First off, I think your videos and "lessons" are awesome. (:
Anyways, I play clarinet too, and I was wondering if you could give any advice on register jumps. I'm having a bit of embouchure control issues; when I go into the altissimo range from the lower range, it's squeaky. Heck, even jumping from the altissimo G to D is difficult. If you've ever heard/played Copland's clarinet concerto (adagio), you'll know what I'm talking about. =/
Any tips or advice would be very appreciated.
Best,
Clarinet
Thanks for checking out the videos. I played the Copland last year.....(havent looked at it since) thats a tough one.
This might sound kind of crazy but your goal is to trick your mind into not thinking in registers. You essentially want to be like a keyboard in the sense that every note is equally easy to play.... anyone can walk up to a piano and play any note with ease. However as a clarinet player each note presents its own problems. Playing a low E is much different than playing a high G.
You achieve this ease by practicing everything in 12ths(E to a B, F to a C... just using the register key, I will be sure to make a lesson on this). Your embouchure should not change through different registers. Practice long tone and tonguing exercises using 12ths. This should help a lot with the large jumps.
Also another piece of great advice i was given is that your mouthpiece rests on the top teeth....not your bottom lip. When playing high or big jumps be aware of where pressure is applied on your mouthpiece. If you apply pressure from your bottom lip on to your reed, it will muffle and do other things to your sound. If you apply pressure on your teeth and try to make the reed as free as possible to vibrate that should help open up your sound.
Hope some of this helps
Let me know how it goes
This might sound kind of crazy but your goal is to trick your mind into not thinking in registers. You essentially want to be like a keyboard in the sense that every note is equally easy to play.... anyone can walk up to a piano and play any note with ease. However as a clarinet player each note presents its own problems. Playing a low E is much different than playing a high G.
You achieve this ease by practicing everything in 12ths(E to a B, F to a C... just using the register key, I will be sure to make a lesson on this). Your embouchure should not change through different registers. Practice long tone and tonguing exercises using 12ths. This should help a lot with the large jumps.
Also another piece of great advice i was given is that your mouthpiece rests on the top teeth....not your bottom lip. When playing high or big jumps be aware of where pressure is applied on your mouthpiece. If you apply pressure from your bottom lip on to your reed, it will muffle and do other things to your sound. If you apply pressure on your teeth and try to make the reed as free as possible to vibrate that should help open up your sound.
Hope some of this helps
Let me know how it goes
Wow! Your advice really helped.
I never thought of the reed that way before, and didn't know that the pressure should be on top rather than the bottom. That helped so much, my tone pretty much improved instantly.
And the whole relaxed mindset got rid of the extra tension I had in my throat and jaw area when I played. I never thought that would go away, haha.
I really appreciate you taking the time for those bits of advice. (:
I never thought of the reed that way before, and didn't know that the pressure should be on top rather than the bottom. That helped so much, my tone pretty much improved instantly.
And the whole relaxed mindset got rid of the extra tension I had in my throat and jaw area when I played. I never thought that would go away, haha.
I really appreciate you taking the time for those bits of advice. (:
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