 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: gregbaker112@gmail.com
Date: 2015-04-15 02:44
I am working on Rhapsody in Blue for an audition next month. I know it's a tongue in cheek excerpt but with two positions open it may decide first and second chair.
I have only been at it a few days, but I CANNOT GLISS!!! 😤
Every time I try the whole solo I either squeak overtones too soon, or nothing comes out at all. Interestingly, it sounds relatively good if I play it cold (no trill or scale). Also I can gliss very well with only my right hand.
I have looked at countless YouTube videos to no avail. Even if I "destabilize" the embouchure as a few have suggested, I get the same results.
What am I doing wrong? And why the right hand but not both. Those who have tried my horn out say it does it very well.
My guess is that it is my hand position on the right side. I have trouble keeping that hand in position, since I have two surgically repaired wrists.
Is there something i am missing?? Go ahead and watch a few of the videos and let me know. Seems like I have loosened everything I can (embouchure, throat, etc).
Literally playing in Blue over this solo that should be so much fun. Thanks in advance.
Greg Baker
gregbaker112@gmail.com
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-04-15 04:46
Ok, you don't need a video. All you need to do is pick a mid clarion note, let's say top of the staff "G." Now let your embouchure and oral cavity work together (LOOSEN) so that you can play a few notes below that without adding any fingers. From there just "slide" back up. That is essentially a glissando. From there all you do is continue the slide by making sure your fingers are ahead a few notes (usually once you start the slide you can even take the fingers out of the equation (play "open").
Starting the slide as low as possible in the clarion is a bit of a trick. I "nudge" the left pinky "C#" key while fingering the third line "B." Once you have the "feel," getting the "slide" started is all you need.
............Paul Aviles
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Author: JHowell
Date: 2015-04-15 06:42
Playing a gliss of any width using primarily embouchure and oral cavity is something that works better with some setups than others, and better for some players than others. I cannot gliss between registers or very well in the lower register, so what I do is more of a finger slide from the clarion D up, with a fingered scale/gliss to get to the clarion. My recommendation is to start with a smear from B to C. You should be able to make that half step satisfactorily slowly and greasily just by sliding your index finger off the tone hole. Energetic support is a must. Then go down to A and repeat the gliss to C. Then G, then F, then E, then D.
Some mouthpieces work better for this than others, so try whatever you have around. The way I do it, I use a fairly hard reed, and the setup feels maybe a little "dead" for normal playing, but the resistance gives me something to hold against and guards against the gliss jumping the tracks.
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Author: clarinetist04
Date: 2015-04-15 15:03
"Some mouthpieces work better for this than others"
Not disagreeing, but for someone learning how to gliss/smear for the first time, it should be doable on any good mouthpiece.
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Author: TomS
Date: 2015-04-15 23:47
Michele Gingras has a video on the glissando ... that will give you some hints.
It's a combination of the throat (voicing), embouchure and sliding the fingers that allows you to do this ...
Good luck ... you will find a way.
Tom
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Author: gregbaker112@gmail.com
Date: 2015-04-17 02:52
Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I am getting better at it. Tom, could you post a link to Michele Gingra's video? I have checked YouTube and can not find it. Thanks
GB
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2015-04-17 05:18
I've found a way of doing the gliss from upper register C# to the high C without sliding any fingers - when you get to the C#, take your thumb off the thumb hole but still keep the speaker key held open.
Then using your tongue position and throat muscles in a similar way you'd do an upward whistle, this one fingering will take you from the C# to the top C. If you have trouble in the middle, slowly lift off and replace LH finger 3 onto its tonehole.
So the fingering for top C is:
Speaker key, left thumb OFF thumb tube, xxx LH F#/C#|xxx (taking the C# with the left pinky as you've just come from the RH C natural).
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Sylvain
Date: 2015-04-17 21:35
I second Paul's suggestions with a few modifications.
Start with the top of the run (C above the staff) and try to bend the pitch down as far as you can without using your fingers. It's a little different for every one, but I have success with dropping the tongue (eeh to OAH kind of vowel) and loosening the embouchure a little bit.
With a little practice you can go from C down to G.
Then practice going up with some sliding of fingers.
Do the same thing from G above the staff down to D, then practice going up with some sliding of fingers.
What happens for me, is that embouchure and voicing do 99% of the work and the finger motion just help kick start the gliss.
I do think of it as two gliss (D-G, then G-C), which need to sound like one
--
Sylvain Bouix <sbouix@gmail.com>
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Author: Morrigan
Date: 2015-04-17 23:04
The piece of the puzzle I was missing for a long time was AIR! I'm not sure why, but I would back off, however a gliss requires plenty of air.
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Author: BflatNH
Date: 2015-04-17 23:50
In the beginning of learning how to gliss, I found that reeds that are less 'resistant' (not necessarily softer) make it easier for me to gliss. The more resistant reeds tend to demand good finger (and pad) sealing to make the note, while 'easier blowing' (less lossy or higher 'Q' in engineering terms) reeds don't need much sealing to resonate more or less where you put your fingers.
The other part of less damping on the reed is to drop my jaw (maybe take in more mpc) and apply less lip against the reed. Sort of unlearning all the good technique that took years to acquire.
Warning: once you gliss, Klezmer starts to sound interesting.
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Author: TomS
Date: 2015-04-18 00:55
For Michele Gingras ... go to the iTunes store "52 Clarinet Secrets" ... it's a free download.
Tom
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Author: Chetclarinet
Date: 2015-04-20 03:47
I play a fast chromatic scale to the fourth line d change my air focus from the very front of my oral cavity(as if singing falsetto) to the back of the oral cavity( as I if singing a very low note in the chest voice) and pull my fingers slowly away from the holes in a sideways motion. --now a good story: I was playing principal clarinet in a ballet orchestra years ago and we did a ballet version of Rhapsody in Blue. Three performances went great and after the third performance, a friend in the orchestra complemented me on the glissando. The fourth performance went not so well-- I got stuck half way up and had to finger a chromatic scale fast to make the high c. My friend came up to me and said " remind me to always complement you after the last performance!" Good times in those days!
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Author: Dileep Gangolli
Date: 2015-04-20 04:34
Try using a very open mouthpiece (like a Vandoren Jazz mpc) and a very soft reed (like a 2.5 Rico or Legere). I think that this needs a setup that is not a traditional classical set up (closer facing and harder reed).
Many of the other suggestions are indeed good ones but I have found this to be a very hard solo and quite nerve racking.
There are many famous players who could not play this (though they are in the past). I doubt that one could win and hold a job without negotiating this solo consistently and adding personal flair to their presentation.
By the way, the solo came about because Ross Gorman, the clarinetist in the Whiteman band, was goofing around and Gershwin heard him and asked him to stick in the gliss instead of a chromatic scale. Gorman did the gliss from the very bottom and did not "cheat" by waiting until the second register to do the gliss.
Also, the original version (as heard in a recording on RCA that is available through the Library of Congress site and others) sounds more like a klezmer clarinetist than an orchestral clarinets. I think that over time, and perhaps due to the Grofe orchestration, the original soul and character has been lost and we have evolved to a more classical presentation though the original has much more bite and ethic flavor.
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Author: bensimmonds
Date: 2015-04-20 10:41
Just performed this for the first time last weekend. Great fun to play!
I struggled to get the gliss on and off for a few years. The breakthrough for me was a complete change of setup, moving away from the trusty old B45. and firm #3 Van Dorens to a pretty Van Doren A2 (really short lay) and soft #1.5 reeds.
"You do things that some people think are impossible, and that's what separates the men from the boys" ~ Artie Shaw
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