Adam J Berkowitz - Clarinetist

First Guest Post

aberkow2 — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:43:42 +0000

My first guest post is up on Marion Harrington’s blog. It’s on how to choose hardware for recording or performance. And as if you needed more incentive, there are dozens of other great posts on her site as well as an excellent recording of French clarinet music.

Hell Mouth

aberkow2 — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:36:24 +0000

No this isn’t a post about embouchure pain. I can’t believe I never came across this before, but go visit John Adams’ blog. Fantastic writing from one of America’s preeminent composers.

Finger Ballet – Improving the Coordination of Your Fingers

aberkow2 — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:12:07 +0000

Recently a reader sent in a question about how to deal with fingers that don’t want to move at the same time. I thought it was a really helpful question to ask because it’s something that every clarinetist regardless of age or ability struggles with. I’ll post the question below (edited to remove some details) and then my response afterwards.

Question

I am 60 years young. I picked up the clarinet after 38 years of not playing. I took privite lessons for a while. [But] this year so I had to stop the lessons. I hope to get back to playing soon. [However] I do have some problems moving my fingers at the correct time. I get extra notes because I can’t always pick my fingers up at the same time. My middle and ring fingers give me the most trouble. They are just getting old I guess. Do you have any suggestions for me? I really like reading your tips.

Answer

It’s great that you’ve decided to start playing again. I hope that you can start taking lessons again soon. As for helping with your fingers, I have a few ideas. One or two may seem a bit silly but they should work. I’ll put them in no particular order. Also, you should know that the ring finger is especially weak and structurally connected to the pinky which can make it hard to control. To prove this, place your arm palm side down on a table and make a fist. Then, extend only the ring finger and try to move it up and down. Compare this to the index finger. Now for the…

Tips – Whenever you can, use a metronome to make sure that everything is rhythmical. Sometimes it can be a pain but it’s essential to use one if you want to resolve the problem.

For the right hand – Check to see that the thumbrest is closer to the tip of your thumb than the palm. Placing it closer to the tip opens the hand and allows for greater speed and flexibility. If this is painful in any way get a long (1.5″ or longer) covering for it. Medical supply tubing works very well.
For both hands – Make sure that the hands and arms relaxed and comfortable. Extra tension in the shoulders, arms, or hands can hinder easy movement.
Exercise without the clarinet – Using a table or counter practice opening and closing the fingers that are bothering you. When they close you’ll hear that they don’t touch at the same time and you can see if they move together.
With the clarinet – Try to figure out which finger is moving first. Then do the opposite. So if you’re moving the middle and ring fingers of the right hand and you suspect that the ring finger moves first reverse the process. However, do this in slow motion. Take time to first move the middle finger (a second or more) THEN move the ring finger. This will sound strange, but it doesn’t matter. As you get more comfortable, speed up the process. Eventually they will move at the same time.
Scales – Practice any scale you are completely comfortable with in 3rds. F Major (starting on low F) works particularly well. Make sure NOT to articulate the scale so that you hear everything more accurately.
Hold the note immediately before the problem area for several beats so that you can think and prepare.
Imagine that you’re moving your fingers at exactly the same time. What does that feel like? Sound like?

Of course this is just a place to start so if you have more ideas let me know. This issue is also slightly different when we talk about articulation and finger motion, but I’ll leave that for another post. Also, I’m always happy to answer questions and if I don’t know the answers I’ll try to put you in touch with someone who does.

Playing with the baby.

aberkow2 — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:23:04 +0000

I promise to come back with a new post soon. My son’s been on “vacation” from daycare for the last week so I haven’t had a lot of time to write. But, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking after reading David Thomas’s recent posts over at the Buzzing Reed. If you’re interested in how the body works and relates to clarinet playing go check it out.

Tight and Bite vs Grip and Lift

aberkow2 — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:21:39 +0000

Just today I was teaching a student and the issue of how to make an embouchure came up. He and I have been working on air speed for quite a while and it was time to move to the next step. So, we did two experiments to find out if his embouchure was really working well or not. The first one I learned from Ayako Oshima. I asked him to play as normal and then I pressed on the bell so that the clarinet would go up into his teeth. While doing this I told him not to let me push his head back. The next experiment we did I learned from Larry Guy. I asked my student to play again and then I took the clarinet by the barrel and pulled it out of his mouth. It came out quite easily and he was pretty shocked. So let’s figure out what these results mean.

