 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: jrain54
Date: 2017-06-01 11:27
Hello all,
I am struggling at the moment to play the altissimo notes on my clarinet. I can manage a chromatic just fine up to altissimo G, but when I try to reach the notes (altissimo E and above...) on their own I am producing some sort of harmonic tone before actually managing to produce the desired note....
It would be great to get some on advice on what I can do to change this?
Thank you!
Jess
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: mproper2009
Date: 2017-06-01 18:37
What strength of reed are using you need to be at least 2.5 or better 3 from my point of view. Also if tip opening of mouthpiece is too open that may be issues, that you had hard times controlling reed.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: hans
Date: 2017-06-01 19:20
To make sure that your equipment is not at fault, you could ask an experienced player to test it for you.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2017-06-01 20:45
Question: is the harmonic tone you mention higher or lower than the desired note?
John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: jrain54
Date: 2017-06-03 06:43
I am using a strength 3 reed.
I'm not sure if the length of time I've been using the reed for will have an impact.... maybe over time the reed becomes weaker?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2017-06-03 21:31
"It's lower than the desired note."
This being the case, assuming your clarinet is in good playing shape and you have a decent reed, it sounds like you are aiming too low for the note. This can be a combination of too loose an embouchure and an unfocused tongue position. I will talk about tongue position. For those higher notes you need to focus the air by using a syllable tongue position that is higher in the mouth. So rather than Tooow, or Taaah, try Teee or Deeee (my favorite). But let's take it even further by using an even higher tongue position.....and hopefully over shooting the note to produce a higher harmonic than the desired note. Try saying "hissssssssss". Where your tongue ends up with the "sssssssss" is where you want to be. If it plays a very high harmonic, all you have to do is back off a little until the tongue is in the right focus.
I could be all wrong about your issue, but this would be worth a try. As always, sitting down with a good private teacher is best.
John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: SarahC
Date: 2017-06-04 00:58
Exercise for high notes...
take a note (i.e. finger chalemeau C).. and see how many different notes you can achieve on that fingering. you can move the jaw down the reed a little to get the higher notes. Niedich promotes the jaw movt albeit very slight. Not everyone agrees though.
You can even try how many different squeaks can you get from the mouthpiece and barrel only combination.
The more you do that, the easier the altissimo becomes.
:)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Sean.Perrin
Date: 2017-06-15 09:14
You need to "voice" these notes properly and "lip them up" a bit more than the lower notes. The voicing exercise above is great. Learn how to control squeaks and produce them on command and these are essentially your altissimo notes.
Founder and host of the Clarineat Podcast: http://www.clarineat.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
