What does it mean to be in tune? That seems pretty obvious right? Just get out your tuner and play a note. If your not flat or sharp then you’re in tune. Easy. Done. But perhaps that’s not all there is to it. Maybe you’d like to play with an ensemble or even just one other person. So let’s make that a simple example. Two clarinet players working on a duet.
Let’s say for the sake of argument that when you play with a tuner, every note you play is right on. Now let’s say that the person you’re playing with is flat. Not just that, they are consistently flat and they’re so stubborn that they insist that they’re right. What do you do? Obviously you have to adjust your playing so that you match the other person. But, now you’re no longer in tune with the tuner. On the other hand now you’re actually playing correctly because you match what your partner is doing. Let’s take this further.
We’ll have the same two people as before (you and a stubborn partner) but now we’ll add a twist. Now when the other person plays they’re only flat some of the time. The rest of the time they’re sharp. So now not only do you have to adjust your intonation up and down, you have to constantly listen to figure out which way to go.
Getting the picture? Intonation depends on a huge number of factors – the number of people playing, the harmony being played, dynamics, balance, the range of the instrument you’re in, and so on. Intonation is not, not, not about putting the needle of a tuner right in the center. It’s about having the control to put the needle of a tuner exactly where you want it at a moments notice. The way to do that is to become intimately familiar with the tendencies of the instrument you’re playing. Not just The Clarinet, but your clarinet. Try a simple exercise. Play a chalumeau, throat tone, clarion, and altissimo G one right after the other. Now do the same thing but use a tuner. Try the exercise twice – once while looking at the tuner the whole time. The next time only look at the tuner after you’ve started the note. Is there a difference? Try the exercise many times and see if there’s a pattern to the way the notes are in or out of tune. Obviously you can do this on any note, but it’s nice to have four octaves to work with. As you add notes, you’ll begin to get a sense of where the clarinet wants to go and what you need to do to adjust it.
I think all musicians at one time or another have succumbed to GAS. That is – Gear Acquisition Syndrome. You know the feeling. That finding just the right mouthpiece, or ligature, or barrel, or whatever it is will help make your playing better. And, before I go any further let me be very clear about two things. First, that I have fallen victim to this problem myself. Second, that in a certain respect it’s true. A different clarinet, mouthpiece, barrel or anything else could help you play better. Certainly it’s easier to play on a professional model clarinet than a student one. Just as it’s better to play on a nice mouthpiece than the stock one that comes with nearly every clarinet.
So, if you were intended to buy a new piece of clarinet equipment you could hardly find a better place to look than Austin Texas between July 21 and 25. There were a huge number of vendors selling any number of accessories and instruments and no shortage of people trying them. But if you want to sound like (insert famous clarinetists’ name here) you’re never going to get there. Will some of these items make it easier to play? Absolutely. No doubt. But you will always sound like yourself. After a few weeks or months people invariably get used to the equipment they have and then find themselves faced with the same challenges they had before. So the only solution is to practice harder (or smarter) - iron out those issues of technique which challenge you the most. After that (or at the same time) you need to develop your own style and voice. In the two masterclasses I was able to see (led by Daniel Gilbert and Deborah Chodacki) the idea of developing a unique musical voice was the most important.
I don’t want to discourage you from trying a new mouthpiece. I just think that it’s important to realize that you can’t expect it to solve all your problems or make you into a new player. You’re the only one who can do that.
