The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Kim
Date: 2001-08-07 01:05
My band audition piece is fast articulation at 120. I have four weeks to prepare for this audition. Does anybody have any ideas on how to learn this piece without the lower jaw moving up and down? How can I prevent this from happening? Also, how can I achieve such a fast tempo in such a short period of time?
Thanks for your help in advance.
Kim
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Author: Benny
Date: 2001-08-07 01:37
Are you familliar with the advanced finger stacatto? The object is to move your fingers in between the notes. If you have never heard of it, you should probably research it online or ask your teacher. Practice it slow at first and then speed it up. Good luck
Benny
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Author: Dee
Date: 2001-08-07 03:09
You should never move your jaw when tonguing and you will need to work very hard to overcome this flaw if you want to get your tonguing up to speed while maintaining a good tone quality.
Work very slowly for a while. Pay attention to how your jaw feels and do not let it move. Practice tonguing moving just the tip of your tongue. Until you can do so cleanly without moving your jaw, do not speed up. Once you can do it at a slow speed, increase the speed *slightly* and practice until you can do it without moving your jaw at this speed. Continue gradually increasing the speed. If you try to rush this, you won't do yourself any good.
There are no shortcuts. Practice every day working on eliminating the jaw motion.
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Author: Kim
Date: 2001-08-07 03:49
What is the advanced finger stacatto? I've never heard of it before.
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2001-08-07 03:51
This is a well known technique to achieve fast tempos.
Set your metronome speed to a velocity you can play easily say MM90.
If you can completely play, change the metronome one notch faster velocity say 92. This way, you can go up to 120.
Keep in mind these things:
1)Increment metronome velocity by very small numbers. This technique uses
a kind of psycology(subconcious awareness). If a large velocity increment is
taken, subconcious awareness cannot be used.
2)Split the composition to small segments say one phase at first
and after you can play each part perfectly, play the whole composition at
the same velocity.
3)After you can play the whole at MM120, play it without a metronome.
This time, try to give expressions or freeness of speed avoiding metronom
like mechanical feeling.
To get perfection, this is another consideration:
If you made a mistake in one paragraph, play it twice correctly. One correct playing is to cancel the memory of wrong playing and another is to imprint correct playing on your brain. (This way of teaching became prevalent in these days.)
This way of practice seems tiresome but very effective and does not need
much time. And easy.
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Author: Jerry McD.
Date: 2001-08-07 13:27
Hiroshi is right, try and learn it in very small increments, one notch at a time. Plus, don't try and get it up to 120 in one or two days. Try this, start at a very slow tempo, say 72. Increase speed one notch at a time up to about 84 (on the first day). The next day start your metronome at 78 and work your way up to about 90. The third day, start your metronome at 86 and work your way up to 100 and so on. This technique will help you keep the passage to a managable level and not make it so that you feel like you "have" to do it at 120 right now. This technique does not take a lot of time (maybe half an hour per day) so don't be tempted to go beyond the parameters that you set up for yourself when you began your practice session. Good luck and happy practicing!
Jerry McD.
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Author: William
Date: 2001-08-07 14:44
But don't forget what Benny said, and what is most important--move your finger(s) between the notes. Play, for example, the Rose study No. 4 with the 16th note getting the beat at about MM=60 (very slow tempo at first). Play each 16th molto stacatto and move your finger(s) very quickly and precisly on "and" of each beat. Use a metronome to prevent speeding up and move your fingers quickly to the next note with the least amount of motion necessary. Be tough and try to complete the entire etude (or at least, half) This torture--I mean practice--is credited to the master teacher Bonade (the ligiture guy) who used it to teach finger and tongue coordination. When you feel you have mastered the technique at the very slow tempo, then speed it up a little, week by week, but be careful not to try to be too fast too soon. Finger/tongue coordination takes consistant practice over many months or years to fully develope. Be patient and you will make it. Like any journey, the first few "beats" are the hardest. Good Clarineting!!!! (and don't move your jaw)
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Author: Larry Garges
Date: 2001-08-07 16:55
Dee was correct in saying that the jaw should not move with the tongue as this will cause sound and intonation difficulties, especially in the higher registers, and must be corrected as soon as possible if you want to progress in your clarinet playing. What good is playing fast if the tone is lacking, and the notes are flat? Once you have corrected the jaw movement, I have found that practicing rapid staccato passages slurred to get absolutely even finger technique will often clear up messy passage work, as the problem often is the tongue and fingers not working together not the absolute speed of the tonguing. Good luck on your audition, and remember that playing well is your goal not where you sit.
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Author: Roger
Date: 2001-08-08 13:57
Make sure your read is right. Sometimes a reed that is too hard or too soft makes it impossible to tongue correctly.
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