Color Coding for Clarinet Beginners - Chad Criswell
Citation: Criswell, Chad. Color Coding for Clarinet Beginners. Teaching Music, Aug. 2011, Vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 56-57.
Article Title: Color Coding for Clarinet Beginners
Author: Chad Criswell
Magazine or Journal Title: Teaching Music
Summary:
Article Title: Color Coding for Clarinet Beginners
Author: Chad Criswell
Magazine or Journal Title: Teaching Music
Summary:
- Learning Pinkie Fingering
- Beginning students struggle with pinkie placement.
- To ease confusion, one can use different colors of electrical tape to color code the keys
- The teacher can then call “right hand green” or “left hand blue” rather than note names, which students might not know.
- This is a time saver and eases lessens student frustration.
UPFRONT: Clarinet Pedagogy - Stanley Topfer
Citation: Topfer, Stanley. UPFRONT: Clarinet Pedagogy. School, Band, and Orchestra, Feb. 2003, (accessed September 16, 2012), http://www.sbomagazine.com/7315/archives/february-2003/upfront-clarinet-pedagogy/
Article Title: UPFRONT: Clarinet Pedagogy
Author: Stanley Topfer
Magazine or Journal Title: School, Band, and Orchestra
Summary:
Article Title: UPFRONT: Clarinet Pedagogy
Author: Stanley Topfer
Magazine or Journal Title: School, Band, and Orchestra
Summary:
- Clarinet Pedagogy
- Embouchure
- Setting the Embouchure
- Head Position
- Have student find natural head position.
- Bring instrument to mouth without head movement.
- Mouthpiece Setup
- Do not set clarinet on lower lip and close down with top jaw.
- This sets up too much pressure.
- Have students open mouth and place lower lip over bottom teeth.
- Then, students should place the mouthpiece against their top teeth.
- The mouth should close by bringing the bottom jaw up.
- Overtone Exercises
- Play 12s without the register key.
- A challenge at first
- Leads to better intonation and richer tone
- Keep the bottom lip away from the reed.
- This maximizes the freedom of the reed vibrations
- Only the bottom lip should move
- Not the jaw
- Legato Playing
- Finger Closing
- Should be smooth
- Think no tension but not ultra-light touch
- Try slow movement of the fingers first and build to faster changes
- Finger Lifting
- Lifts should be clean
- Avoid glissando effects
- Finger Shape
- Fingers should be gently and slightly curved
- Rubank Advanced Method and Perier 331 Journalistic Exercises are good for hand position
- Suggested Studies
- Rose 32 Etudes
- Jean Jean Etudes, Progressives et Melodiques
- Perier
- The Reed
- First Preparation
- Try three or four reeds to find the right one
- Don’t make adjustments until the fourth time a reed has been used
- Each reed is different
- Find the best position for the reed on the mouthpiece
- Try different ligature positions
- Trust your ears
The Pedagogical Works of Clarinetist Larry Guy - Kennen White
Citation: White, Kennen, The Pedagogical Works of Clarinetist Larry Guy. NACWPI Journal, Summer 2010, Vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 4-8.
Article Title: The Pedagogical Works of Clarinetist Larry Guy
Author: Kennen White
Magazine or Journal Title: NACWPI Journal
Summary:
Article Title: The Pedagogical Works of Clarinetist Larry Guy
Author: Kennen White
Magazine or Journal Title: NACWPI Journal
Summary:
- Biography
- Larry Guy
- Author of several books
- Compiler of clarinet recordings
- Faculty at NYU, Vassar, Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music
- Chair of Pedagogy for International Clarinet Association
- Atlanta Symphony member
- Pedagogy
- Draws from the greats who have come before him
- Embouchure Correction
- lip strength, avoid excessive pressure
- Use a soda straw and mirror for practice
- Try a Breath Builder
- Articulation
- Use a coffee cup lid to practice
- The small hole provides students with a target for their tongues
- Finger Motion
- Break intervals down
- Work new intervals slowly
- Reeds
- Guy lays out a process for selecting and breaking in reeds
Early Clarinet Pedagogy for Modern Performers - Luc Jackman
Citation: Jackman, Luc, Early Clarinet Pedagogy for Modern Performers. The Clarinet, March 2006, Vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 70-71.
Article Title: Early Clarinet Pedagogy for Modern Performers
Author: Luc Jackman
Magazine or Journal Title: The Clarinet
Summary:
Article Title: Early Clarinet Pedagogy for Modern Performers
Author: Luc Jackman
Magazine or Journal Title: The Clarinet
Summary:
- Comparison
- Not completely different from modern instruments
- Biggest issue stems from reeds
- Reeds
- Pick harder reeds on historical instruments
- Compensate for narrow bore
- Soft reeds will require adjustments to fingerings and embouchure
- Fingerings
- Use historical charts and performance practice to inform fingerings
- Produces best tone and intonation
- Adapt to your instrument
- Shading is necessary
- Half-hole
- Embouchure
- Most important control mechanism
- Flexibility is key
- Practice long tones
- Pitch level may have to adjust for instrument
Tips for Clarinetists - Brent Coppenbarger
Citation: Coppenbarger, Brent, Tips for Clarinetists. The Instrumentalist, August 2011, pp. 30, 32, 34.
Article Title: Tips for Clarinetists (For access: http://www.sendspace.com/file/7n3wdw)
Author: Brent Coppenbarger
Magazine or Journal Title: The Instrumentalist
Summary:
Article Title: Tips for Clarinetists (For access: http://www.sendspace.com/file/7n3wdw)
Author: Brent Coppenbarger
Magazine or Journal Title: The Instrumentalist
Summary:
- Technique
- Embouchure Formation
- Tuck upper lip under itself on mouthpiece
- Not under teeth
- Whistle B-flat 4 to identify tongue position
- Pressure Check
- Play on mouthpiece and reed using tuner
- Should produce a concert C that is a bit sharp
- If B, embouchure is loose, reed is soft, air is insufficient
- Use only tip of the tongue to articulate
- Try tee, dee, lee
- Practice on mouthpiece and barrel
- Careful with thumb position
- Use alternate fingerings
- Work on style changes
- Legato, staccato
- Musicianship
- Exaggerate dynamics
- Don’t accent the staccato notes or grace notes
- Don’t let them get heavy
- Watch dotted rhythms
- Hold the dotted eighth for its full value
- Use care when in combination with triplets
- Second note in a pair should be slightly louder
- Avoid pulsing air on downbeats during long tones
- Phrase appropriately
So You Want to Glissando? - Dr. Adam Ballif
Citation: Ballif, Dr. Adam, So You Want to Glissando? ClariNotes, April 2012, no. 10.
Article Title: So You Want to Glissando?
Author: Dr. Adam Ballif
Magazine or Journal Title: ClariNotes
Summary:
Article Title: So You Want to Glissando?
Author: Dr. Adam Ballif
Magazine or Journal Title: ClariNotes
Summary:
- Three Steps to Rhapsody in Blue
- Pitch Bending Exercise
- Key is voicing and tongue position
- Not fingers
- Play exercise as written to get pitches
- Repeat, fingering high C
- Change tongue to bend pitch down
- Middle/back of tongue comes closer to tip of reed
- Make oral cavity smaller
- Keep embouchure firm
- Practice at loud dynamic
- Practice Glissandos
- One step at a time
- Play first pitch and bend it down as far as possible
- Maintain tone
- Lift fingers to high C
- Bring embouchure and voicing back to normal
- Will gliss to C
- Repeat with each note until you can gliss an octave
- Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin
- Use above steps to gliss from C to C
- For opening, finger a rapid scale from low G until over the break