I’m a little late in putting this post up, but I typically don’t work on Saturdays so I appreciate your patience. Yesterday I only (“only” Ha!) went to three events in Austin. The good news is that they were all fantastic. The bad news is that they were all basically at the same time. First was a performance by Robert Spring and Jana Starling. They played contemporary pieces including new works by Eric Mandat and William O. Smith. Smith’s piece “Four Duets for Four Demi-Clarinets” was particularly interesting. Each of the duets requires the performers to play on sections of a clarinet (e.g. just the top joint, or just the bottom joint). However each movement was very compact and beautifully written so that the whole piece didn’t go on for too long. I had to leave early and miss the last piece on the program though because I wanted to see the world premiere of Kevin H. Gray’s piece “Pyrrhic Suite for A clarinet and Piano”. On Friday I had bought the score (published by Prairie Dawg Press) but I didn’t have a chance to look at it until Saturday. So, I brought it with me to follow along during the performance. After a few words from Eric Mandat (who judged the competition) and the composer, Richard Faria and Josh Oxford came out to perform. They did a fantastic job! ”Pyrrhic Suite” is a collection of four dances. However, they are not in a simple 4/4 or 3/4. Oh no. The bar lines have practically nothing to do with the pulse. More important are the groupings of tuplets and accents which help drive the piece forward. At 17 minutes it’s a virtuosic work and the duo pulled it off with incredible style. Then I raced over to hear the end of Scott McAllister’s lecture recital (which was happening at the same time). I got in just in time to (almost literally) bump into Robert Spring and hear Scott play his piece “Bling Bling”. Unfortunately that was the end of his program, but I hadn’t heard that piece performed live so it was exciting to get a chance. If you play the clarinet and also enjoy the music of – The Doors, Aerosmith, Lynnard Skynnard, Jimi Hendrix, and a lot of other rock icons, you need to check out his work. After that I was done. I’d pretty much reached the maximum amount of Clarinet I could handle at any one time, so there you go. The festival was really tremendous with a wide range of programs and opportunities to learn. Perhaps I’ll get a chance to go again next year. I hope everyone has a safe trip back today!
Ok so I bought a bunch of stuff (mostly music) this morning. First I picked up Contra-Piece by Walter S. Hartley, and Pyrrhic Suite by Kevin H. Gray. Richard Faria of Ithaca College is going to play the Suite tomorrow morning. But it turns out I was the first one to buy a copy of it. I figured since it had won the ICA composition competition it was worth taking a risk on! I also found Abdo Dagher’s “New Egyptian-Arabic Sufic Art Music” transcribed by Adam Lesnick. These are a collection of solo pieces for either clarinet or trumpet and can be played with or without percussion. Then I ran into Eric Mandat and got a copy of his etude book which has studies for the right and left hands separately. I also spoke with Scott McAllister about his piece Bling Bling. He’s giving a talk tomorrow but it’s at the same time as Dr. Faria’s performance so perhaps I’ll get to both but I may not be able to.
The only gear I bought were a set of reed cases (cl and bcl) made by Wiseman. There’s so much STUFF here it’s pretty overwhelming. I may have to write a whole post about GAS (or Gear Acquisition Syndrome). Fortunately for my savings account it doesn’t seem to be affecting me too badly. I’ll update this if I get time later. Right now I’m waiting to hear Anthony Taylor perform John Adams’ “Gnarly Buttons” at 1.
Well thanks to another conference attendee I now have wifi access at the University. So, things are going really well here. Yesterday I saw half of a terrific performance by the UT clarinet faculty – Nathan Williams and Richard MacDowell. I say half because I had to leave otherwise I’d fall asleep due to exhaustion. This morning I managed to get up reasonably early and heard my former teacher Robert DiLutis (now at LSU) play a recital. That was a lot of fun. He has the most amazingly consistent tone and technique. He plays with such ease it’s incredible. Then I went to a masterclass led by Daniel Gilbert. That was a really interesting experience because even though I only watched two people play, he really said some things that spoke to me. The people who played were both very good, but as he suggested they were almost trying to be “too good”. Leaving out a lot of the emotional content of the excerpts they were playing.
After that I went to see some of the vendors and catch up with people. I saw Robert DiLutis again and Mark Kasten at the Weiner Music booth. I also got a chance to talk to Brad Behn (who made my mouthpiece) about his latest mouthpiece. It has an angled shape that is nice to play on. After trying it for a few minutes, going back to my regular mouthpiece felt strange. It’s as if I didn’t know that I’d been playing in a strange position for the last 20 years until I tried this new thing. The downside is that it’s quite expensive, but if you get a chance to try one, I’d recommend getting a chance to play on it.
