The Clarinet BBoard

Re: Rose Etude 25 M 1-23

Author: kdk  Date:   2014-11-06 03:55 The first thing you need to take care of is that you're playing on a responsive reed. There's a lot of air in the sound that says you and your reed are fighting with each other. That causes a lot of inflexibility in your playing and will make it hard to phrase with any real shape. The reed is also causing squeaks. I would avoid those swells in the long notes that are especially evident near the beginning. They don't contribute anything to the line - they tend in fact to draw attention away from it. You need to find where the phrases go and direct your sound to those places. For example, swelling the Eb in the first bar minimizes the importance of the D as the line descends. Then you swell again on the C in bar 2, so the perfectly balanced arc of that first phrase instead has two bumps in it that the composer (whoever he was) almost certainly didn't intend. Then the quarter notes at the end of bar 2, which only begin a new line that draws you all the way to the B-natural in bar 4, instead become the loudest notes in the phrase. You should think more about line throughout the etude. It isn't just a question of adding dynamic changes here and there (like the swells on the long notes) but one of knowing where you're going, where the tension builds and releases and making the sound do what the phrase asks. I don't know what edition you're using. Some of the slurs you played aren't what's in the original (Carl Fischer) edition that I'm looking at. That doesn't matter so much unless your county adjudication has rules insisting on a specific edition. If there is a rule like that, make sure you have the right edition and follow the specific markings. Mine, for example, has definite p, f and mf markings that aren't coming out in your playing. And, to your specific question, I'd say yes, you should do the articulation as written but more clearly. Part of the reason those two bars are difficult for you is that you're out of breath by then. One other thing you need to do with these etudes in general is decide where you're going to breathe and practice with those breaths. Although it's violin music (they can breathe while they play), this etude is fairly breath-friendly with half notes and even phrase-ending quarters that give you time to get breaths in. But that long passage of eighth notes right before your clip ends doesn't give you any of those places, so, if you can't do it without a breath, plan a place where you will interrupt the rhythm a little to get a real breath so that you don't have to break down and breath every couple of beats because you've run out of air. Find a place you can get to reliably that isn't too far from the half note after the rit (bar 22) and then practice the phrase the same way every time. Don't leave breaths to chance. Good luck with it. Keep working. Karl

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Re: Rose Etude 25 M 1-23

Author: kdk  Date:   2014-11-06 11:52 locke9342 wrote: > Yeah, the breath problem I knew about and it's something I am > working on. I don't really have a lot of air so I usually have > to breath a lot; do you think I should sacrifice tone and use a > softer reed so I can play longer or just do it on the reed > strength I've been using? You may be short of breath because your sound is so breathy. You're wasting a lot of air. If you could get rid of the sound of air rushing through the mouthpiece, I'm not sure I'd call it a sacrifice. I can't tell from listening to your recording if your reeds are too hard or if only this one is badly out of balance, but the reed you used is certainly not vibrating efficiently, and it seems from the squeaks as though it's hard to start a tone with it. So I think you'd gain a lot from experimenting a little with reeds. Try the next softer strength and see if it clears the sound up. If you have the time before the audition and you can afford it, try some different brands. The Pilgerstorfers are good but maybe a little pricey. You might start with whatever you're now using, but in the next lower strength. Do you have a clarinet teacher? Karl

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