 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Jessica
Date: 2001-08-02 19:17
At one time, I considered myself to be a pretty good clarinet player. Everything came very naturally and, honestly, I was better than almost everyone without practicing a day. So basically, I didn't practice from 6th-10th grades at all, literally with the exception of a few days. Then in 11th grade I decided I wanted to go into music for a living (as a music teacher) and I started practicing but I just get so upset. When I can't play something, I try to practice, but I get so upset at not being able to play that I just start crying. My main problem is that I have a bad embouchure, which a teacher at a music camp tried to help me w/, but when I told my private teacher what the teacher at the camp had taught me, he said that everyone has a different idea of things and that it wasn't worth it for me to switch my embouchure (I use the "smile" embouchure). Now, with my senior year coming up, and my college auditions aproaching, I'm so upset and so frustrated that I just don't practice. When I go to band at school and I'm the best one there and the only one who can play the music, I feel good about myself and I have the best time, but then I get home and try to practice on my own, and I feel like I just suck beyond belief. I just start crying and I can't practice anymore. Well, I just wanted to vent more than anything, but if anyone has a comment or suggetion, feel free to share.
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Author: Jessica Rhine
Date: 2001-08-02 19:29
I just noticed that there is someone who already posts as "Jessica." I apoligize.
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Author: Brent
Date: 2001-08-02 19:48
It happens to most of us, i think, at one time or another. You go to practice, to work on something and it seems to *never* get any better. All you want to do then is go away and not come back.
Part of the issue, possibly, is that you have never *had* to practice up to this point, so you've never learned how to do it right. Perhaps you've been able to get along on your talents so far and not had to develop a higher level of skill--which is what you get from consistent, repetetive, well-planned practice.
What you need to realize is that not knowing how to practice doesn't make you a bad clarinet player, it makes you a clarinet player who doesn't know how to practice. Don't get down on yourself because it isn't as easy as you'd like it to be. You need to learn how to practice most effectively, and that takes time and work and you will probably fail sometimes. That's OK, because the only alternative to failing once in a while is to not try, and that is the wrong path to take.
As to your embouchure, if you plan on staying with the same teacher through the rest of high school, you might be best served to stick with what you know, since it has worked for you up to this summer. You'll probably only cause yourself more problems if you try to change your embouchure around months before college auditions.
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Author: Sara
Date: 2001-08-02 20:57
Brent said "You need to learn how to practice most effectively" what is the right way to pracice?
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2001-08-02 21:28
Practice what you don't know, not what you already know.
It's harder than it seems. We like to go over what we play well since we can actually hear the music. It makes us feel good. But ... playing it again during a practice session ()other than for the warmup period perhaps) defeats the purpose of your practice. You need to work on the hard parts.
How many times have you heard someone do the 1st & 2nd movements of a piece, only to hear someone mess up the 3rd? For instance - my middle son's been working on the "Moonlight Sonata" - but he started on the 3rd movement first. That's the one that takes the energy and stamina to get through. The other two movements are significantly less stressful (of course, the 1st movement is what everyone is familiar with ...)
When you look over your music and you see a tricky passage or a hard cadenza - do you start there? Or do you start in an easier part first? Where should you start in putting out your effort?
There's a young man I know who attends a conservatory. I asked him how much he practices - he said about 8 hours a day. I asked how much another student, at about the same level, practiced. He said "Oh, maybe 4 hours a day". When I asked him how the other student got away with fewer hours of practice, he said "Well, he practices really efficiently - he only works on what he has problems with."
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Author: Suzanne
Date: 2001-08-02 21:44
Is there any way you can just work on bite-size chunks and somehow make music out of them? In other words, say a passage is very technically difficult, play it slowly enough so that the notes are no longer difficult, and play it expressively. If you practice like this, speed comes naturally through repetition.
If you try and fix everything all at once, you will frustrate yourself. Maybe just target only one thing (say, evenness of fingers for example), and focus on that that one thing, even if everything else isn't quite where you want it. Focus on that one thing for thirty minutes, and it is bound to get better. Don't worry about everthing all at once.
That's at least, some of the ways I practice.
There is a wonderful book called "The Art of Practicing" by Madeline Bruser that has fundamentally changed the way I look at my practice times.
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Author: Jerry McD.
Date: 2001-08-02 22:17
If you want to have a good practice session it is imperative that you have a plan before you put the horn to your face. You need to have mapped out what you are going to practice and for how long. I think the best way to do this if you have never done it before is to first create a time period, hour, half hour, or whatever, and try and make it the same time every day. Second, decide what you are going to practice within this session. Most people try and practice too many things. I would recommend that you write down a list of things to practice in your allotted time and then cut it in half. Also, don't practice entire pieces. Try practicing only a few bars at a time, today I am going to practice bars 20 through 40 of this piece. Also, create a systematic pattern during your practice time i.e. 1 hour...........15 minutes fundamentals (warm up, long tones, scales etc....) 35 minutes on lesson pieces, 10 minutes on whatever you want to play. I think this last section can be really fun and helps relieve some of the pressure. Notice that putting the horn together and putting it away are outside of the 1 hour of practice. Everyone does things a little differently but if you plan your work and work your plan (I know it's corny), you can make steady progress. Remember, frustration comes from having expectations and WANTING to play better, that is the first step in actually playing better.
good luck!