After that it was time to see a bunch of recitals for clarinet and electronics. First up was the duo Clarion Synthesis. They did a nice job on three pieces each of which involved real time audio manipulation. Definitely worth listening to. Plus I met Andrew May who composed one of the pieces they played. Then I heard Michael Lowenstern play selections from his newest release plus his composition Sha. He’s just an amazing player with tons of passion and energy. I spoke with all four of them after the performances. There wasn’t very much time though because recitals with electronics require a lot of set up/tear down time. Then I heard part of another recital but I was too tired to really stay and listen in a meaningful way. So I wrote this post.
Hopefully I get a chance to write more tomorrow. IF you have any questions about what’s going on let me know.
I’ve recently finished this book by Neal Stephenson. If you don’t know his work, it typically involves Science and Fiction but not always science-fiction. How’s that for clear. Anyway, this particular book deals with topics like geometry quite a bit and I’ve found myself thinking about the clarinet at the same time and so, here we are.
Economy of motion and economy of thought are an important aspect of my technique. For example, I try to never move two hands (especially pinkies) when one will do, and I try to think in groups of notes as much as possible. Paying too much attention to technique during a performance leads, in my mind, to music which sounds technical. So this idea of economy is important because it opens up the possibility to more easily engage in the rest of the musical process. I’m thinking here of things like: listening, phrasing, and communicating (with an ensemble and/or audience).
The Bounce and The Orbit
I’m going to go back to every clarinet players friend Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto to demonstrate an idea, the bounce and the orbit. Look at this example from the exposition for a minute.
Pay special attention to how the first three notes relate to the rest of the passage. First, let’s think about the D’s that run through the first four bars. Don’t you just love how they’re all the same!? It makes the whole thing so much easier to play. Why? Because you no longer have to think about them. The rest of the notes just bounce right off them. And if you stop thinking about the D’s, it means that even if your fingers are moving at the rate of sixteenth notes, your mind only has to think at the rate of eighths. And that’s the fastest it will have to think because if you look at the pattern some more, you’ll see that the whole four bars orbits around the 1st and 3rd sixteenths of the first measure. (As an aside, the whole thing sort of revolves around G until 145 but that’s another matter.)
Here’s another example this time from the Voxman clarinet edition of the Prelude to Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1. I know it’s not in the right key, but if you don’t have a low C bass clarinet you’re probably not playing it in the right key anyway so…
Notice how in the first measure there are basically only three pitches that repeat over and over (the D is a consequence of the rhythm). What I think is really interesting about this measure is that you can just skip right over the G’s. Since it will come out just by opening your fingers, you don’t really have to think about it at all. The fingers just come up, and then they come back down. But the speed at which that whole cycle happens isn’t really the speed of the sixteenth notes. Again the action of the fingers is slower than the action of the music. Another useful thing to observe is the three patterns which run through excerpt.
Each two beat cycle begins on C
The second note in each measure goes up by one step in each measure (until the last sixteenth)
The third note in each measure forms the pattern E – F – F – E
These three simple ideas encompass almost everything you need to remember about these four bars. So now it’s much easier to work on using a good tone, or creating a beautiful phrase. Reading through all of the jumps is less of an issue because by remembering the pattern you will be able to get through the notes more quickly. As the piece goes on these kinds of patterns present themselves over and over. In fact there’s a great section towards the end which ascends chromatically but every other note is an open G.
Once you start looking for these kinds of patterns you can’t help but find them. You can find the orbit and bounce in Rose Etudes, Weber, and countless other pieces. As you see them more often, you’ll be able to think more clearly about other musical elements like: ensemble, tempo and pulse, and phrasing. So, what’s one thing you can do to get faster at this? Play through scales and arpeggios every day. There are literally hundreds of good books full of patterns. I’ve talked about one of my favorites already. If you have any patterns that you notice over and over in your music, please let me know!
