 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Slowoldman
Date: 2017-02-23 21:57
I wonder how you all choose to warm up before a performance. Run scales and arpeggios to get air and fingers going? Rehearse troublesome parts of your repertoire? (Or is that too much like cramming for an exam, and doesn't work?) All of the above?
What is your personal routine once you walk into the concert venue, to help get ready and "psyched" for the performance?
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2017-02-23 22:35
I thought the entire purpose of the warm up was just to try to show off on totally unrelated excerpts/exercises in an attempt to intimidate those sitting in lesser chairs? (Things I learned in college...) Hahaha!
(Yes, offered in jest)
Fuzzy
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-02-23 22:59
Slowoldman wrote:
> I wonder how you all choose to warm up before a performance.
> Run scales and arpeggios to get air and fingers going?
> Rehearse troublesome parts of your repertoire? (Or is that too
> much like cramming for an exam, and doesn't work?) All of the
> above?
>
For me, some of all of the above, mostly.
A couple of scales, a few improvised licks ("noodling") to get my mouth in gear, review some of the passage work in the pieces coming up in the concert (not to get better at them, just to have them fresh in my mind), a passage or two from an upcoming concert if I have something I need to work on. Then, if I've made the mistake of going out too early I sit with nothing much to do but more of the same or yack with other players around me.
Mostly, I'm trying to do three things - get my fingers acclimated to the instrument (they're sometimes a little stiff when I first start), get my mouth acclimated to the reed, and make sure the reed itself is working. This last is less of an issue with the Legeres that I've been using recently, but I find they still react to conditions in the hall - the same reeds don't feel optimal every day.
I once played in the pit for a conductor who absolutely forbade any noodling from the show we were playing - he didn't like having us previewing the music for the audience. Since I wanted the paycheck I had been promised, I gave in.
Karl
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Author: Wes
Date: 2017-02-23 23:55
It is often necessary to get the cold clarinet warmer so that it will be up to pitch when the rehearsal or concert starts.
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Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2017-02-24 01:36
As I get older, I find a good warm up is becoming more important. Usually I play some quiet scales that require some mental attention to get myself and my fingers, embouchure, etc centered for the task at hand. My clarinets take about 10 minutes to be ready to play well in tune. Then about 10 minutes before the performance starts, I stop playing and in a sense, meditate on the music, thinking through what has to be done for particular passages, where I need to adjust for intonation, places where the conductor might throw in a surprise and so on. This is while everyone else is sawing, beating, or honking away. A fake "quiet time" for me.
Most times I will do the same during the intermission. I think I play better when I do my little "centering" before performances.
John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2017-02-24 06:58
Just a couple of weeks ago, I played an important concert with hardly any warmup; we were not able to get on the performance stage until way late. The gig was out of town, in a strange hall, and the program was challenging. I felt rushed and was not 100% happy with my reed. A little more time was all I really needed.
So this brings me to what I do in the 15-20 minutes before a rehearsal as well as before any concert.
First of all, I am always early and often the first or second person to arrive. I need time to make sure my bass clarinet has not decided to get pesky. Also, I want to try several reeds and have been know to switch to a backup MP at times. Then I play a little bit (scales to three octaves, arpeggios, try alternate fingerings, and once the instrument is warm get the tuner out...). The finally, I try a couple of the easy, melodic section, do a little tonguing, than a few long tones with breathing, and I'm ready.
When I think back on it, I have been doing same routine (although I never thought of it as a routine) for a very long time. Works for me.
HRL
PS Pre-concert is no time for wood-shedding.
Post Edited (2017-02-25 07:35)
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2017-02-25 06:32
Scales in circle of fifths (page 123 of Klose), and arpeggios (major and minor) in circle of fifths. For the arpeggios, the page I use has each arpeggio through at least two octaves twice before switching to minor, so I play the first one slurred, and the second time through the octaves I tongue them.
I rarely look at the music I'm going to play. If so, it might be one measure or so that still feels awkward just to kind of "get the awkwardness" out of the fingers, but I usually feel pretty warmed up with scales and arpeggios. Usually play them around 80bpm, working on circular breathing (have YET to find a place where I need to in actual music, but if it does ever happen, I aim to be prepared!). Takes less than ten minutes and I feel pretty nice and loose after it.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: g81gr
Date: 2017-02-25 10:34
From my point of view the warm up is something really personal... You have to know yourself, what is the first thing that gives you up in a performance??? Do your finger get tired firstly?? is it your embouchure?? your diaphram?? your mind?? your reed?? Feel the stage, breath the air, feel the moisture and the temperature, and then you decide what to do.
Here in Crete, we do a lot of outdoor appearances, so every time the needs are different... We have a lot of fluctuations in moisture, wind and temperature even during the event... So, in a cold day, i do mostly finger warm up, in a hot day mostly diaphram. Also in our case the moisture is an issue espesially in wooden clarinets, so, if we have a lot of moisture i bring the plastic clarinet (backun alpha) otherwise the wooden one (yamaha 450) or in some cases i bring them both... Once we played in a square (extra hot day and really high moisture) and no one could maintain their clarinet in tune, only the ones with the plastic one...Brass didn't have that much trouble...
All in all, i think that clarinet warm up is more something of been prepared for what you are about to find in the stage than arrive early and play some notes. But everyone is different and feels different about a live event.
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2017-02-25 11:47
Long low notes to warm up the horns and to get the embouchure right. Halls suck, even the same hall you always play in. The reeds are often different. I'm a reed freak so they have to be right.
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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Author: wkleung
Date: 2017-02-25 18:10
Just curious: what is the quickest way of warming up the body of the clarinet? Playing a low E, or a twelveth above?
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