Jerry McD.
p.s. btw, I can now get more done in one hour of practicing than I used to get done in over 2 hours. I didn't know how until someone showed me, when I was feeling just like you!
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Author: ~jerry
Date: 2001-08-02 22:29
First, don't think about next year -- it will take care of itself if you take care of this year.
Second, as I posted before, eat this elephant one bite at a time -- not all at once.
Third, read "The Inner Game of Music", by Barry Green -- worth an hour's practice a day!
GL
~ jerry
Still in Clarinet Boot Camp
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Author: Francesca
Date: 2001-08-03 00:24
I had a professor tell me that he likes to visit the practice rooms and listen to his students when they don't realize he's there. He said he can identify his best players because they have to worst sound coming out of the practice room! I thought that was a cool concept, the actual practice session isn't meant to be performance quality, just lead to performance quality. Just thought I'd add my two cents worth.
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Author: David Pegel
Date: 2001-08-03 01:30
One of the ways I like to accomplish something with practice is what I call the "by ear" method. This isn't playing by ear, mind you, but just an easy way of adjusting to a peice.
First of all, just relax. You aren't sightreading a 64th note cadenza while standing in the middle of a jam-packed stadium after all. It's just you and your instrument and the music.
Second, start playing. Watch the notes. Try to zone out a little bit. Don't keep track of everything that's going on. Get it implanted in your skull what sort of potential this peice has. Have fun with it. It might even work to improvise a little, but not enough to change the interpretaion of the music.
Then, get serious. Play it a second and third time and point out your problem phases. Start out slow and work your way to what you think it should sound like. (This is why you have fun with it at first, to get an idea on what you want this peice to do.)
Then, and this is the final step: After all of that is finished, perfect it beyond it's level. Play complex passages a little faster than they should be played. If articulation was a problem, overenunciate - but not too much. If speed was the original problem, work it up to a faster-than-normal tempo. This step makes the proper way of working it seem easier psychologically.
I have my doubts on how this way would work for other people, but it gives me awesome results. I sped up my chromatic scale from 320 notes per minute to 400 bpm in ten minutes using this method. If I practice it more, I could speed it up to a chromatic gliss. The possibilities are endless!! (This description of my playing skill makes me sound very novice, but that's becuase clarinet is my second instrument.)
Let us know how it comes out!!
David Pegel
P.S. I am also in high school. Don't feel bad about your practice time; It's probably just another high school/college thing that we'll eventually grow out of!!
And also, I did the same thing with MY name on this site. We have a David Kinder and A Dave Speigalthal (sp? Sorry Dave), both of which are more qualified to give advice than I. Due to these circumstances, I thought it might be a good idea for me to put down my last name as well. So no need to apologize apologize; it happens all the time.
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Author: Tim2
Date: 2001-08-03 02:48
It can be like a forest vs trees competition when practicing. What to look at.
The trees are all different, each one having many facets, colors, shapes, age, and on and on.. Each tree needs to be recognized just like each phrase in a composition needs to be recognized (heard). Put all the phrases together and you have a composition. What you do with the phrases, the notes, makes up the composition, just like the trees do the forest. Like each forest is different, so is every performance of composition.
It takes determination to work out the tough parts in a piece. Everybody has given you lots of advice on how to get that done. Find the way that works best for you and start working on those trees. Make them perfect! Beautiful trees make a beautiful forest, keep that in mind.
I'd like to add the forest (the whole composition) needs to be heard sometimes. It can be when the trees are learned. The forest builds stamina, endurance. The forest is beautiful but the more beautiful each tree is, so the forest becomes. It is difficult to resist playing through the whole piece too much and skipping what needs work. I am guilty of this at time. I find myself sometimes going backward before I go forward on learning parts. But it does go forward.
It is hard work. It takes time. But you will find it <b>well worth it.</b> You have to make up your mind, make a plan and stick with it.
Good luck to you and work hard. Don't be intimidated!
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Author: Jessica Rhine
Date: 2001-08-05 03:37
Wow... thank you all so much for your advice. I'm going to set a plan before i practice tomorrow and concentrate on certain things. Thanks again for your help.
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2001-08-05 04:32
A book that I have read and highly recommend is "The Art of Practicing" by Madeline Busser. I think if you read it, it will help you stop beating yourself up.
Best of luck,
jnk
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Author: mw
Date: 2001-08-05 22:49
Amazon says "The Art of Practicing" it is out of print. May be available in used bookstores. mw
<http://ez2www.com/go.php3?site=book&go=0517708221?
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2001-08-06 03:29
Aha, I just noticed that it is the hard cover version that Amazon shows as out-of-print. That page does have a link, however, to an in-print paperback version:
<http://ez2www.com/go.php3?site=book&go=0517708221?
Best regards,
jnk
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2001-08-06 03:32
For some reason, the link didn't show up. I'll try again in clickable and non-clickable format and see if one makes it this time. The Amazon link:
<http://ez2www.com/go.php3?site=book&go=0517708221?
http://ez2www.com/go.php3?site=book&go=0517708221?</HTML
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