Author: donald
Date: 2014-09-07 09:17
Kia ora,
I have been meaning to contribute to this thread for a while now, but only today have time to sit down and write. I agree quite strongly with David Blumberg on this issue- but for reasons not mentioned yet in the thread.
I currently teach students in the 10-17 age group though in the past I've have quite a few advanced students and have experience teaching at the University of Oklahoma, CCM and at Auckland University (NZ). Since returning to NZ I have found students here do not deal very well with “following instructions”, and generally teaching clarinet as series of “rules” (ie you MUST do this with your mouth, do this with your finger etc) does not work well here if one chooses to be too, er, vigorous. I have to convince my students to do things, rather than just instruct them- this has upsides and downsides, but one side effect is that I have to choose my battles and carefully consider the priorities of what I will be “hard arsed” about. [This is certainly the case in any country/culture, but here it does seem to me to be MORE SO as our educational system is focussed on guiding and encouraging the students interest rather than ordering them to follow instructions, for better or worse].
How does this relate to this thread? Well, I would have to say that many of the problems I encounter with older students (particularly those who come to me from other teachers) is that they don't really HOLD THE CLARINET PROPERLY. Let's re-phrase that- they don't hold the clarinet SECURELY. If the “main points of stabilisation” are the right thumb and the top teeth, then the fingers can find the holes more easily, and with lighter finger pressure. Using the fingers to stabilise (most commonly the right hand fingers, but I've seen many variations) slows down technique- often not to a level that is TOO inhibiting at a beginner/early level, but ALWAYS problematic once more advanced music is to be played.
Many of the things we do as players are unconscious and instinctive- and if the clarinet is not held SECURELY then players tend to use the bottom half of their embouchure to steady the clarinet. This creates a new set of problems- most notably “pinching the sound” when going to and from throat notes, and is just as limiting in “My Bonnie lies over the ocean” (starting on middle C) as it is in the Brahms 3rd Symphony andante.
SO, I make it a priority to get students to support the clarinet correctly with their right thumb, so that when they play open G the clarinet is only being held by the thumb and the top/upper teeth. As soon as their fingers are able, my students are warming up with me playing C/D/E/F/G in a scale, then slurring the intervals C-F and C-G in order to make this habitual. Most students I teach find that this improves the tone quality of the throat notes, frees up the right hand fingers (a common test is- how fast can they tremolo between middle C and low A) and makes larger intervals using the left hand (even though it would appear not to be affected by this) more fluent.
Some of my smaller students start on a C or E flat clarinet, but regardless of the instrument used I insist on this, and if the student is not physically able to play this way I regard them as too physically immature to play the clarinet.
There is a time for introducing “resonance fingerings”/Right-hand-down (for technical fluency OR improved intonation/tone OR both) and I have strategies/repertoire for this, however I consider the way of holding the clarinet described above to be a significant priority worth making a fuss over.
You are free to disagree, I doubt I will have time or energy to argue much so please don't be offended if I don't reply to any outraged posts.
Thanks
dn
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The Clarinet BBoard
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