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 Rhapsody in Blue
Author: DSMUSIC1 
Date:   2015-12-12 19:48

A colleague just sent me a link to this article in classic FM on how to play the opening clarinet excerpt in Rhapsody in Blue.
My example is the last one. I am intentionally playing the gliss long and the entire excerpt at a slower tempo in the hopes that it will make it easier for someone to better hear, understand and dissect the excerpt. Above my excerpt it says; 'this is nuts" :)

http://www.classicfm.com/composers/gershwin/guides/clarinet-glissando-rhapsody-in-blue/#tBx50whsdPgOm0q5.97

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 Re: Rhapsody in Blue
Author: Chris P 
Date:   2015-12-12 20:10

http://www.classicfm.com/composers/gershwin/guides/clarinet-glissando-rhapsody-in-blue/#tBx50whsdPgOm0q5.97

I don't use any of those methods for this particular gliss - when I get to the upper register C# I take my thumb off but keep all the fingers held down for the C# as that can then be slid right up to the top C with the middle of the gliss helped by slowly raising and lowering LH finger 3 off and back onto its tonehole. Use the muscles in your lip, throat and tongue to do the gliss and with all playing, good air support is vital.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010

The opinions I express are my own.

Post Edited (2015-12-12 20:10)

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 Re: Rhapsody in Blue
Author: Mirko996 
Date:   2015-12-12 21:09

The first time isn't easy to make a good glissando.
A mode I use to learn the glissando is imitate, and listening a different clarinet player. A part a open mouthpiece could help you (and especially the cristal), you can do glissando without a very open mouthpiece or cristal. Stay for a some time and try and try.

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 Re: Rhapsody in Blue
Author: Chris P 
Date:   2015-12-13 02:35

You can also do this gliss on an Oehler system (with the covered RH2 fingerplate) and a plateaux clarinet as you don't always need to slide your fingers off the toneholes to do a gliss.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010

The opinions I express are my own.

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 Re: Rhapsody in Blue
Author: Lelia Loban 2017
Date:   2015-12-14 20:52

>The first time isn't easy to make a good glissando.>

For some of us, the hundred-and-first time isn't easy, either!

Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.

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 Re: Rhapsody in Blue
Author: MartyMagnini 
Date:   2015-12-15 00:05

Play a high "C", and try to voice it down a full octave. If you struggle, try to get a full octave from just your mouthpiece. When you can accomplish this, you're done with all the finger-sliding nonsense. Play up to the long B, remove all fingers, and slide up to the "C". Easy peasy of you don't let your brain get in the way - been doing it that way for years.

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 Re: Rhapsody in Blue
Author: Chris P 
Date:   2015-12-15 02:44

That's in essence what the upper C# fingering minus the thumb does - it gives the top C but for me it makes it easier to bend this note up and down by just under a full 8ve (either a diminished 8ve or Major 7th depending how you look at it).

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010

The opinions I express are my own.

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 Re: Rhapsody in Blue
Author: Tom Puwalski 
Date:   2015-12-15 18:53

I watched the RIB gliss fest on Classical Fm. The only one who comes close to playing it like the original recording is Dennis Strawley. I know on his you tube video, he stated that he was doing the gliss slower than he would normaly do to DEMO it. I am in complete agreement with how he does it. I would go further and say " if you're using your fingers to do the slide in the upper register you're doing it wrong". Unless you have a vice like grip on the mouthpiece with your embouchure, or are striving to play with the most "unflexable" sound you can get, bends and glisses aren't that hard to do.

But just for perspective I love to listen to original source here it is, the first recording made in 1922

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIr_WPcVDt8

Tom Puwalski

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 Re: Rhapsody in Blue
Author: Chris P 
Date:   2015-12-15 18:57

I think it's played way too seriously nowadays - some players really need to take their tie off!

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010

The opinions I express are my own.

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 Re: Rhapsody in Blue
Author: Ralph Katz 
Date:   2015-12-17 05:17

Yes no tie. But also you need to practice more than just this one gliss to gain flexibility. You will tense up if this is the only gliss you know.



Post Edited (2015-12-17 05:18)

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