The Clarinet BBoard

Re: Overtones in the chalumeau

Author: Ken Shaw ★2017 Date:   2014-01-05 00:38 ChiTown - Don't begin a note with an *attack*. Keep the air pressure up and lay the tip of your tongue at the tip of the reed and just back of it to stop the vibration. Move your fingers and then gently remove your tongue to *release* the tone. Your embouchure and air never stop. Also, the finale of the Mozart Quintet is a theme and variations, so the theme must always be there. The first variation is not a big clarinet solo. You don't even have the melody, which is in the second violin and viola. They (and later the viola and cello) have the solo. Your part is like the thinnest possible spider web, laying over the melody and glistening with dew. It's the same in variation 4, and nobody has the melody in variations 2, 3 and the first part of variation 5 (adagio). You have a heavily decorated version in the second half of variation 5, but you must organize it around the melodic notes in your head. The strings also play the melody in the coda, while you soar over with a descant, like a feather in the breeze. That's why you should always practice from the score <imslp.org/wiki/Clarinet_Quintet_in_A_major,_K.581_(Mozart,_Wolfgang_Amadeus)>. You need to know everything that's happening, not just your part. As to voicing, there is a slight change in your mouth when you move from one register to another. The back of your tongue should stay high and the front part low. The middle part raises slightly and maybe moves slightly forward as you go up, and lowers and moves back as you come down. Practice this by playing low E, hearing third-line B loud in your head and pressing the register key so slowly that you don't know when the tone will jump up to the B. Then move chromatically up, F to C, F#/C# and so on to first-space F/C. By the time you reach the last pair, you'll notice that your tongue position changes automatically for the high note. Hearing it first is the key. The next step is to play A below the staff, gradually press the register key for E and then gradually roll your left index finger down for C#. Carry the warmth of the A up to the E, and carry the warmth of the A and the clarity of the E up to the C#. And then go chromatically up until you reach (side-key) Eb/Bb/G. The G will be flat, but don't worry. This is just an exercise. Again, hear before you move, and notice the subtle voicing changes as you change registers. You really need at least a few face-to-face lessons to get you back into the saddle. What I've described is only what I do, and your way will always be at least a little different. Keep warm in ChiTown. When I was 10, I walked down the long spit from the Planetarium to the Aquarium on a really bitter day with winds screaming in off the lake, and 60 years later I still remember being ready to die. Ken Shaw Post Edited (2014-01-05 05:58)

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