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Stephen Williamson's Soft Entrance Technique

Author: seabreeze
Date: 2017-09-22 21:57

Steven Williamson demonstrates a disciplined approach to how to practice making soft, non-intrusive entrances--so important to orchestral playing--in this Video. I like his observation that even on finely tuned and dynamically well-balanced clarinets, each note has its own resistance level that a player must recognize to achieve high levels of control.

Williamson is adding something of value to the usual advice to practice long tones (often accompanied with crescendos and diminuendos) and listen for evenness. The big challenge is not holding the note steadily for an extended period but rather how the note speaks at the outset of the sound--getting it to begin unobtrusively with a non-jarring timbre, at exactly the right dynamic level.

Adding his beginning-the-tone exercise to warm up routines might be a great idea. It certainly answers the question "Why are you bothering to do this exercise?"

Does anyone know what Williamson is doing with his right hand index finger at 31 seconds into the video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4teoC3OnEg.

Post Edited (2017-09-22 23:40)

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