 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Aly Imam
Date: 2015-09-02 15:45
hey
i played clarinet for 2 years and i feel that i'm not good as i should be so i want to practice hard and my level is too low , i'm going to practice for 6 hours per day and i'm looking for the best schedule and books to improve my level , and i don't know how to practice scales right so please could any one help me ?
Aly inam
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2015-09-02 17:04
How old are you? What else do you do during a "normal" day?
Long practice time is not necessarily a key to improving. Shorter but targeted practice time will do more to improve a person's playing than long hours with nothing more specific than "get better" as a goal. Regardless of your age (you may not like this advice) a knowledgeable teacher can do more to guide you toward realistic and well-sequenced goals than people on the web who can't hear you play and don't know your background or personality.
Any book that contains music you will practice should be useful. A book filled with music that bores you or is too difficult for you at your current stage of development so that you don't want to play it is useless. The standard ones are standard for a reason - but useful advice will depend on where you are developmentally.
When you practice scales, the first goal has to be to learn the notes with the correct fingerings, starting out with the ones with the smallest key signatures and moving forward.
In my own opinion (often to my students' frustration), scales ought to be learned from memory. I don't even like the initial learning to be done from printed scales. Learn the key signature, play slowly, and play the scale by ear and by structure (if you can sing a major - do-re-mi - scale, you have a framework already in your ear). As you work through it, you will gradually start to transfer from thinking through each scale to muscle memory. The scales you practice should always be played with the best tone and legato you can produce. Later, after the notes are learned and your fingers are under control, you can add varying articulation (tonguing) patterns, dynamic variations and other musical effects to make the basic scales more flexible and varied.
But, again and above all, find a teacher whose playing you respect and who seems able to communicate suggestions and advice specific to your playing strengths and weaknesses.
Karl
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Author: Aly Imam
Date: 2015-09-02 17:16
i'm 20 years old , working and practicing
i study music in the college so i have a teacher but now he isn't available and yea i practice scales with articulations and i can sing the major scales but i can't see any progress i stopped for a while but now i practice daily but i fell that i'm not good as enough so i tried to put a topic here
Aly inam
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Author: Nessie1
Date: 2015-09-02 17:17
Hi Aly,
A couple of things strike me about your post.
First - all of us continue to learn throughout our times a players. It's great if you realise that you have some way to go before you can achieve what you want.
Second - As Karl says, you don't mention your age - but 6 hours a day practice sounds a lot for most people. I wouldn't jump anything like this if you haven't been doing as much before. How about trying three spells of 45 minutes each per day? Some of each session should be spent reinforcing whatever you have done in the previous sessions - eg if you worked on a particular passage in a piece, can you now play it easily or at least better?
Third - Your original post doesn't mention what your situation is about a teacher - I would agree that it would be a good idea to find someone good if you can.
Finally - you ask about scales. I was taught that the problem with scales on the clarinet is all connected to the fact that it overblows the twelfth - therefore every octave is different to the last, unlike other woodwinds. Therefore my teacher taught me to "name and finger" the scale before attempting to play it.
Hope this gives you some idea.
Good luck
Vanessa.
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Author: Aly Imam
Date: 2015-09-02 17:24
ok i'll mention my problems here
first : i feel there is leak in the sound and i can't recognize the problem in the embouchure or the reeds that i use mouth piece Vandorne M 13 , the reeds 3.5
second : i know all the scales but i can't play it right there is a leak between the notes and a fingering problems
third : yup i played an etude and now i can't play it as well as i was
and i'm 20 years old , i have a lot of free time
Aly inam
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2015-09-02 19:05
Aly, having begun playing clarinet (if I'm reading your posts correctly) at age 18, you are probably dealing with what most of my adult students have over the years - too high expectations and too rigid an approach to playing. My adult students always want to know what the "right" way is to do things. Most children, when they start to do anything, including playing an instrument, simply find the most comfortable way and don't usually care about "right" until someone tells them what they're doing is "wrong." If (again, if I'm reading your posts correctly), you've only been playing for two years, you have a good deal of muscle training to do and trying to do it with extended practice sessions may be counter-productive. Fatigue can make you distort things and bad habits can result. So, my first piece of advice - always with the caveat that I don't know you or your playing - is to relax a little, concentrate on enjoying and building on your strengths and trying to identify weaknesses in as specific terms as possible.
When I read "improve my level" in your posts, it makes me even more certain that you're not sure what it is that you need to improve, just that it isn't "good enough." If the meaning of getting better is too vague, you can't see clearly what to change. Changes need to be made in increments - fix specific problems individually and your general level will improve as a result. Focusing only on your general level may keep you from making any movement at all.
You mention a "leak in the sound." Do you mean an air leak around the mouthpiece? Air leaking through your nose as you play? Air leaking somewhere around a pad (which would cause squeaks and response problems)? Can you describe this leak more clearly? Whatever is causing it, long practice sessions aren't likely to fix it. If you're more clear in your own mind about what the leak is and what it's doing to your playing, you will be closer to fixing it with deliberate changes, not just time spent. If you can be clearer in another post about the leak, someone here may be able to suggest a way to stop it.
Tell us more. Have you played other instruments? Played anything before you began with clarinet? Are you "majoring" in music or in something else? Is your teacher unavailable because of scheduling or illness? Is he/she available through any kind of direct arrangement outside of the college's schedule?
Karl
Karl
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Author: Aly Imam
Date: 2015-09-02 19:29
the air leaking in the sound like there is no sound at all in some notes and i checked the clarinet pads , no i just play clarinet and my teacher isn't available because he works in the orchestra , and ii thought when i work hard i would have gained more but it seems wrong now but tried to check some online lessons and if any one knows any teacher i could connect with through skype it would be great
and you are right i don't know what's the right way to practice right , i know what i need to improve but i don't know how to do it on my own
i hope that helped you
Aly inam
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-09-02 20:59
Two general ideas:
First, Itzhak Perlman stated that three hours a day should be sufficient, and that is actually only 3 fifty minute sessions with 2 ten minute breaks.
The other idea is that learning the technical stuff (scales, arpeggios etc), needs to be done S-L-O-W-L-Y. By that I mean (and it is not an arbitrary tempo) to chose a speed at which you can play whatever you are learning PERFECTLY.
...........Paul Aviles
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Author: Aly Imam
Date: 2015-09-03 14:14
thanks for helping now i fan start to make a good practice session
Aly inam
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