 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: wjk
Date: 2002-05-24 12:28
What is the highest note one should be comfortable being able to play?
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Author: jez
Date: 2002-05-24 12:44
The accepted highest note on the clarinet is C7 (3 octaves above middle C) although unfortunately some contemporary composers choose to ignore this. (The highest note I've seen printed is G7)
I don't think many people are too happy about the notes above top G or A.
jez
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Author: javier garcia
Date: 2002-05-24 13:46
Once I've had to play high C#, but I think it's very difficult to make MUSIC on clarinet above high G. Let play these notes to violins or flutes.
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Author: William
Date: 2002-05-24 14:17
A consistant and comfortable playing range from low E up to G above high C will suffice for 98% of your clarineting needs. Warning!!!! Practicing extensively above that range may cause stressful marital relations and possibly cause large foreign objects to be directed toward your home by an unappreciative "back yard" audience(s). Appartment dwellings may prove particualrily hazardous practicing conditions. As always, practice carefully and Good Clarineting!!!
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2002-05-24 14:21
javier garcia wrote:
>
> Once I've had to play high C#, but I think it's very
> difficult to make MUSIC on clarinet above high G.
Very difficult, yes.
Impossible - no. There is a small but growing number of players that can play real music (contemporary) up there in the stratosphere.
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Author: HAT
Date: 2002-05-24 14:29
You'll need to be reasonalby fluent all the way up to the highest c if you want to be able to play the standard repertoire. Even 'normal' composers like Richard Strauss go up to b natural from time to time.
Contemporary music all bets are off of course. I can't play higher than high 'd' but then I have never needed to.
You can hear some high stuff on the "Bartok Dances" mp3 downloads (and of course on the cd if you buy it).
If you want to learn ti play up there, you have to do it every day. Scale practice makes the most sense.
David Hattner, NYC
www.northbranchrecords.com
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Author: BeckyC
Date: 2002-05-24 14:30
Very Cute William,
Yes ......We have to remind those who buy the used clarinets and the WARNING Lable has been removed!! Those HIGH notes can be painful ( in more ways than one) for all involved.
Becky
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Author: gemmaelizabeth
Date: 2002-05-24 14:54
ha ha!
I hate playing up the top. I can, but always feel we should maybe leave the high pitched stuff to Eb Clarinets!!!!!
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Author: Thomas Piercy
Date: 2002-05-24 16:24
You will need, as there is a call for it in many pieces now, to play and be fluent in technique and sound up to the highest c (3 octaves above written middle C).
I have had to play (or find my way) above that C and up to written E, F, and G. These were contemporary pieces from composers I was working with that heard me play these notes after they wanted high, higher and higher. I should have told/pleaded with the composers "no, I can't go any higher," but I was also intrigued by how they would use these sounds. These higher notes seem to come out easier on my Rossi large bore instruments than they do on my Buffets.
Scale work, arpeggios, etc. help in getting fluency up there. I also found it helpful to actually read the written music up there in the scale work and other exercises so your eyes get used to seeing all those lines. If you don't have a scale book that has the scales written into that area, write them out yourself.
Flying high, (and higher?)
Tom Piercy
thomaspiercy.com
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Author: GBK
Date: 2002-05-24 16:44
Fluency up to C7 is a must for serious clarinetists.
I would suggest working with a fingering chart or the Ridenour book to find the fingerings which work the best on your particular instrument as to intonation and response.
Have a few alternative fingerings for each of your highest notes. It would be wise to have a set of preferred fingerings for the diatonic (scalewise) passages ascending and descending as well as the arpeggios ascending and descending.
A high note fingering should always be based on the notes preceeding and following it.
BTW, even in show music/pit work the clarinet is asked to often test the extreme register. The musical "Rags" has a great (written) jazz clarinet solo up to B7...GBK
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Author: Wes
Date: 2002-05-24 19:47
The Robert Spring warmup, found on the internet, includes four beat long tones from low E to the very top, perhaps D4 and C#4. These are played with metronome at 60 beats per minute with occasional 4 beat rests. Going down, one can use available alternate fingerings. By practising these every day for a very few minutes one can develop a familiarity with these high notes that make them useable. Otherwise, one is always scuffling to find a note that one rarely uses and it is likely that the note can be missed, played poorly, or played out of tune. While there is very little need to play these notes, being used to playing them makes the lower notes like F4, F#4, and G4 seem easier. Good luck!
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2002-05-24 21:10
Wes wrote:
> While there is very little need to play these notes,
> being used to playing them makes the lower notes like F4, F#4,
> and G4 seem easier. Good luck!
Wes, I'm assuming you mean F7, F#7, and G7 - please use the middle C=C4 notation here (I have a graphic up on the top to remind every one).
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Author: Todd Wees
Date: 2002-05-25 00:18
Mark C. --
I'm clear about the C's, but still not sure about the other notes. Does the numbering begin with the C? In other words, are the notes between C4 (middle C) and C5 (third space C) all "fours", that is D4, E4, F4, etc.?
Hope that's a clear question.
Todd W.
P.S., Hope your move goes well.
