Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2014-08-16 18:21
Karl wrote:Quote:
JonTheReeds wrote:
> My idea is that by concentrating on the index finger, and
> ‘leading’ with it, that will help all fingers to come up at
> the same time
Well, I guess ultimately the question is: does it? I've got two or three things to say; but the first one is that in my experience, practising is best separated from playing. So, you don't necessarily practise DOING the thing that you want to achieve. Indeed, sometimes, it helps to practise the opposite of what you want.
So how that relates to Karl and Jon's interaction here is that: even if Jon's idea 'works', then still, if Jon needs to think about his index finger every time he plays that particular bit, he needs to get rid of that 'need'.
That's best done at the workbench. The idea is that when he comes back to his playing, the problem simply isn't there; that he's recalibrated his timing so that what he imagines 'just comes out', naturally.
The second thing to say is that, at the workbench, I find that I need to make the problem both smaller and bigger; sometimes both at the same time, in different directions:-)
So, one way of making it smaller would be to raise each RH finger independently, playing the while. That produces some non-notes, as when you just raise RH1 by itself. But, that doesn't matter. It can even help you notice whether you're changing your blowing as you try to solve a fingering problem, which can sometimes happen.
Then, you could make that smaller thing larger by waggling that one finger up and down, again blowing all the time. (You could play dotted rhythms, too.)
When you've done that with all 3 fingers other than RH2, chain them together. Try playing them faster, too. In that way, you're PRACTISING, at some point, the 'dirty' bit of fingering you wanted to avoid in the first place.
The third thing I have to say is that the particular bit you're talking about actually CAN'T BE PLAYED at different speeds. You can't go between just TWO notes faster or slower. (If, say, both G# and B are short, then the transition can SOUND fast; but the transition itself is the same as when they're longer.)
That may have been what Paul was dimly realising in the shouty, lay-down-the-law post of his I took exception to.
Anyhow, the point is that it's worth investigating a slightly longer chunk of what you're trying to play. The problem, as Karl also suggests, may not be where you think it is.
Karl wrote:
>> Overly tense, [your fingers] tend to let go and move at different times depending on how hard they're each individually gripping the clarinet. So, one thing to do is try to release the intensity of your overall grip to release the extra, unnecessary tension.>>
I'd look at that in a slightly different way. It's true that unnecessary tension can be counterproductive, particularly in fast playing.
But it's also true that NECESSARY tension is, well, NECESSARY.
If a finger needs to be raised and immediately return, then a degree of muscular opposition in that finger is required. If you don't have it, then you won't be able to perform the movement fast enough.
I myself use what you might call, 'over-relaxed' playing – where you hardly touch the keys – in order to see where my timing may be off in moderate speed playing. I know I can FORCE evenness at a moderate tempo; but that fails at higher speeds. If I practice 'over-relaxed', then the unevennesses make themselves apparent, and I can devise exercises to recalibrate my timing in those bits.
So, maximal relaxation is not my goal per se, as I've written here before. I believe that Russianoff knew that too, and would sometimes pull a clarinet out of the hands of a 'too-relaxed' student to make his point dramatically.
Enough.
Tony
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