 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: mmatisoff
Date: 2016-10-25 19:07
I play in a band and an ensemble (new at it). The two problems I keep having are 1) finding where I am in the music when I get lost, and 2) keeping the tempo as the other musicians play. I use a metronome at home whenever I practice. It's easy when I play alone. 1/8th, 16th, triplets, etc. Put me in a band situation, though, and I get lost within 8 to 10 measures, usually when you have long rests (multiple measures, between 8 and 60 [we play one piece in the community band where I don't come in until 60 beats later). I use play alongs to practice jazz and blues. It helps. But the is particularly problematic. In the ensemble, we only play atonal music, which is entire new and confusing to me.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: sfalexi
Date: 2016-10-25 21:10
Keeping up or slowing down with an ensemble is just something that has to be done. I've fought and fought to keep everyone together, but sometimes I have to concede that it's better to play the wrong rhythms, TOGETHER, than to unsuccesfully have some people play the right rhythms, but everyone be apart. No, it's not ideal, but it's a real world situation. Some people have more difficulty with rhythms or meters, and fight as you might, at some point you have to move on and work on things you KNOW they can accomplish correctly.
As for the counting, if your music is atonal (and I'm assuming mixed meter or just not easily counted), your best bet is to see if you can look at the score or really focus on rehearsal on listening around you. For most of my music, I rely on audio cues to tell me how far along in the rests I am. For example, if I have multiple sections of rests, I'll take one rehearsal and count VERY carefully, and if there's some interesting thing that sticks out or sings out in the music close to the end of my rests, I write it in my music.
For example, assume 64 bars of rest, but 16 bars before my entrance the trumpets enter, and 8 bars before my entrance, the trumpets play a key modulation. I'll write those in my music. Then when the rest comes up, I just sit back and enjoy the music. When I hear the trumpets come in I get ready and listen specifically for the modulation. When the modulation comes in, I now only have to count 8 measures.
Without knowing what music you're playing, this is the best guess I can give. But for me, audio cues work much better than counting if the music doesn't lend itself well to easy counting.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: kdk
Date: 2016-10-25 21:27
In general that's part of what you learn from experience as you play in ensembles over time.
One reason it's easier when you play alone is that you can set a tempo for yourself that you can keep up with easily. In a group, someone else is setting the tempo.
Another reason is that when you practice with a metronome there is really no consequence if you get off beat or ahead or behind, so you may not be as aware when you and the metronome separate for short periods. The consequence when you lose the group pulse is much more obvious.
> I don't come in until 60 beats later.
(What follows assumes you meant 60 beats, literally. If you already do actually count measures, this may not be helpful.) If you're really counting *beats* in long rests, you should train yourself instead to count measures instead. It's easy enough to feel groups of beats (in each measure) without consciously counting each one, and the conductor's beat is a visual cue (the stick should go downward on the first beat of each measure and upward on the last). So count the rest by measures. Most of us learned at some point to mentally replace "1" of each bar with its number in the rest - e.g. "1-2-3-4, 2-2-3-4, 3-2-3-4, 4-2-3-4, etc. until you've reached the number of bars in the multiple rest. It may help to keep a count on your fingers as well - for long rests, I put my free hand (that isn't holding the clarinet) on my knee and put up one more finger for each measure. That way, my fingers are counting in fives, and I know something is wrong in my mental count if my fifth finger goes up and my count isn't divisible by five.
As you rehearse, you should make mental notes (and if you're allowed to mark your music, you should make a pencil marking) of when in a long rest other major instruments enter or any other events that you can use as "landmarks" to help you know where the band is. If your rest spans a couple of rehearsal marks (letters or numbers), there might be a major entrance or change of sound at one of the points marked by a letter or number. Mark a quick note in your part (e.g. "trumpets" or "PP" if until then has been loud) so you can confirm your count when you get there. If there are meter changes in your part, you will see them printed and you (hopefully) will see the changes in the conductor's beat pattern.
I'm wondering how at your stage of development you got involved in an ensemble that specializes in atonal music. But, the principles are similar. There is added difficulty in the fact that the harmonic cadences you can usually count on to help learn where you are are missing in truly atonal music. You have to find other "landmarks" to help keep your place.
Don't be discouraged. The only way to learn to play ensemble music is to do it.
Karl
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2016-10-25 22:39
One trouble with counting large numbers of rests is you start questioning yourself along the way: "did I already do 39?"
An acquaintance's first job after college was with an orchestra as "3rd clarinet and auxiliary percussion". In one piece he played the triangle. He had over a hundred bars of rest, followed by a single note, a solo.
At the performance, he counted with maniacal intensity, eyes on the conductor, ears carefully attuned. He counted right. As the solo approached, he raised the triangle, timed the conductor's cue perfectly, swung the little mallet - and missed the triangle completely. The conductor gave him a look.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: mmatisoff
Date: 2016-10-25 23:13
Thanks Alexi. I will take your and the others advice to heart. I play in our ensemble today and I almost got it right. Problem with atonal music is I listen for points where there are melody as cues are there is any melody.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: mmatisoff
Date: 2016-10-25 23:21
The atonal music just sort of happened. I went one day to "listen" to the school's new ensemble, and I was asked to join. I thought I was going to hear chamber music. I was honored (and a bit terrified) when he asked me to join.
I've only been playing clarinet for a little over a year-and-a-half. The instructor has actually commissioned someone to write us some atonal pieces to perform publicly. Today, we were practicing "sleepy clowns." I'm getting there. I just need landmarks as you noted.
In the band, the conductor just waves the baton up and down only accenting the downbeat. If anything, it makes things worse. It is, however, kind of funny to watch.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: kdk
Date: 2016-10-26 00:04
Philip Caron wrote:
> swung the little mallet - and missed
> the triangle completely.
Been there, done that myself. That's why there are percussionists - they usually don't miss.
Karl
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Bennett ★2017
Date: 2016-10-26 01:33
If it's any consolation, when I first joined a community band, after 30 seconds I didn't know whether we were on page 1 or page 2. Totally lost. Eventually it comes together. I still count long rests on my fingers; left hand for tens of digits, right hand (twice) for 1 to 9. Haven't had to use my toes in a long while.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Liquorice
Date: 2016-10-26 02:09
If the music is atonal, then hardly anybody (if anybody, least of all the composer or conductor) will notice if you get lost. Just keep playing with conviction and I'm sure everyone will love you.
-Internet clarification: the above post was written (only partly) tongue-in-cheek
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
