Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2017-10-30 09:50
Some teachers are so strict! They should allow you to play around with an assortment of different mouthpieces and different openings and facings. I know you are in high school. Often these are hard times. The teachers usually have their best interests in you as a student. But mouth formations are so different on everyone.
You might want to consider this - warm up using the Vandoren mouthpiece and warm up with long tones as I said above, using a double lip. This will make your upper lip strong throughout high school and for college auditions. Remember to look into a mirror and notice that your upper lip tends to push down just a tad. So when you are playing with a single lip push down the same way with your upper lip and use a patch. This will still give you that feel of a double lip embouchure.
When you get to college look for that instructor who is wanting to work on your sound and doesn't mind if you change mouthpieces or not.
I just read on the board that Stanley Drucker has been using the same mouthpiece for 60 plus years. He bought it for $6! Well I'm kind of in favor of this! I feel it is OK to change mouthpieces sometimes. They warp, get stolen, dropped, something new pops up that is just amazing, things like that. But maybe keep the same mouthpiece for 10 to 20 years, once you find the right one. The one you feel is just great. If you want to play double lip in college go for it. I think you will be ahead of most fellow players if you do this as far as sound. What teachers want to hear first is a really nice sound. Then rhythm. So that very first note is so important. Of course even scales, articulation, the whole package. They are not looking for the perfect student, but someone they can fine tune into that elite class.
When you take your college auditions know your scales. 4 sharps, 4 flats, major and all the minors. Slur all of them slur 2 tongue 2. Also the chromatic scale is a must. And triplets.
Then play a piece you like. Master the hard parts. I promise they will not have you play the whole piece. They will let you play the beginning then they will stop you and ask you to play another movement or another hard area.
For example Debussy Premiere Rhapsody - They will want to hear the beginning slow part. Then the last page for sure, because the last page is so hard.
Copland - the slow part, they will stop you, then the whole cadenza, then the last quarter of the last page. Do not play the cadenza fast. Copland wanted it played as a jazz feel. I know players like Julian Bliss can double tongue it, but this is not what Copland wanted.
So find that special piece which you really like.
Practice your sight reading everyday for 30 minutes. Most schools ask for it. Mostly orchestral excerpts. Beethoven's 6th, Your teacher should assign some every week, as these are often your sight reading pieces. Some are so hard. You have to know them ahead of time. Such as Capriccio Espagnol by Rimsky-Korsakov, maybe Pines of Rome, Brahms's 3rd sym are a must to know.
Anyway, be really prepared the best you can. 4 hour practice days for the hard music schools. Capriccio Espagnol was on all of the music school auditions I went to. Eastman, Yale, you name it it was there. The one that caught me by surprise was Beethoven's 9th. You had to transpose it to C clarinet and I had just played it. There is a God! I think every note was sharped! It's either 5 or 6 sharps. Don't lose sleep over something like this. It won't show up. That was at U. of Michigan and all of those people are long gone. You may want to play Rhapsody in Blue, because very few people play it WELL. Take breaks, don't play 4 hours straight. 20 to 30 minutes at a time.
Build up your embouchure. Right now play on a tad softer reeds then work up to harder reeds as your upper lip can handle it. I think 3 1/2 plus is about right for an M30. 4 strength tops.
Write or call anytime.
Bob
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
Post Edited (2017-10-30 11:43)
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