The Clarinet BBoard

Re: Tips/Feedback on my solo

Author: Kalashnikirby  Date:   2017-12-11 01:33 Attachment:  Egmont.mp3 (1429k) Hey Ray, first of all, nice to hear you You already said it yourself, the g' was noticably flat, but I think the d' was, too. Besides that, I'd have have tongued the g' to g' quarters in the second bar of your solo more decisively. Also, I think your g' to d'' transition in bar 6 of your solo sounded a bit "swallowed up", you probably didn't get your embouchure on point exactly. My g' is rather too sharp and I flatten it using either my fingers or my embouchure, depending on the volume Other than that, it was a very fine solo and I think given your age you're doing great. I liked the mellowness and dreaminess of your tone, which suits this movement perfectly. You're probably already better than me; I've never been able to play in such a fine school ensemble like yours, and then you're still going to move to even better ensembles eventually... So don't worry too much and keep doing your thing, like any good musician you'll notice every single mistake you make anyways (and the one being upset the most about it will be you!) Your Balloon solo reminded me of the shoesole solo I've captured with my "symphonic" orchestra (along with some clarinet parts I've played) BTW, a better mic would do your orchestra more justice. Mine cost 100€. Best regards, Christian Post Edited (2017-12-11 01:51)

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Re: Tips/Feedback on my solo

Author: zhangray4  Date:   2017-12-11 10:11 Wow thanks for all the suggestion guys, they are very insightful! Christian, I think the swallowing/squeaking you are talking about is more of a finger thing than the embouchure. At least for me. Just finished some recordings a couple weeks ago for colleges, and was playing the Brahms sonata. I messed up once on the slur from Bb5 to G5: wasn't clean. But I immediately knew it was because I was being too lazy with my fingers. But it might be an embouchure thing for you. Maybe later on it will happen to me too, who knows. So I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for your comments on our school ensemble and on my playing! I am only an amateur still, and have got much to learn from people like you. LC007, I am not sure about all the brass, but I would agree that our low brass pales slightly in comparison to some other sections in our band perhaps. However, they have all put in a lot of work, and given that this piece was very demanding for the low brass, I am very proud of what they have achieved so far. More work needs to be done of course, but I am glad our Director did not shy away from this piece just because it was very demanding of the low brass, and our ensemble's strength is not the low brass. I'm glad my Director chose this piece to galvanize our low brass. John, thanks for your comments regarding phrasing and musicality! I will definitely try to consider the whole phrase more and sing out on the rising notes, although that was what I was trying to do when I was practicing and playing the solo during the concert. It might be the camera's mic, but before I blame it on the mic, I will definitely have someone listen to me play and ask him/her whether I should bring out certain notes. And yes, if we were to perform the First Suite for a competition/festival, I would definitely work to tune with the flute soloist, but both of us are introverts, and this was just a casual Winter concert, so I didn't bother asking the flutitst since he's a pretty quiet guy Robert, you are right, as I listen to the recording, I feel like I could have added more rise and fall. But as I said to John, I really thought I did enough when I was performing and practicing the solo, so maybe it's the camera's mic? Before I blame that though, I will have someone listen to me playing the solo sitting where the audience sits. As for the Eb solo, my Director actually told me to bring it out, as it was unique. And when I was playing it onstage, the oboist sitting next to me sounded much louder than she usually did, so that kind of confused me a bit probably. Thanks for all the feedback, really! Looking forward to improving my playing! -- Ray Zhang

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Re: Tips/Feedback on my solo

Author: Kalashnikirby  Date:   2017-12-11 22:24 Haha Ray, you're too generous, you might, if anything, learn from my idiocies! I'll have to insist you consider that kind of squeak at least being a mix of an embouchure and fingering problem. For example, the opening chromatic of Weber's Quintet is tricky, because the change from c to c# needs to be a smooth legato without getting too loud. Even with perfect fingering, I feel like one needs to adjust their embouchure a lot to handle this transition flawlessly - or my RC is just too crappy an instrument. But what I'm refering to mostly affects register changes. If you're still sure your fingers are the only reason, that's great and pretty easy to fix! I'd try adress this intonation problem with the flute as nicely as possible, musically speaking, you have to be extroverts anyways It's just so much fun when 1-2 more instruments drop into a solo, but it's all about communication!

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