 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Richard Z.
Date: 2016-06-29 04:52
Hello everyone!
Over the past few weeks I've noticed a problem in my playing: when I change notes, especially when the interval is large, I tend to hold back my air. This is particularly apparent in slow passages, less so in fast ones.
Has anyone else experienced this, and can anyone suggest exercises to help me overcome the problem?
Thanks!
Richard
EDIT: I realize that my original post is unclear. I do not choose to hold back my air - it is a habit that I cannot break even when consciously trying not to do it. I think I developed the habit when I was learning to play high notes, as putting less air through the instrument would make squeaks less obnoxious.
Post Edited (2016-07-16 04:51)
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2016-06-30 02:33
For me, what you describe is the opposite of what should happen moving to an upper neighbor. The higher note (of any pair) requires MORE air to achieve the proper dynamic relationship (usual anyway unless otherwise marked) as well as a smooth transition between the two.
I turn the groups of sixths at the back of Baermann III into a slow, very deliberate exercise (going through all the keys). If fact this is great for so many issues. I make sure I concentrate on saying to myself the names of the notes as well as making an exaggerated dynamic difference between the lower and upper group of sixths. You can just go through each key once, but this is still quite an exercise done slowly, and everything seems to come much easier afterwards.
I do a similar approach to the first of the of the Stark Arpeggio exercises (a quicker review of sixths and thirds of every key).
Just remember, any problem that you can identify, can be turned into a deliberate exercise to improve the problem.
...............Paul Aviles
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2016-06-30 02:44
Richard wrote:
>> Over the past few weeks I've noticed a problem in my playing: when I change notes, especially when the interval is large, I tend to hold back my air. This is particularly apparent in slow passages, less so in fast ones. >>
Why complicate things? If you tend to 'hold back your air' when you change notes, and that gives unacceptable results for you, then just DON'T.
Tony
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2016-06-30 06:56
I recall having an occasional problem that might be similar. It is probably due to tension from trying so hard not to make an uncontrolled, loud, crappy transition. In the end, instead of concentrating on not playing it crappy, you want to be focused on playing it well, with a good image in mind of what that takes.
You can probably gradually overcome the tension thing by incremental approaches. What I might do (and might have done) would include the following.
Play the upper (second) note and hold it. Make it full and vibrant as possible.
This shouldn't require any strain or a much effort. Take a mental picture of what you're doing to make the good sound. Now play the lower (first) note, same dynamic level, full and vibrant. Observe what you're doing and compare it to the first picture - they should be closely similar. If they're more than minutely different, work on making them similar.
Then play the lower note, full and vibrant. Pause, and set yourself to play the upper note full and vibrant, then do it. Then pause and repeat the sequence until you are confident in starting and holding both notes the way you want them to sound, with pauses between. Then as you repeat, gradually reduce the pause, until there is none. Take a mental picture of what you're doing when it's right, for future reference. Try to discard any effort that isn't necessary; in the end the remaining effort will be quite small. Control doesn't come from making more effort, but from making only the needed effort, free of constraint.
You can further incrementalize by initially practicing the above with a small (and easier) interval, like a minor second, and gradually increasing the interval.
This takes more trouble to spell out than to do, once you get started. The idea is easy.
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2016-06-30 22:13
Interesting archive link, Tony. Your earlier reply reminded me a little of Amy Fay's description of the teaching of Carl Tausig (insert smiley here.)
Much of what we do is unconscious, either learned that way or learned more consciously then unremarked into forgotteness. Teaching those things involves some prior reflection.
Question: does the tongue position necessarily change in playing an interval? I don't consciously change it, most of the time anyway. I do feel different areas inside the oral cavity resonating for different notes, but my thought has been that there is a right position of the slightly tautened tongue that will allow any of those areas to resonate as needed. Having said that, I suspect there's some exceptions or maybe some general but quite small positioning variance . . . . . I'll see if I can observe it better in practice coming up.
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2016-07-01 12:41
I wrote:
>> This may be a bit more helpful than my earlier effort: >>
...or it may not:-)
Sometimes the simplest approach is best. We can't tell from here.
Tony
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2016-07-01 17:46
Richard, I have some ideas here, but before suggesting them, I'd like to hear from you why it is, you think, that you [choose to] hold back air under the situation you describe.
I appreciate that it may be, at this point, an unconscious thing [or not], but if you have in idea why you do this, and/or how it originated, that might help me tailor a response.
For example, does it source from an original fear of squeaking on higher pitched notes?
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Author: Richard Z.
Date: 2016-07-04 05:39
Thanks to everyone who answered. I have modified my practice routine to implement some of the exercises you have suggested; we'll see how well they work.
A few notes:
Tony wrote:
>> Why complicate things? If you tend to 'hold back your air' when you change notes, and that gives unacceptable results for you, then just DON'T.
The problem is that even when I consciously focus on it, I still have difficulty not holding back my air between notes. I've edited my original post to make this more clear.
WhitePlainsDave wrote:
>> For example, does it source from an original fear of squeaking on higher pitched notes?
I think this is exactly where the problem stems from: when I was learning to play high notes, I would hold back my air before changing notes in order to make squeaks less obnoxious. Now, while my fear of high notes has largely subsided, that habit of holding back my air has not.
Richard
Post Edited (2016-07-04 05:43)
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