 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: tiagocunha
Date: 2014-04-26 18:10
Hi all, I'm playing this overture with the winds section of my university orchestra and I'm having some difficulty with the semiquavers staccatos. Are there any good studies to improve my staccato? For me, the most difficult thing is when I have to play a fast staccato and the note does not change. Thank you all.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2014-04-26 21:20
Actually, playing Mendelssohn is good practice for repeated staccato notes! Along with what Buster suggested, just playing scales of repeated notes will help. First repeat 4 16ths and an 8th, then expand to 8 16ths, changing notes in the scale from time to time. A little crescendo as you play each one helps, too. If the piece is going fast enough, this might be a good time to invest in learning double tonguing.
John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: tiagocunha
Date: 2014-04-26 21:31
Thank you all, actually double tonguing would be a nice skill to learn, need to see some tutorials...
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: donald
Date: 2014-04-27 05:06
there are quite a few overtures by Mendelssohn, which one are you asking about?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: cigleris
Date: 2014-04-27 16:51
Try taking a look at the original version of this piece the Nocturno Op 24
Peter Cigleris
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: clarinetist04
Date: 2014-04-27 22:28
The Baermann Staccato Exercise is good for practicing staccato...shocking, I know, seeing it's a staccato exercise. It can be found in the back of the Baermann Celebrated Method.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-04-28 01:18
Best way to start I have EVER seen courtesy Michael Rusinek of Pittsburgh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVRgKs5t86A
.........Paul Aviles
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2014-04-28 20:28
OK, I'LL say something relevant to the original post.
The difficulty of playing the staccatos clearly isn't altered by looking at alternative scorings. But it may help Tiago to realise that the predominant feature consists of sequences of one quaver plus two semiquavers. There are no extended staccato passages consisting entirely of semiquavers in this piece.
If then you play with strong support – that means, for a given dynamic of playing, that your abdominal muscles are flexed to a significantly greater extent than they would be if your diaphragm weren't involved – then it's possible to START each pair of semiquavers without the tongue, involving the tongue only in STOPPING each semiquaver. The passage then becomes 'ud-ud-uh, ud-ud-uh,...' etc, and you can see that the tongue/reed contact (the 'd') occurs only twice each cycle.
Greater speed is then feasible, even without using double-tonguing.
It's important to keep abdominal/back effort constant throughout this – you don't want to 'huff' at the beginning of each pair of semiquavers. Rather, the diaphragm relaxes suddenly to allow the beginning of the first of each pair to occur cleanly. Then the tongue performs the other two interruptions, and the diaphragm closes off the quaver (the 'h' in the representation of the passage above) to be ready for the next pair of semiquavers.
Tony
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Tom I.
Date: 2014-05-01 21:36
Attachment: mendelssohn.png (2k)
Tony,
I'm just an interested third party, never played the Mendelssohn Overture but I want to ask a couple clarifying questions to make sure I understand what you're saying. I've attached an image to this post. Does this clearly represent what you're suggesting?
What happens after each eighth note/quaver before the start of the next sixteenth note/semiquaver? If I understand you correctly and the air pressure stays constant, and you also don't stop the eighth note/quaver with the tongue, how do you achieve a separation between the eighth notes on the downbeats and the sixteenths on the offbeats? What actual action, if any, does the "h" in "ududuh" represent?
I think I'm just asking you to explain more clearly the role of the diaphragm and the abdominals in a passage like this because I'm not sure I totally get it yet, and whenever someone tells me to do something with my diaphragm I instinctively check if I've still got my wallet. Maybe what I'm wondering is what actual actions you would perform, how it would feel from the inside to do this.
Post Edited (2014-05-01 21:43)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: cigleris
Date: 2014-05-01 22:29
Tom,
I think what Tony is possibly referring to is a breath attack. This is a good method for repeated passages such as this. William Tell overture 'Finale' and many others.
Peter Cigleris
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
