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 Artie Shaw and the Altissimo
Author: GBK 
Date:   2018-06-27 21:31

Passing along a wonderful article about Artie Shaw and his mastery of the altissimo register. Well worth reading....

(With thanks to bulletin board member Hans Jacobs for the article.)

http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/2011/12/artie-shaw-and-altissimo.html


...GBK

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 Re: Artie Shaw and the Altissimo
Author: seabreeze 
Date:   2018-06-27 22:18


Enjoyable article. The author, Eric Seddon, is also a bulletin board member who posts as "The Marlborough Man."

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 Re: Artie Shaw and the Altissimo
Author: kilo 
Date:   2018-06-28 12:34

Fascinating!

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 Re: Artie Shaw and the Altissimo
Author: ned 
Date:   2018-07-04 09:32

''...I believe Shaw expanded these "short finger exercises" extemporaneously to reach Double C, ...''

For the benefit of this particular player, are we referring to concert C or clarinet C?

thanks...

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 Re: Artie Shaw and the Altissimo
Author: ned 
Date:   2018-07-06 05:45

OK...thanks for the update...

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 Re: Artie Shaw and the Altissimo
Author: John G. 
Date:   2018-07-08 02:47

Ned, concert Bb.......double high C on clarinet.
As for Mr. Seddon's article, (and this is only my personal opinion) I believe Artie's mastery of the extreme altissimo was more a product of simply practicing the hell out of it and that not so little something that very few of us mere mortals have.......an incredible amount of God-given talent. Combine the two and I think you'd get.......Artie Shaw. ;-)

John

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 Re: Artie Shaw and the Altissimo
Author: ned 
Date:   2018-07-10 05:42

Thanks John G...this self-taught player needed to know exactly what altissimo note was in question.

I can JUST touch the 3rd Ab above middle C on the piano, but not cleanly.

It has been a helpful exercise reading about Artie Shaw's rehearsal regimen (the little that we know) and attempting to put it in to practice.

In the short time that I have included the altissimo in practice (at the beginning of my routine) is has improved my embouchure and tone - and the low notes ''seem to take care of themselves'' to paraphrase the writer.

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 Re: Artie Shaw and the Altissimo
Author: John G. 
Date:   2018-07-10 07:24

Ned, it's a NEVER ending journey. One that keeps pushing and inspiring us, yet drives us all freaking batty at times! Keep fighting the fight!

John

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 Re: Artie Shaw and the Altissimo
Author: Philip Caron 
Date:   2018-07-10 17:49

Hi ned. To the right of the "Clarinet BBoard" banner on this and all board pages is a graphic showing C4. For a description of Scientific Pitch Notation see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_pitch_notation. It's the only general purpose way to refer to pitches without confusion.

If the C4 shown is what you mean by middle C on the piano, then the Ab you refer to is Ab6. When I returned to playing that same note was difficult for me also. My preferred fingering is TO|oxx|oxo plus either pinky F/C key, but there are others.

If you're interested in extending upward, then work on it every day at least a couple minutes. Try for a sweet sound, and for an embouchure that works in all registers with little adjustment. Some setups work better than others.

I at least do scales, 3rds, and a little extemporizing as high as I can every day, and often work on sounding the next note or two. It's not systematic or even very deliberate. My working range with double-lip has gotten to G#7, and I'm confident to E7 - I used a leap from G3 to D7 in a cadenza in a solo performance last week. I know how to play up to C8, and after adding teeth to reed I've extended to E8, though it wasn't real pretty. I'm a solitary amateur; if I can thusly do then anyone can, or better. Uh, if they want to.

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 Re: Artie Shaw and the Altissimo
Author: ned 
Date:   2018-07-11 04:56

Thanks Philip...I'll look in to what you say. It will take this non-reader some time, but these days, that's something I seem to have.

At present I am ''overblowing'' on an Albert system, so without resorting to the tuner, I am unsure of the accuracy of my pitch. It sort of ''sounds'' OK, but we'll see.

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 Re: Artie Shaw and the Altissimo
Author: Burt 
Date:   2018-07-11 21:26

Your equipment has a major impact on being able to hit the super-high notes. I made changes in my equipment which help overall playing, but make C7 weak and anything above it nearly impossible. For me, it was a good tradeoff.

Burt Marks
Rideour Libertas (formerly Vandoren pre-R13)
Vandoren M30 (formerly Leblanc refaced)
Legere Signature (not European) 3.25 (formerly Canyes 4 or Gonzales FOF 3.5) - this has the biggest impact on the super-high notes. The switch to Legere has drastically reduced the time for reed maintenance.

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