 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: moute
Date: 2017-05-09 01:42
Hi! I'm a 17 years old clarinetist. My biggest flaw is articulation, I actually never learned to properly do it. A lot of people have told me that my staccato are blurry. I have the 32 and 40 études of C. Rose. And I was wondering if anyone knew which really work articulations? Or if you have any exercices?
Thank you and sorry for my bad english it's not my first language!
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Author: tylerleecutts
Date: 2017-05-09 01:51
If you've been playing for a good amount of time and you're still having issues, it could be your instrument, your mouthpiece/reed setup, your way of blowing, your angle, where you're actually tounging, among other things. I would focus on the mechanical process of articulation and less on specific passages that have articulation challenges.
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2017-05-09 02:07
One of the basic books in developing just about any clarinet skill is the Carl Baermann Clarinet Method, Book III. Every study in that book, scales, arpeggios, scales in intervals, etc. can be used to practice articulation. I recommend David Hite's edition as especially good for that purpose. Practice all the scales tongued and in the various mixed slurred and tongued articulation patterns that Hite recommends. Then practice all the arpeggio and interval studies that way as well.
Practicing these is more intense and requires more stamina and attention than practicing articulation in etudes (which you should also do), but once you have developed the coordination of fingers and tongue and the reliable breath flow to sustain them by overcoming the obstacles in Baermann, you will be able to transfer these skills to any etudes or music you might want to play.
Again, the book to get is "Foundation Studies from Baermann Book 3, Op. 63, Daily Studies" compiled and edited by David Hite, published by Southern Music Co, San Antonio, TX and available through Amazon.com. Van Cott, Luybens Music, and many other dealers.
On the final page of text, page 96, Hite supplies a chart of articulation patterns that you should use when practicing the exercises. It is best to use this book in conjunction with a good clarinet teacher who can offer advice and discuss tongue position, imagined syllables, and other fine points of articulation production.
Post Edited (2017-05-09 02:16)
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-05-09 04:42
moute wrote:
> Hi! I'm a 17 years old clarinetist. My biggest flaw is
> articulation, I actually never learned to properly do it. A lot
> of people have told me that my staccato are blurry. I have the
> 32 and 40 études of C. Rose. And I was wondering if anyone
> knew which really work articulations? Or if you have any
> exercises?
>
You could pick any etude that has passages that aren't marked with slurs. Of you could begin by using articulated scales, which you probably have memorized, which will eliminate having to read or to solve fingering problems, at least until you feel and hear your articulation improving.
More than material, you need a process. You need to know what "a lot of people" mean, so maybe record yourself and compare the way you sound to the way established players sound playing the same material (recordings or YouTube). You need to analyze what your tongue is now doing and how you're using air in producing articulated passages.
There is a related thread going on about articulation in which Tony Pay places a link to an essay he first posted here in 1993 and has revised several times - http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=316748&t=316712&v=t that can give your thinking some direction.
"Blurry" unclear articulation is sometimes the result of touching the reed too far below its tip to actually stop it from vibrating. Another cause I've run into in a few students is that they are moving their jaws up and down so much that the separation of the notes is actually being accomplished by pulsating jaw pressure and not by the tongue at all.
Karl
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Author: nellsonic
Date: 2017-05-09 08:21
In addition to what Karl said about the tongue touching too low on the reed, sometimes the issue, or part of it, is too much tongue touching the reed and thus creating imprecision in the transition from on to off as too much flesh is "squished" against the reed and doesn't come off all at once.
This is sometimes accompanied by too much pressure from the tongue onto the reed in an attempt to compensate.
The Kell Staccato Studies might be useful to you. They are not as technically demanding as the Rose, which will allow you to put more attention on the issue.
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2017-05-09 09:42
Paying attention to the position of the tongue is important, but just as important is having the sound in your ear and mind that you are aiming for in various types of articulation from very long to very short, accented and unaccented. Perhaps the best way to grasp this sound of varied articulation done rapidly and elegantly on the clarinet is to listen to eminent players do it.
Philippe Cuper, of the Paris Opera Orchestra, performs all 32 Rose etudes on a recent CD with very subtle piano accompaniment. Listening to him often, and carefully following the written music as he plays, will show you in a concrete and memorable way what teachers mean when they say tongue lightly and support the tonguing with air; in other words, find a way to do what Cuper's doing. You will seldom hear the Rose 32 played better. Even if it's years before you can play those etudes at his tempos, just conceptualizing the sound by listening will give you a definite goal to work toward. You will have an "Aha!" moment when you know "so this is the way a well-articulated piece on the clarinet sounds; this is acceptable articulation for classical music."
His CD comes bundled with the Cuper edition of the Rose 32 for International Music Diffusion, 2011, available from Van Cott Information Services. (See the Music & Books link to the right of this screen).
Also be sure to listen on recordings to the way clarinetists like Sabine Meyer, Wenzel Fuchs, Andreas Ottensamer, Harold Wright, Ricardo Morales, Philippe Berrod, Todd Levy, Anthony McGill, Yona Ettlinger, et al. articulate. You need aural role models to imitate.
Post Edited (2017-05-09 18:59)
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