 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2021-02-23 20:58
I'm not far from 60 years of age. Although I and my physician considered my head still "well in the game," there's times when I feel like my short term memory, well, isn't what it use to be.
I raise this point because sight reading music with large numbers of accidentals in each measure, especially which change from measure to measure, are works that I find myself having to considerably slow down the metronome on, and practice until passages have been "muscle memory" memorized.
Maybe it's as much issues with my music abilities that always existed as it is my aging brain.
Or maybe it's somewhat of a universal problem.
Take the 2nd etude in Jeanjean's 18 etudes for clarinet that I'm currently working on. For those who are familiar, the 2nd page of this etude is chock full of accidental changes.
Or maybe take current Clarinet board poster Tom Heimer's "The Most Advanced Clarinet Book."
By no means am I knocking either work: quite the contrary. Mr. Heimer, I strongly suspect by design, presents etudes with ever changing accidentals, so as to, I suspect, with intent in design, eliminate many of the cues players use to sight read, forcing maximum concentration on the part of the player: a good thing IMHO.
So, all this said, is there...."technique" for better sight reading this stuff and remembering what accidentals the player encountered earlier in a measure, when cues like melody seem all but absent?
Thanks.
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Author: Bennett ★2017
Date: 2021-02-23 21:52
For sight reading, there's little to help. But if you are working on a piece to get it under your figures, there's always a pencil to remind you about the B#'s. Or a
highlighter to remind you of the Fb's. I'm 78 y.o. and don't consider it a problem to mark up my music.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2021-02-23 22:58
I'll second the pencil for music you're trying to learn.
For sight reading, slowing down a little and forgiving your own errors, while trying not to stop for them, is IMO the best approach. If you're talking about practicing until muscle memory has taken over, you aren't even close to talking about sight-reading. Since you aren't a studio musician, for whom really accurate reading is an expectation, I would suggest not dwelling on error-free sight-reading and saving the effort (including pencil reminders) for the pieces you decide to continue to work on.
Karl
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2021-02-23 23:56
The pencil is the way to go. But all you really need is a small mark (I use a small check mark above or below the note). There is not need to put a set of glasses or a large note to yourself; keep it simple.
Also try to see if you can get your eyes moving a little further ahead of your playing. This would also improved your sight reading.
'HRL
PS I have been playing longer than 60 years but I still need a little reminder from time to time when something is unusual and/or quite unexpected.
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2021-02-24 00:12
Thanks. FWIW my music is already filled with penciled in accidental reminders, "ch" and "no ch" notations for taking a note with a chromatic figuring or not, and "LR"/"RL" notations where pinky swaps are necessary for this 1960's owning R13 lover whose clarinet's absent a left pinky Eb/Ab lever! 
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Author: LFabian
Date: 2021-02-24 01:34
I am 72 and nearsighted as well as floaters in the right eye. As I am playing left to right, my right is not differentiating between sharps and naturals. The smaller the print and notes, the more difficult. I have to memorize the phrase or use the 2b pencil marks I’ve put in (if it is really needed). Enlarging the page is the easiest way to go.
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Author: OneWatt
Date: 2021-02-24 01:46
Chuckling as I read how many of us older folks need a few pencil marks to remind us of stuff, I was going to comment accordingly. Whew... almost forgot... ;-)
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Author: nellsonic
Date: 2021-02-24 02:03
For vision issues, using a tablet can be really helpful. I was getting to the point where I needed glasses to be sure of naturals versus sharps and the backlighting as well the ability to resize if needed has been really helpful. Music notation is not as friendly to aging eyes as it could be!
For sight-reading, developing more awareness of scale and arpeggio patterns can be helpful so that the brain is processing chunks more than individual notes. Most of us do that to some extent, but most of us could probably take it deeper.
Etudes are great for this. Besides just marking notes the pencils can be used for indicating which scales and chords are in each bar. I find it helpful sometimes to mark intervals that vary from an expected pattern.
Sight-reading daily builds these skills more over time. If your music library gets big enough, or if you dive deeply enough into IMSLP you can sight-read forever without running out of material. I put a date on something when I sight-read it and then find that if I don't use that music for anything else it is sight-reading all over again in a year or two.
Anders
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Author: kdk
Date: 2021-02-24 03:33
nellsonic wrote:
> For vision issues, using a tablet can be really helpful.
What tablet do you use? I use a laptop with a 12" diagonal screen to avoid having to print out the music I download (from IMSLP and other sites), but I find even that limits the amount of the page I can access without scrolling. And, of course, the problem is worse if I enlarge the image. Do you just tolerate the need for more scrolling?
The concertmaster of one orchestra I play in performs from a tablet. I don't see how he does it, but he does.
>
> For sight-reading, developing more awareness of scale and
> arpeggio patterns can be helpful so that the brain is
> processing chunks more than individual notes. Most of us do
> that to some extent, but most of us could probably take it
> deeper.