Your right thumb is part of your embouchure. Why? Because without the help of your thumb the clarinet would just fall on the floor. If your clarinet’s on the ground then you can’t play it and you can’t have an embouchure. So… The first experiment is designed to figure out if you’re using your thumb in a helpful way. When I suddenly let go of the bell, the clarinet came right out. He had hardly been using his thumb at all. For this student the test didn’t reveal too much beyond this. I was hoping that the tone would change a little more than I was expecting. Which is why we moved to the next test.

The second test will tell you if your lips are forming an effective embouchure (an effective structure) or not. In this case my student’s clarinet came out of his mouth surprisingly fast. He simply wasn’t doing any constructive work with his embouchure. So I asked him to grip the mouthpiece a little more with his lips. When he did that the results started coming quite quickly. I wasn’t able to remove the clarinet from his embouchure any more. His tone also changed for the better and his pitch improved markedly. Combined with lifting the clarinet with the thumb, it was like listening to a different player. By asking him to grip the mouthpiece with his lips, I’d hoped to avoid a pinched or biting embouchure. We’ll have to see how it well this works in the long run, but it’s a good place to start. Find someone to help you and try it for yourself. You may be surprised with the results.

Recording a Clarinet

aberkow2 — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:52:39 +0000

It occurs to me that it might be helpful to say something about how to mic a clarinet especially for live situations. Place the mic no more than a few inches (like 2 – 3) away from the CENTER of the clarinet. NOT the bell. Unless you plan on playing low E’s all day putting a mic at the bell is a waste of time. If you’re playing bass clarinet, you may want to consider setting up two mics – one for the top and one for the bottom and then mixing them together. Getting the two signals together is the most important part. I found that out the hard way when I did a recording and the top joint came out the left channel and the bottom came out the right.

New York Counterpoint – Part 1 The Setup

aberkow2 — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:06:35 +0000

Pretty soon I’m going to have some posts on Marion Harrington’s site to talk about how to set up a home recording studio. This is something I did a few years ago and have tried very hard to take advantage of. In conjunction with those posts I’m going to have a series of posts here that will describe the process of recording Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint. It’s among the most well known works for clarinet and electronics and has been recorded by a variety of people including Richard Stoltzman (for whom it was composed) and Evan Ziporyn. New York Counterpoint is a great project for someone looking to record and perform a piece for clarinet and “tape”. The score calls for ten pre-recorded (or live) clarinets and one soloist. I’ve actually started recording it once, but I’m going to do it again. Mostly this is because I’ve learned some better recording techniques since the last time I worked on it. So, here’s what I’ve got so far.

I plan to record the whole thing into Ableton Live. This is a nice program to work with because it offers a unique way to manage the different parts of the piece. There are essentially two workspaces in Live. The session view offers a grid where you can store clips of audio or midi information as well as a mixer. If you like these clips can then be used to compose or improvise pieces on the fly. For this project, I’m going to use them to store and edit raw recordings into usable motives. You can also see and edit (but not destroy) the waveform your working on. Here you can see I’ve got two tracks Main 1 and Sub. Main 1 will handle all the raw information for the first movement and Sub will store all the parts I plan to use. I’ve made similar groups for the second and third movements.

The other view is called the arrangement. Here, you can plan out what your piece is going to look like. So, for this project I’ll take the finished clips from the session view and put them into the arrangement view to create the score. This is also the area where I can add automation to create the fade-ins/outs that are an essential part of the piece.

This is the same clip as above just in the arrangement view. The numbers at the top are the measures, with flags for time signature changes below them, and rehearsal numbers below that. The pink line represents a parameter that you can automate and I’ll get into that as I put the piece together. Here I’ve made groups for clarinet sections I through III that I can use to organize the score. Next in the series – In Search of the Perfect Eighth Note.

What is Intonation?

aberkow2 — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:30:25 +0000

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.

Post-ClarinetFest Thoughts

aberkow2 — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:53:15 +0000

Or – How I avoided GAS at ClarinetFest

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.

ClarinetFest Day 4

aberkow2 — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:14:04 +0000

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!