 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: rocout
Date: 2005-06-03 11:45
Hello all,
I have a 12 year old student who has been playing for a couple of years, but is still having a lot of trouble in the upper register. She reports that in order to make any note above the staff speak, she must touch the tip of the mouthpiece to the roof of her mouth!! Yikes! I've told her that this is not a good tactic, but I don't know how to help her get those notes to speak normally. Her embouchure is pretty weak and loose-looking most of the time. Reminding her to put those muscles to work supporting the reed has little effect. Her upper lip in particular looks under-utilized. Any suggestions I can give her? This is my first year teaching privately, so I don't have many tricks up my sleeve yet.
Thanks in advance!
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Author: William
Date: 2005-06-03 14:23
Have your student play a long G4. Take hold of the barrel and gently try to move the mouthpiece from side to side. The students reaction will be to strengthen the embouchure in an attempt to prevent this motion. As the embouchure tightens, the tone should come up to pitch and improve in tambre.
Another tactic that works for me is to reverse the mouthpiece to the "upside down" position and have your student blow into it while you finger the clarinet, playing from the low register to the upper, over the break. This will give your student the "feel" for these notes without having to place the tip on the roof of the mouth. This is also a good way check the clarinet for any suspected leakage and to demostrate the need for covering all of the tone holes.
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Author: Merlin
Date: 2005-06-03 14:29
How's her pitch? Do you play with her, so she has your tone and pitch as a model? Have you tried just establishing a proper mouthpiece pitch by playing just the mouthpiece?
I find that if I do these things, and work the student through the Galper book, which firmly establishes low register familiarity before going up, my students will have relatively few problems.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-06-03 14:48
Galper Book: Get it from VanCott or Luyben Music. It is published by Waterloo Music Canada and is NOT the "Clarinet for Beginners" series (Boosey Canada) which Abe did 20 years ago. The series to get is the "Clarinet Method" book 1 (and 2 later).
From what you are saying here, I take it that you are telling the student to "take more mouthpiece". Taking more Mouthpiece could "possibly" be the cause of the Mouthpiece hitting the roof of her mouth if she is taking
way too much of the TOP of the mouthpiece. Have her try placing her lower lip lower down on the mouthpiece **without** taking more of the top of it.
That style of playing is what Charlie Neidich teaches - very little top and lots of bottom (top of the mouthpiece is high while the lip is low down on the reed).
She will be able to get a lot more leverage that way without squeeking. The more top you take the easier it is to loose control and squeek.
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Author: Llewsrac
Date: 2005-06-03 15:22
A difficult position for you and the student.
Before coming to you did the student have another teacher or is this all the students doing?
I would take the child back to day only on the mouthpiece until she can demostrate correct positioning and sound on the mouthpiece. Then begin the slow process of reteaching. Trying to correct and repair her as is will be very difficult. Starting all over may give her a better chance at playing correctly.
Keep in mind once a student is in her position she may not recover, be ready with options of changing instruments. Not everyone is made to play an instrument.
Good Luck!
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Author: Markael
Date: 2005-06-03 15:50
David B,
I looked on Van Cott’s website and I don’t think he offers the Galper method books.
Out of curiosity, I would be interested in more information about what makes the Galper method special. I’m asking because it is very easy to accumulate a stack of books looking for the silver bullet. I do very much like Galper’s Tone, Technique and Staccato.
Also, any opinions on Ridenour’s Educator’s Guide to the Clarinet? I’m working through it now, (purchased from Van Cott, by the way) and it has a lot of good information. It could be a good teaching resource for Rocout.
M
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Author: crnichols
Date: 2005-06-03 16:23
Have you tried double lip embouchure with her yet. It should help strengthen her upper lip. Carmine Campione's book has some particularly interesting thoughts on double lip embouchure as a teaching tool. If you haven't acquired it, the chapters on fundamentals are a good read for any aspiring pedagogue. She may have a constriction problem which is keeping her from voicing those notes correctly, and double lip embouchure can help alleviate that constriction. An exercise you can give her to help learn to voice these notes properly is simply playing the fundamental and adding the register key. Actually, if she's already dependent on her improper technique, it might help to just have her play the fundamental and then add the register key to prove that her approach is unnecessary. Good luck! Let me know if any of this works.
Christopher Nichols
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Author: crnichols
Date: 2005-06-03 16:27
I forgot one thing. In order to show her where her top teeth should be, you can use two of those mouthpiece patches. Put the second one on as normal, then cut the second one, so there's a straight line, and put it where her top teeth should go. It'll help her get over the strange feeling. That's another tactic in case double lip doesn't work or isn't an option.
Christopher Nichols
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Author: Meri
Date: 2005-06-03 19:42
If you haven't already, why not give her part of the very first lesson you might teach to a total beginner to the clarinet--that is, how to form the embouchure, how to blow the air, and how to breathe while playing? I have been using this idea recently to improve the tone of several students who started private lessons after playing for at least a couple of years (since I noticed that the tone of my students who take private lessons from the very beginning (or close to it) was superior to those who I was having to make small adjustments. It has worked very well for dramatically improving their tone.
Also show her how it's the air that starts the sound, not the tongue, by having her blow into the instrument without using her tongue.
Is she using a decent mouthpiece, like a Fobes Debut? Some of the cheapos are really hard to blow on. Also check the strength of her reeds, and the type she is using.
Meri
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-06-03 20:31
Markael - Galper's series are very logical in how the notes are learned from the low notes (after of course the throat notes) and beyond. The tunes which he selects to use are designed to work on specific areas of the instrument and he drills them very well without them seeming like "drills". Personally I don't think that anything else comes close to them for quality.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-06-03 21:02
btw, I used the Galper method long before I knew Abe from anything but a face on the back of a method book which I was very fond of. (the book, not the face
I've been using his series for about the past 20 years.
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Author: rocout
Date: 2005-06-05 14:44
Thanks so much for all of your great suggestions. I taught her yesterday morning, and I implemented several of your ideas. I placed a mouthpiece patch "bumper" on the top to show her the point beyond which her teeth should not go. Next we turned the mouthpiece around and she blew while I fingered the clarinet. Using that arrangement she CAN play into the upper register without any drastic changes to her embouchure. I was fingering jumps of 12ths just using the register key, and she was able to do it successfully several times (though not every time.)
Next I explained the double lip embouchure and had her play a slow FMaj scale using it. I assigned her 5minutes of double-lip practice per day on slow scales to see if it helps her. She seemed excited by what we were doing, and the possibility of high notes being easier to play. I am hopeful that this combination of techniques will yield noticable improvements next week. Thanks so much for your ideas; you save the day!
Christina
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