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Author: rmk
Date: 2002-05-25 00:44
The highest note I've seen is in a piece by William O. Smith called (if I remember correctly) Variants. It goes up to A7.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2002-05-25 02:52
Todd Wees wrote:
> I'm clear about the C's, but still not sure about the other
> notes. Does the numbering begin with the C? In other words,
> are the notes between C4 (middle C) and C5 (third space C) all
> "fours", that is D4, E4, F4, etc.?
Yes, the numbering starts with the C - a C scale starting at C4 is:
C4, D4, E4, F4, G4, A4, B4, C5, ...
I'll probably start my move on Tuesday, spending overnight with a friend in Dallas (Hi, Forest ;^), then taking US-75/US-69 north through Oklahoma, I-44 east through Missouri, I-55 north through Illinois, then I-80/I-94 through Indiana and Michigan. I'm not in a rush, so if any of you live near those routes and want to offer free food and/or lodging (hint, hint) just let me know your telephone number via email and I'll call when I'm in the vicinity.
<grin>
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Author: ken
Date: 2002-05-25 14:52
Other than the extreme high notes I'm forced to routinely play (in the style) in my Dixie group, I consider anything over maybe a double Bb to be offensive ON and TO the instrument. Playing in the stratosphere certainly has its place but the only "musical" contribution those bird chirps really make (in any idiom) is limited to ornamentation, notoriety, golly gee effect, some goofy composers' over-active imagination and as a testosterone boost. I say, leave the vein popping to the classical sax and screech trumpet players and keep building on those fundamentals.
v/r
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Author: clarinet713
Date: 2002-05-26 02:11
is it possible to go above C7 on clarinet? I thought that was the highest note. No one has mentioned the Martino piece yet (goes to a B7). FUN stuff
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Author: Micaela
Date: 2002-05-26 18:22
Even the Weber No. 2 (hardly a modern piece) goes up to a B natural.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2002-05-26 18:50
Micaela...I hope you are not playing a B7 in measure 241 in the first movement of the Weber #2, because the note is Bb7...GBK
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Author: jez
Date: 2002-05-26 20:31
clarinet 713,
it certainly is possible to go higher.
Check out www.wfg.woodwind.org for fingering charts. Pay particular attention to the ones from our own GBK, (he just goes by GK in the charts) they always seem very reliable to me.
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Author: diz
Date: 2002-05-26 22:45
Whilst flying in the stratosphere - resist all temptation to bite down on your reed - the looser you can manage the easier the notes will speak - this has been my experience.
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Author: clarinet713
Date: 2002-05-27 04:19
Thank you for the info, greatly appreciated!
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2002-05-27 12:02
diz, you are implying that you forbid increased pressure on the reed from via the lower lip, from the lower teeth.
Please clarify.
Do you forbid increased pressure on the reed?
If so, clarify just what, for you, shoots the instrument into the stratosphere?
Do you put increased pressure on the reed using only muscles controlling the lips? (In which case you don't need your teeth at all? Double lip in the stratosphere?)
Have you given your lip such a hiding over a long period that it is now made of a much firmer tissue?
Have you done any 'hardness' tests on lips to establish the truth of your above answer?
If your tissue is, in fact harder, is it appropriate to forbid a less experienced player to gradually give their own lip a bit of a hiding so that they can achieve the necessary firmness that you have achieved?
Do you have enough self awareness to answer these questions. Just wondering, and not meaning to be critical. The answers would be very helpful to the player still in the process of adapting their own body to successfully play the clarinet.
Young peoples' lips sure are a lot softer than those of an experienced reeed player - in my very limited experience.
On flute, as a youngster, my embouchure collapsed after a couple of weeks of not playing. Now I don't have this problem. An interesting phenomenon. I put it down, possibly, to firmer lip tissue.
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Author: Thomas Piercy
Date: 2002-05-27 13:52
In repsonse to gordon (NZ)
RE: "(Double lip in the stratosphere?)"
I find that using double lip has actulally helped me in getting the "stratospheric" notes discussed in this thread. I find the response and sound are much more under my control. I can't/don't actually bite the high notes out when using double lip; firm embouchure and correctly directed air flow and, of course, the right reed tied on is terribly important.
Tom Piercy
thomaspiercy.com
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Author: Clarinet17
Date: 2002-05-27 15:42
Does anybody know where I would find a fingering chart that has these notes on it??
Thanks!
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Author: Clarinet17
Date: 2002-05-27 15:44
oh...found it!
excuse my stupidity please!
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Author: diz
Date: 2002-05-27 22:46
Gordon thanks for your voluminous response to my post - you'll notice I did end by saying "this has been my experience". In which case, figure out which works best for you.
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Author: jon
Date: 2002-05-28 04:14
i think to say you can play the clarinet you must be able to play the "whole clarinet" from low e the super c.
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Author: jez
Date: 2002-05-28 15:03
Let me confess to a trick I've often used when called upon to play notes above the accepted range of the instrument. Instead of wearing out what's left of my embouchure, sometimes I actually put my lower teeth directly on the reed. You can get some VERY high notes that way!
jez
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