 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: jrain54
Date: 2017-02-20 14:46
Hi all,
I keep getting an altissimo A rather than the E to come out when I start right on the note....
I've been able to get the E before, but haven't played so high in a while... not sure if it is just going to have to take some practice, or whether there is some particular way to position my embouchure..?
Thanks!
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Author: elec
Date: 2017-02-20 14:53
try less mouthpiece and less bite. the higher A is just a harmonic of the E produced by stronger air flow (i think) thats why the A is almost the same fingering as the E (except with the left hand F/C key which helps to produce the note)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-02-20 17:59
Ho does it work if you play G5 (space above the staff) and open the throat G#/Ab key? If there's nothing wrong with the instrument, that produces an E that tends to be more stable and can give you a sense of how the note feels when it's coming out easily.
In my experience one frequent cause of an unstable E6 is unbalanced reeds. A hard or soft spot in the grain coming into the reed tip causes the reed to want to subdivide into one extra segment. Since A (it's actually a very flat Bb) is the next harmonic available, an A6 speaks instead of E6. So the first thing to check is whether or not your reeds are balanced.
Too much tension, coming from extra effort being put into producing the altissimo notes, can cause the same effect. Your best approach is to not change anything about the way you try to produce the sound from C5 through the notes above it. Don't change your embouchure and don't change the inside of your mouth. Keep air flowing, which sometimes is difficult to do mentally if you're nervous about what's going to come out. Changing your tongue position *slightly* from an "OH" position to an "EEE" can help, but if you exaggerate it, it can actually encourage A6 rather than E6.
Of course, it could be a leak under a closed pad somewhere higher on the clarinet than your LH third finger. So, you might have the clarinet checked (or check it yourself if you know how). A quick suction test may not find tiny leaks, but it will find anything non-trivial going on. If it's a leak you might even find the lower registers easier to play once it's fixed. Also, dirt or another obstruction in the LH 1st finger hole (the one you open to vent to altissimo notes) can cause instability.
One last consideration is your mouthpiece. To test whether or not that's causing your problem, you'd need to try different ones, so it's probably the last thing to consider after you've tried the easier solutions.
Karl
Karl
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2017-02-20 18:16
Most likey a voicing problem caused either by your tongue going to high or choking in your throat. Try singing a high note voicing an ah sound and then go up about a 4th, (her comes the bride). You should notice how the back of your throat "tightens" or closes. Singing the higher way will produce the A instead of the E when you play. In any case, getting a more opened feeling in your throat by having a bit more of an OH or OW feeling and less of an EE will probably help. I disagree with Karl on that but only you can determine by trying. In my opinion to much EE closes off the air column as you go high.
Another way to try is to begin the high E purposely playing it slightly flat so you relax everything more. Once you beging feeling comfortable with getting it consistent then begin bringing it into pitch without pinching.
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
Post Edited (2017-02-20 18:19)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-02-20 19:36
Ed Palanker wrote:
> In any case, getting a more
> opened feeling in your throat by having a bit more of an OH or
> OW feeling and less of an EE will probably help. I disagree
> with Karl on that but only you can determine by trying. In my
> opinion to much EE closes off the air column as you go high.
Yes, more "EEE" will produce A6 instead of E6. I only mention the tongue position because too much "AW" or "OH" *can* simply make the note feel unstable - in which case control is lost and anything may come out. I guess which direction to try changing depends a little on where you're starting. So it needs to be somewhere in the middle and it has, as Ed says, to be found by experimenting. I imagine the result would vary from mouthpiece to mouthpiece as well as player to player. I've certainly found some mouthpieces easier to control than others in that note range.
Karl
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Author: John Peacock
Date: 2017-02-20 22:56
This can be a problem, and I always find myself watching out for that E even when I'm feeling pretty confident that it will work. I believe it is genuinely one of the less stable notes on the instrument (on mine, anyway). A few things that I find help make it more stable:
* half-hole the LH index finger, rather than having that hole fully open
* consciously relax the embouchure a little
The main thing is really to have the feeling of the E in your head before you play it - that way the embouchure shape and tongue position will be right by instinct (and I would say I've never had much success with thinking consciously about EE, AW etc. - I think your tongue does these things automatically once you know how it feels to hit the note).
To develop that feeling, a good exercise is to reverse the problem: start on the A, and relax down to the E. So it's as much about learning how not to get A as learning how to get E. Another one that helps is to find a stable upwards transition. Somehow, going to E from the A below always seems to work easily for me, whereas going from the G needs more care.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2017-02-22 18:11
I'll add one more thing. How do most peope finger a high E. The answer is the same way as they finger the A though the A works as illustrated below. When I go from E to A, I simply "voice" it higher. I don't change the fingering. If I want to slur it, as, in a passage in the Walton Facade, I slightly slide my 2nd LH finger half off of the second hole for a slur as I voice the A higher. My point is again, it's in the voicing, singing the A higher than singing the E lower using the throat and tongue. If you go back and forth between them you will learn to "feel" how to play each note in time.
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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