 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Irwin J
Date: 2015-02-20 21:27
I'm back to playing seriously after more than a 10 year absence. I'll be starting lessons in the spring, and before then am working on getting whatever chops I had back by working scales and the Rose studies. I'm finding the suggested tempos in many of the Rose studies are way too fast for me. For example: Page 7 in 40 Studies for Clarinet has a tempo of quarter note = 126, and at that tempo my playing is riddled with errors. So far I'm good with a tempo of about half that. I just started that study today and guess I'll just sit on it and notch up the tempo slightly only if I can play it well and with no mistakes at the prior tempo. Any thoughts on that?
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Author: Jamnik
Date: 2015-02-20 21:53
After a ten year break this is completely acceptible. Play at a speed you find comfortable where you play correctly, with good embouchure, good tone, and proper hand position. Once you achieve this then you can add to the tempo. The last thing you want to do in my opinion is sacrifice proper techniques for speed.
Jamnik
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2015-02-20 21:57
+1. There's so much to work on, not just plain speed. Rhythm (and if it only means playing those quarters with clockwork precision) is at least as important.
Spring may be near, but not that damn close. :-)
Merry playing, Ben
--
Ben
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2015-02-20 22:56
Yes Irwin. I have one.
You are a smart man for not taking that music at the tempo written, and rather, as you are, at a speed you're comfortable with. ![[wink]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie3.gif)
Post Edited (2015-02-20 22:57)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2015-02-21 02:45
First, are you talking about the 7th etude or, as I suspect, P. 7 of the Fischer edition, which is etude #5 (the one with the triplet eighth notes in D minor, indeed marked Allegro quarter=126)? I'll assume you mean etude #5.
Next, understand that the tempo indications in this edition, which I think was Rose's original one, are Rose's, not those of the original composers. So you aren't going to violate any kind of textual purity standards by ignoring them and using tempos that you can make sound musical.
This one, based on an older violin study by Fiorillo, is athletic in nature and one of its most important features is the ability to make the notes respond cleanly in each register. From its character I would suspect for a violinist it was very much about clean string crossings. It's interesting, maybe, that Fiorillo apparently marked this etude Allegretto with no metronome mark in 2-quarter with 16th-note triplets.
That may seem like unneeded detail, and to an extent it is. But the point is that each of these etudes is meant to strengthen a particular musical or technical skill. Rose took violin studies and edited them to make them more clarinet-friendly. So, in this etude, keeping the fingerings clean is important and so is making each articulated note (both the singles and the beginnings of the duples) speak clearly with good tone. Whether you do it slowly or quickly, if you're being careful about those things, you will get benefit from practicing the etude.
You may at first want to do this in sections and get comfortable with each section separately. I wouldn't recommend starting at the beginning and slogging through to the end each time you practice this study. Take two or three staves at a time, find harmonically logical stopping points (cadences) and concentrate on cleaning that portion up as well as possible. The octave leaps at the bottom are always a stumbling point for my students. You could easily make the last dozen bars a study by themselves.
Enjoy!
Karl
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Author: Irwin J
Date: 2015-02-21 03:27
thanks all good advice. And Karl, it's all triplets, first one tongued, second two slurred. It starts in F and halfway through switches over to D. Good idea about breaking it up into smaller sections to master individually before taking it all on.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2015-02-21 08:41
Everything will come back, no matter how long the layoff.
Begin with a metronome, at a tempo where you can play perfectly. Going faster just trains you to make mistakes.
Good luck.
Ken Shaw
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Author: pewd
Date: 2015-02-21 20:34
Most people practice too fast.
Numerous discussions here on this subject.
Slow down to whatever tempo you have to in order to play it perfectly, without any wrong notes. Then speed it up. But get the notes and rhythms correct first.
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: TomS
Date: 2015-02-21 20:57
Speed is the least important of all your playing qualities. Get everything else perfect before you click your metronome up a notch.
However, I do think that occasionally, you need to play through it, up to tempo or faster, mistakes and all, after you have practiced for a while. Just blast through it "full-tilt-boogie" and, without stopping. I had a teacher that recommended this ... seemed to have some merit with some students, but I don't know where he got this idea.
Then, once you have scared yourself, go back to the tempo that is playable.
I'll probably take some flack for this post ...
Tom
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Author: kdk
Date: 2015-02-21 21:11
As a once in awhile reality check, this is OK. The problem is that, at least in my experience with my own students, they start at the beginning and try to go to the end, unless they run out of time or lose patience with it. So, the beginning always sounds much more secure than the last part of everything they play.
I am tempted to add to my earlier recommendation to Irwin about segmenting that you start with the octaves in the last 12 bars, clean them up, and then work backwards, reviewing the parts through the end that you've already learned. This is also a way to practice difficult individual passages. Learn the last bit first, then start a little farther back and play to the end, then work backwards through the passage in pieces until you've got the whole thing.
Karl
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Author: TomS
Date: 2015-02-22 22:03
Working measures back to front is a great approach ... and the way many players work out difficult stuff. The same teacher that subscribed to the "blasting" idea that I mentioned, also turned me on the the back to front technique.
Tom
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The Clarinet Pages
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