As I mentioned before, I’m working on videos of Ron Caravan’s Polychromatic Diversions for Clarinet which I think make a solid introduction to contemporary clarinet techniques. So, here’s the second video in the series – the etude 2. Digital Etchings. As you might imagine this etude places continued emphasis on micro-tonal and timbral fingerings. However, these are more complex than in the first etude. Here are two examples. Note how Caravan discards the traditional placement of fingers on the clarinet.
Now, I’d hate for you to think that there’s nothing else in this etude besides moving your fingers around your clarinet in weird ways. In fact there’s another valuable lesson here as well. Many of the clarion and altissimo notes are played without the register key. Not only that, but because they are on long tones with decrescendos, the tongue has to be placed very high in the mouth, which is great practice for tone and voicing control. Here’s an example (note – off T refers to the register key not the thumb key for the altissimo F-slightlyflat). You can also see the note I made to myself in the first example about tongue position through the trills.
Every clarinetist has had the experience of water getting into the keys and making some pretty weird noises. But how best to get it out? In the short term I’ve found it best to take my swab pull it to where the key is and blow the water into the swab. This may sound incredibly obvious but it never occurred to me until someone pointed out that if the swab’s not there, the water will just come right back out. In the long term, you can try swabbing out the barrel repeatedly (50 or 60 times) and then with a thin stick (a chopstick will work) place a line of oil down the center of the bore to give the water a place to go.
Marion Harrington and Jenny di Paolo’s new recording Clarinet Notes from France is really a delight to listen to. The whole thing was “recorded over just two sessions” and what comes across is a sense of immediacy that we don’t often get to hear anymore. Before we go further, this is not a “perfect” recording. There are some technical errors, and Marion is very open about this on her website. But, if that’s all you can hear, you’ve completely missed the point about why this album is worth listening to. In fact when it comes to technical perfection, given enough studio and editing time pretty much any professional can put out a completely polished recording. One of the most admirable aspects of this recording is the constant dialogue between the two performers. Too often in recitals and recordings the pianist seems to be in the background. This never really made sense to me. How one can play any of these pieces without conceiving of them as real partnerships is a total mystery. In this recording though it’s wonderful to hear great ensemble work between clarinet and piano. But the thing that I like best about this recording is the artists decisions about pacing. Their sense of pulse flows easily and beautifully. For example listen to the opening of the Saint-Saens and you’ll here a relaxation that never devolves into stagnation, a fault all too common in this seemingly simple music. Or, check out the Debussy. The characteristic clarinet flourishes come off with a liquid feel that’s so easy to enjoy and so difficult to execute. Even so, they glide right into the piano’s lines. But, I have to admit that perhaps my favorite piece of the collection is the Messager Solo de Concours and of that piece my favorite section is the finale. Here, we can experience the full effect of careful and well thought out pacing. Rather than blast through the notes, Marion pulls and pushes the time to give a rendition full of humor and style. With repeated listening there’s a lot to learn from this recording about how to make good musical decisions. I look forward to more recordings in the future and especially the eventual release of a recording of Brahms’ work.
For people who want to try some contemporary music, it can be a little daunting to figure out a place to start. After all the notation, instructions, and techniques can all be unfamiliar and difficult to understand. Recently I pulled out a copy of Ron Caravan’s Polychromatic Diversions for Clarinet. Despite the slightly strange sounding name, this book presents ten etudes for clarinetists who want to practice their contemporary techniques. They get harder over the course of the book with the first focused only on microtonal fingerings and timbre trills, and the last summing up everything that gets covered including: vocalization, diagramatic notation, multiphonics, articulation techniques, and other gestures. Last week I had the opportunity to record the first one (see below). My goal is to film all ten. A nice companion to this book is Caravan’s Preliminary Exercises & Etudes in Contemporary Techniques for Clarinet. This book gives some background information on timbre effects and multiphonics (including singing while playing). Another great clarinetist and composer whose work is really worth looking into is William O. Smith. His playing and inventiveness are phenomenal. He’s one person who I feel has really opened up the world of contemporary clarinet technique.