>
Music like the Jeanjean etudes SecondTry mentions, or the Nielsen Concerto as another example, go quite far afield of the scales and arpeggios we've all practiced since our musical infancy. It isn't that they can't be analyzed in terms of the basic patterns, but they're heavily embellished with chromatics that defy the standard patterns. Those passages are the ones that I have to mark - especially since they often sound fine with the wrong (unaltered) note. Especially if you practice the wrong (unaltered) note enough to get used to it.
Karl
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Author: OneWatt
Date: 2021-02-24 04:10
Karl: "What tablet do you use? I use a laptop with a 12" diagonal screen to avoid having to print out the music I download (from IMSLP and other sites), but I find even that limits the amount of the page I can access without scrolling. And, of course, the problem is worse if I enlarge the image. Do you just tolerate the need for more scrolling?"
FYI, I picked up an Android tablet discontinued model brand by "Insignia" at Best Buy for around US$100 a few years ago for this very purpose. It's a touchscreen with detachable keyboard that's around 13" diagonal screen. Resolution is not Apple "retina" quality, but extremely good - with nothing lacking in terms of comfort/readability.
Easy on the eyes, you can pinch/zoom as needed. But set up landscape mode I can easily see the top half of a page in what is basically "full size" ... then touch the right side of the screen and it jumps to the bottom of the page. Then touch it again and it turns to the top of the next page ... basically it has divided a full page at full size into a top half and bottom half.
The tablet fits on a music stand and can bee seen easily in light or dark lighting at arm's length. It's great for practice, and the MobileSheets app lets me store and organize music on an SD card - more material than I could attack in a lifetime (e.g., all the clarinet classic methods, etc., plus material for several other instruments I use it for). You can also play MIDI files in sync with the music score, set metronome speeds/tones, and other such bells/whistles.
Using this fairly inexpensive software ("MobileSheets") one can load any pdf music file and manage everything with a host of library-style features: text annotations, music markings, flip sheets, all on touchscreen and/or detachable keyboard. Can also hook up foot pedal bluetooth page-turning device (also pretty cheap) but the touchscreen works easily enough for my purposes.
All together, it makes for an extremely affordable and highly reliable solution. Yet truth be told I prefer the visual/tactile experience of playing off of old-fashioned paper - not LED screens. My old school method books never need to be recharged either ;-)
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Author: Tom H
Date: 2021-02-24 09:08
I consider my sight reading to be quite good, and at age almost 67 hasn't declined--yet. I do think that it is possible to reach a plateau and not go much above it. State of mind, mental attitude probably plays a big part.
One of my favourite quotes is that you should concentrate as best you can because you only sight read something once, then it is being rehearsed. Also, at some point you may sort of run out of stuff to sight read unless you buy everything out there.
I've had those eye floaters too since 2017.....
The Most Advanced Clarinet Book--
tomheimer.ampbk.com/ Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001315, Musicnotes product no. MB0000649.
Boreal Ballad for unaccompanied clarinet-Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001314.
Musicnotes product no. MNO287475
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Author: JTJC
Date: 2021-02-24 13:39
About 50 years ago my clarinet teacher, who was also a composer, said he used to use colour on things like repeat bar-lines when producing scores to aid sight reading. I’m not sure what else he coloured, but that idea could be useful for people who have trouble distinguishing natural/sharp signs etc, as some commentators have noted. Perhaps highlighters could be used, red for sharps, blue for flats etc.
My teachers scores would have been done by hand. Colour printing was expensive in those days, so it would have not have been practicable for published scores. These days it shouldn’t be a problem. I expect professional pride and resistance from publishers would prevent the use of an idea like that these days. Has anyone come across the idea of colour in music being used anywhere ?
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Author: Ken Lagace
Date: 2021-02-24 17:53
To get back to the original question, JJ #2 is all written in whole tone tonalities.
If major and minor scales don't need pencil marks to play accurately, then getting whole tone tonality is a piece of cake after getting them in the fingers.
For the fingers. there are only two whole tone scales and four arpeggios, and the clarion fingerings are the same as a different scale/arpeggio in the chalameau.
A little wood-shedding in three octave whole tone scales starting on low 'E' and 'F' and the arpeggios starting on low 'E', 'F', 'F#' and 'G' and the Etude is much easier, even without the pencil marks.
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Author: OneWatt
Date: 2021-02-24 19:51
As Ken Lagace states above: "...To get back to the original question, JJ #2 is all written in whole tone tonalities. If major and minor scales don't need pencil marks to play accurately, then getting whole tone tonality is a piece of cake after getting them in the fingers."
As a clarinewbie, I haven't taken up JJ#2... but delving into Artie Shaw's material I soon realized the two whole tone scales/arpeggios are surprisingly easy to get "into the fingers" once the (two) patterns are seen to be flipped around in different registers.
Were it only the case that diminished scales were quite so easy ;-)
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The Clarinet Pages
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