaw
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Author: bmcgar ★2017
Date: 2014-03-20 02:35
One cannot vary the position of the soft palate, only the jaw and tongue.
Changing the jaw, of course, leads to embouchure changes, including varying the lower lip damping of the reed. Moving the tongue changes the jaw pressure, at least. "Chewing."
Anyway, let's let this rest.
The list members have two approaches to try, and while I'm not a big advocate of the "whatever works for you" approach, I think that oft-used concepts of "varying the air," "air speed," "hot and cold air," "tongue position," "voicing," and so on are so poorly defined operationally that each person needs to stumble upon whatever formula and metaphors work for them.
B.
Post Edited (2014-03-20 06:39)
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Author: PortBluePickles
Date: 2014-03-20 07:33
Thank you everyone for the tips. I will definitely use them to help me and I can't wait to practice this new music
--Emily
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-03-22 06:28
So, David- does 2001 with swab in bell come out better than this?...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpFQLw5_N2o
From the comments on YouTube, "Orchestra musicians switched instruments and they were told to play to the best of their abilities. This was the result..."
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
Post Edited (2014-03-22 06:32)
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