 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: MrBolodenka
Date: 2014-09-28 08:56
I played the clarinet back in middle school, about 10 years ago, and I wanted to pick it back up. I've been playing for a bit over the past day or so since I got my clarinet, and it's starting to come back pretty fast. The long term problem I'm seeing here is that I can't read sheet music - I never could, even after 3 years of playing in the band; and somehow I was first chair.
I've got half of Take Five memorized since I started playing yesterday, now working on La Musica Notturna Delle Strade Di Madrid No. 6, (4:13 - 6:33 in the full song) but I don't know how far playing by ear will get me; even though I managed to get through band 10 years ago. I know guitarists don't need to be able to read sheet music, but I'm more concerned about my situation with the clarinet.
How will not being able to read sheet music impact my ability to perform on the clarinet, and by how much?
- Mr.B
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: MrBolodenka
Date: 2014-09-28 10:31
This is mostly unrelated, but I have a severe underbite (the only option to fix it is to break and reset) and when I've practiced, albeit for a few minutes, my bottom lip is almost completely numb from my lip covering my teeth due to an improper form. Ive read a little bit on it, and I'm slightly worried that I wont be able to make the right shape with my mouth because moving my jaw back (as I assume that I must) causes immediate discomfort, which turns into rapidly increasing pain.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: acermak
Date: 2014-09-28 21:59
Is your problem related to reading music about reading the pitches or getting the rhythm from the notes? I had the latter problem and my instructor and I worked on it for around 6 months tapping the foot (on the beat) and clapping hands (on the divisions) to the patterns in Reed's "Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer." This did fix my problem a lot plus it got me used to using a metronome.
If your problem is pitch reading, then you may have to bite the bullet and just learn them. They do make sheet music for beginning pianists that have the note names in them (plus the lilypond engraver has a setting for that, too, if you want to write your own sheet music). You might try that at the start until you get more comfortable.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-09-29 03:07
I made up some flash cards for students with the idea being that they would just learn the position of the notes by rote. Start off though getting some key positions down: The note right in the middle of the staff (third line) is B; the note sitting on the staff is G; the note which is on the first ledger line below the staff is C.
Once you have anchors, you can just figure other notes out from there. But the rote memorization is important to move forward. From there the next thing I'd suggest is to know (by rote memorization) the notes of each triad. For example: a C triad is comprised of C-E-G; a G triad is G-B-D (and triads are just stacked notes which is line-to-line-to-line or space-to-space-to space).
It takes some work (like learning your times tables) but trust me (as someone who had this handicap for years) it REALLY holds you back if you can't read music.
That said: listening CAN NOT be overrated so you may be much better than you think!
..........Paul Aviles
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: BartHx
Date: 2014-09-29 05:50
What are you planning to do with your playing? If you are planning to play with others, you need to learn to read music. That's the only way you can all be playing the same piece at the same time. You may notice that with an ad lib, only one person plays it at a time. However, they still need to stay in the appropriate key, especially if the rest of the group is providing background chords. To get you going, a teacher would be well worth the investment.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: MrBolodenka
Date: 2014-09-29 08:34
Acermak: It's not that I have an issue with reading the pitch or rhythm, I just can't read sheet music at all. I couldn't do it in the 3 years I played in band.
Paul: That's what I thought, in terms of the inability to read being a problem. I'll start working on your method, hopefully it won't take me too terribly long.
BartHx: I plan on playing solo. I'm doing this for fun, not planning on getting into anything such as a competition or duets/trios/groups etc. Even so, I need to learn, as Paul stated.
I'll look up more exercises tomorrow, thanks guys.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: SpiritTalker
Date: 2014-09-29 21:49
Solo or Group, personally, I think being able to read the music you are playing is important. The two main reasons (in your case) that I can see are: 1) rather than limiting yourself to only what you can hear from recordings (or memory), a whole world of other music is opened to you to learn if you could read the sheet music for it. You may even find new pieces you love that normally you would not have known to exist. 2) the ability to read music will allow you to work on exercises to strengthen your skills (fingers, embouchure, range, rhythm, etc.) As a student I always found them tedious and boring but now, as an adult, I now recognize how important they are for development of a player and even enjoy playing them a little bit! (but maybe that is because I don't have to please my clarinet professor anymore or ready myself for juries....ugh!) I may be a little bias because I'm a music teacher (though currently not teaching) but honestly if you could discover the reason you have had such a difficult time learning to read music you may be able to overcome it. I suggest getting a-hold of a beginner clarinet book and starting yourself from scratch. Of course you will be able to fly through the fingerings and such but associating those fingerings with their corresponding notes on the staff, as well as their notated rhythms and such, will help you by leaps and bounds. Good luck! 
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: davyd
Date: 2014-09-29 23:50
How were you able to get through three years of band without being able to read music? Did you play by ear? Or did you listen to other players and imitate and memorize what they were doing?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: MrBolodenka
Date: 2014-09-30 03:53
Davyd: Whenever the band teacher introduced a new song for us to play, he would play it on a CD Player so we could understand how it should sound. I don't know why he did this.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Bill G
Date: 2014-09-30 04:28
If you have been trying to read piano sheet music on clarinet you may have been confused because the notes you played on clarinet did not sound the same as the notes played on piano. You have to play a full step higher to get the same pitch as the note written for piano.
Bill G
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
