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Re: Marching Band Questions

Author: Curinfinwe
Date: 2016-04-24 06:52

I've spent a few summers as clarinet section leader in a Canadian military marching band. I definitely appreciate the difficulties in being heard with a small clarinet section, against a loud band.
Apart from equipment, my advice is along the lines of playing style and sound. Some of it's hard to explain without demonstrating, but I developed a feel for it eventually.

To be heard outside, work on the releases of your notes. Don't clip them unless absolutely necessary in the music or specifically asked for by your band director. Think of letting the sound ring, and try to feel it whooshing through your instrument and into all the air around you and further. Related to this is staccato. My staccato for marching is very different than my staccato for classical playing- my teacher says it sounds like a machine gun. You want truly explosive sound here, especially in the high register, where so many melodies lie. I recommend the Filas etude book for developing your altissimo and ability to cleanly articulate up there.

In the ancient world, before amplification, one technique that generals and other speakers, such as Caesar, used to make themselves heard over a large area was by pitching their voice much higher. High overtones carry, and although we often try to create a dark sound on the clarinet, you need to cultivate an almost nasal, bright sound. I'm a fan of the B45 for that, with a metal ligature.

Use as soft a reed as possible. You might think that it's more difficult to be heard on a soft reed, but it will give you more endurance, and when you get used to it, more control of those high overtones you want to create.

As people have noted above, marching is very hard on the player. Parade chops is definitely a thing, and I take a page from brass players' and do a warm down as well as a warm up. This usually consists of long tone exercises targeted to create and maintain flexibilty, something like this: http://williamhollifield.com/wp-content/uploads/ClarinetToneExercises-Clarinet-in-Bb-p22.jpg.
There's also a book by Larry Guy about embouchure building that has lots of awesome ideas, with text, so that you really understand what's going on and can adapt it to your own needs.

I hope that helps! Let me know if anything is unclear or if you have any more questions.

Anna

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