 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: CarlT
Date: 2014-08-20 17:33
I hope this question is not too stupid:
I find that one of the things that gives me the most trouble is coordinating my fingers with my tongue in relatively fast passages (and I'm not talking about double-tonguing).
The only thing I know to do to improve is slow it down, then keep adding a beat or two on the metronome as I progress until the two are in sync, etc.
Do you have any other/better suggestions on how to improve this aspect of playing, or is the above basically the solution (I'm forever looking for easier ways out of problems)?
CarlT
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Author: kdk
Date: 2014-08-20 19:41
Your tongue and your fingers don't move together if your tongue is moving at one speed and your fingers at another, but it also happens when your tongue is moving at a steady speed and your fingers aren't (or vice-versa, which in my experience is rarer).
Also, in my own experience, trying deliberately to "coordinate the fingers with the tongue" is usually a fruitless exercise. What's needed is to get the fingers moving evenly and the tongue moving at the same speed as the fingers. Assuming you're talking about passages that don't involve especially fast tonguing, one thing you can try with a metronome is playing the notes slurred in tempo, making sure that notes are rhythmically even, then tonguing a series of notes on a single pitch at the same tempo. If you can't tongue as fast as the tempo you've chosen for your fingers, you're into a whole other area involving tongue speed. If you can do both the fingers and the tongue separately and evenly at the same tempo, then it's a matter of mentally maintaining the tempo in your imagination and playing the passage with both together. At that point it's best not to try to interfere by deliberately trying to control the relationship between your fingers and your tongue. That just tightens things up and makes your tongue slower and your fingers less even. Pay attention to the musical content and let the control belong to a less conscious part of your neuro-muscular system.
Karl
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2014-08-20 20:17
There is a practice technique which was developed/"invented" by Daniel Bonade. It's referred to as "fingers ahead" or "Bonade articulation."
Bonade writes about it in the Clarinetists' Compendium. It involves stopping the reed with the tongue (while still continuing to keep the air pressure "blowing" at the reed/tongue) and immediately moving the fingers to the next note. The notes are played slowly but rhythmically. Once your fingers are at the next note, the tongue releases the reed and the air which is already "blowing" is available to produce sound immediately.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2014-08-20 21:32
Katrina wrote:
> There is a practice technique which was developed/"invented" by
> Daniel Bonade. It's referred to as "fingers ahead" or "Bonade
> articulation."
I was trained in this technique long ago (my teacher in college and at least two of my earlier teachers were Bonade students - none of them was very persistent about this). As a practical matter, the delay between finger movement and reed release tends to disappear as the speed increases. Bonade's point is that the space created by the time the tongue is stopping the reed to create staccato is when the fingers should move.
It may be helpful to practice this way, but for myself, I've never been really convinced that it's much more than a theoretical construct that works consciously only at slow note speeds. Obviously, whatever the note speed is, the fingers can't be moving after the tongue release. Moving the fingers at the same time the tongue releases doesn't give much margin for error *if you're thinking separately about the tongue and the fingers as you play.* IMHO, at any reasonably quick note speed this in itself can be destructive, so trying consciously to move the finger before the tongue releases *beyond a fairly slow note speed* can become nit-picky and distracting.
Karl
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-08-20 21:59
KDK,
You have it backwards. But let me give another try at explaining the "synchro staccato" exercise first.
You play a note; then move your finger(s) to the next note; then play that note; then move your finger(s) to the next note; then play that note etc.
It looks (sounds) like this: 'TUT,' move, 'TUT,' move, 'TUT,' etc.
Keep in mind this is TWO exercises in one. The first being coordination, but the other is proper tonguing technique of fast staccato. Stopping the note with the tongue (as you continue to blow air) is what is actually happing at a good tempo, we just slow it down to realize it at a 'learning speed.'
You are moving to the note you want BEFORE you tongue (of course you need to start somewhere).
I have students play a scale at a quarter note equals sixty beats per minute, with the notes as the downbeat eighth and the 'move' as the off beat eighths.
This was Bonade's way to REALLY slow down the coordination of the tongue and finger movement. As you rightly point out, you can't move after tonguing, you move BEFORE you tongue and this exaggerates the process to make it a fundamental method of practice.
.................Paul Aviles
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Author: kdk
Date: 2014-08-20 22:34
Paul, I understand the process, and I didn't have it "backward," - I think I said the same thing both you and Katrina have said (so I don't disagree about how the process works). If I didn't re-describe it clearly, that's a writer's fault, not one of misunderstanding the technique. The fingers move while the tongue is stopping the reed. So, of course, you're "moving to the note you want BEFORE you tongue," assuming that by "tongue" you mean release the reed to begin the note your fingers are already set for.
I stand by my opinion, though, having been taught this way (somewhat, I thought at the time, perfunctorily) by players in a direct line back to Bonade, that, though I find myself *doing* it that way at slow note speeds, I don't find it a useful conscious technique for myself to try to continue the process as the speed increases. As always, YMMV.
Karl
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2014-08-20 22:35
Additionally, I'd like to point out that IMO the Bonade technique is not meant to be the only way of working on staccato. IMO it's just the one that addresses the coordination of fingers and tongue the most centrally.
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2014-08-20 23:26
FYI I don't think of this technique consciously while playing something...IMO it's merely a PRACTICE TECHNIQUE designed to foster the muscle memory needed while performing.
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