 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Casual Clarinets
Date: 2016-05-10 20:46
I am being tasked to scale up in the upper altissamo to a c and am struggling to get it to respond every time. Any fingering, equipment or general advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2016-05-10 21:39
See the fingering chart associated with this site: http://wfg.woodwind.org/clarinet/
Keep tongue arched to promote vibrancy.
Sit up straight to promote vibrancy lower down in your body. I.e., have the lung cavity slightly stretched. (You are your sound.)
Don't bite or jut the lower jaw, or otherwise strain. Nothing either rigid or limp. The right embouchure will allow everything to vibrate naturally. Said embouchure also allows good natural sound in all registers. The difference between "it works" and "it doesn't work" is narrower in the altissimo, so it may take some patience to discover the picky combination that works for you and your external equipment.
A good, well-balanced reed is necessary. A slightly stiffer one, or at least not a weaker one, seems to help.
Include altissimo in your regular scale and long tone practice and noodling around. Scales, thirds, octaves, any tunes in your head.
Work for a sweet sound, not just a piercing one. There's no point to any notes except to make music.
I'm doing pretty well these days up through E7, and include F & F#7 in daily practice. This isn't because I'm especially good; I've just patiently climbed the register in practice every day for some years now.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2016-05-12 16:12
Fingerings help, I have several suggestions on my website too. The mouthpiece reed combination is a big thing. I can more easily play the high notes on one mouthpiece and have a lot of trouble with another. Too soft reed is no good, to hard is no good. To much pinch is no good, not enough is no good. Taking more mouthpiece in your mouth helps but too much doesn't work either.
Experiment with the tongue placement and well as lip pressure, just do pinch so much that it hurts. Use a good amount of air pressure but don't force. See how easy it is? Work up one note at a time, don't try to play high B and C if the G and A are not secured first. It's a combination of everything.
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2016-05-12 16:58
I've written volumes here about my high B-C struggles, and there are several old threads that pre-date me on bboard as well. Reading them will give you good and useless ideas, unfortunately I have not fully sorted out which is which, but I am mostly in business on those notes (found in many places in my personal improvisations).
I have found the following exercise posted by Ken Shaw on 2001-05-22 useful, so I'll repeat it here.
"Have you tried the swab-in-the-bell exercise shown in the Leblanc Bell magazine a few issues back? I've been using it lately with good results.
You stuff a cotton swab up the bell, finger middle B, take plenty of mouthpiece and blow (hard). The lowest note you get is 4th space Eb, then the Bb above, then Eb, G and Bb. You move from one note to the other by varying your tongue, palate and jaw position. Double lip helps, or at least a lot of upper lip pressure downward on the top of the mouthpiece.
When you get these going well, you take out the swab, blow the same way and get volume like a hurricane. The process is that you can't make the stopped overtones without lots of support, taking more mouthpiece and loosening your embouchure to let the reed vibrate.
You can't play like that all the time, of course, but it really does open things up and reveal new possibilities, particularly for volume."
Somebody here had an unplayable clarinet returned to him after service by an angry parent, only to find a swab in the bell. So do remember to remove it.
Good luck!
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
Post Edited (2016-05-12 17:07)
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Author: Mojo
Date: 2016-05-12 17:03
I think working on the overtone series on sax helped my voicing in general on sax and clarinet. You can work on overtones on clarinet too but they are wider apart than on sax so there are less of them to fine tune your voicing control.
On clarinet, finger a low C then without using an octave key play the G a twelfth above then go to the high E with the same fingering (and an A above that if you can get it). Then try fingering notes above and below the C and playing overtones. Be aware of the feeling in the back of your throat as you play these.
As you get better at these exercises, the regular fingerings just pop out the altissimo notes so much easier.
MojoMP.com
Mojo Mouthpiece Work LLC
MojoMouthpieceWork@yahoo.com
Post Edited (2016-05-12 17:07)
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2016-05-12 17:06
Ed, you said "just do pinch so much that it hurts." I suspect you meant "do not". I don't think I pinch at all, unless it's become too ingrained a habit to notice and I do it all the time regardless of register. - which I doubt, since I use double lip and that would likely signal me in no uncertain terms.
Sometimes I catch myself changing how much lower lip I take over the teeth, using less for the higher altissimo notes. Maybe that makes a firmer surface against the reed. Maybe that isn't necessary either; still working on it. I've got an idea that one embouchure should work for any range, but maybe that's a little unrealistic.
I'll note that my A clarinet can play higher more easily than my Bb, and some fingerings work better on one instrument than another. I use the same setup and barrel on both.
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Author: BflatNH
Date: 2016-05-12 20:56
If you can more reliably reach C7 early in your practice, the problem may be water accumulating between the reed and the side rails which seem to damp out the highest notes. If so, take the reed off and remove the water.
Balancing the reed is very important, read the '45 Degree' thread nearby.
Also, it seems that some reeds go well up to G6 or Bb6 but not higher; I have luck with Gonzalez GD and VD WhiteMaster up to C7 and sometimes D7.
Post Edited (2016-05-12 20:58)
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