In This Issue
April 29, 2014
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- A Note From Michelle Anderson - Spring cleaning of my clarinet playing
- Free Training - Improve tone with overtone exercises
- Michelle Recommends - The Legacy Of Daniel Bonade - Some interesting perspective into a very influential teacher and performer
- Win A Free Copy Of My New Course - Tell me your biggest clarinet concern and you can win a copy of my new, comprehensive clarinet course
- Clarinet Is Easy - Complete how-to lessons for beginners and self-taught intermediate players
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A Note from Michelle Anderson
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Hello !
Welcome to the Clarinet Mentors bi-weekly newsletter. I welcome new readers to the Clarinet Mentors community, and I hope that you enjoy the clarinet-related knowledge that is shared here. My goal is to continue to make life easier for clarinetists all around the world!
I've had such a busy schedule of concerts in April. It seemed like clarinets were growing out of my mouth! At last, in the past week, I've had a bit of a break from performing, which means I can settle into "spring cleaning" of my clarinet playing. It's time to go back to the basics and dig into all of those fundamental exercises that make us all better players. I have been experimenting with all kinds of tone and air support exercises to ensure that I continue to improve my playing and reinforce good habits. We all slip into bad habits if we are not monitoring our playing and striving to always improve.
I was fortunate to be part of a masterclass with Ricardo Morales at a high school which many of my students attend. He worked with a few talented students, and really inspired them to play more musically, and with more attention to detail. He emphasized that the way to improve is to continually work on the basics. He is well regarded as one of the greatest orchestral players today, and he does not take this for granted. He has achieved this result through focus and practise, and he maintains it (and improves it) with the same skills. (He is also one of the warmest, nicest guys on the planet!) I think it inspired all of us in the room to continue to work on our own playing with attention and care, to help us to play more beautifully! I hope that you continue to work on the best possible habits to support your clarinet playing!
Here is a photo of me with Ricardo. I also got to hear a former teacher, and fabulous clarinetist, Joaquin Valdepenas perform here in Vancouver recently. Lucky me! Great clarinetists all around me this month! Thanks for being a part of my clarinet community, all of you!
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Free Training - Improve Tone With Overtones Exercises
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I am aware that the Clarinet Mentors community is made up of clarinettists from all over the world, and with all levels of experience. Some of you are just starting out, or are returning to the clarinet after years away from it. Some of you are seasoned performers, and even respected colleagues who send me their own clarinet pointers. I try and include videos for you that address a variety of levels of playing. Today's training is a more advanced technic. It is a bit tricky to master, but has tremendous value. If you are already playing in the high register (which most people are after a few months of playing), then you should try these exercises.
There are two exercises in the video. One is a quick review of an overtone exercise that I have already presented in an earlier high notes video (http://youtu.be/EyKrRs_Q8yU), which makes a great warm-up for the new exercise in today's video. You can do one without the other, but they go nicely together.
Today's exercise challenges you to play in the high register without the register key, and use this as a tool to check (and improve) your embouchure and air support. Some people can do this right away. Most people need to work at this for a couple of weeks to have it feel easy. I always find that when I warm up with this exercise, my tone is much better as I move into my repertoire. I challenge you to try it for at least 2 weeks, and let me know how it works for you.
You can click on the photo below, or go to this link for today's video:
As always, I enjoy hearing from you, so please add your comments in the comments box below the video on YouTube. If you enjoy the video, please click the "like" button, which sends a message to YouTube to share it with more clarinetists.
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Michelle Recommends: The Legacy of Daniel Bonade
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This is a really interesting recording compiled by Larry Guy. Daniel Bonade was a clarinetist who played principal clarinet in both the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras. He was an outstanding musician, but also, a very thoughtful clarinet scholar. He developed several teaching tools and exercises that are still used by clarinetists today. If you like studying the history of modern classical players, his influence must be considered and appreciated.
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Win a copy of my new course! (Enter by May 15th)
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Many of you know that I have a 10 lesson course for beginning to intermediate clarinetists to help them get started with the best possible habits on the instrument. Several people have asked me when the follow-up course will be ready. It is about halfway recorded, and I am hoping to make it available this summer. I would love to hear from you about what your biggest concerns are as a clarinetist. I want to ensure that I include material in my new course that really is helpful to all of you in the Clarinet Mentors community. I am really excited about this course, and I am pouring hours of my most valuable teaching tools into it. If you are willing to do a brief (3 minute) survey letting me know your clarinet interests, you can enter to win a free copy of this course once it is available. Please go to the following link to participate:
I will choose a winner on May 15th, and the prize will be awarded when the course is ready later this year.
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Clarinet Is Easy - Your Step-by-Step Beginner Course - Now Available! (Also enjoyed by many intermediate level players)
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How To Solve Your Common Clarinet Frustrations and Play Clarinet More Easily
I firmly believe that if anyone has the "recipe" for how to play clarinet, things are really relatively easy to do. Most of our frustrations come from inadvertently learning bad habits along the way. With that in mind, I have created for you a 10-lesson comprehensive course for beginners (and self-taught intermediate players) that gives you the tools to truly learn the clarinet easily, while avoiding all of the most common frustrations that can plague us. I believe that these lessons can save you hours of grief by giving you the best practise systems that have worked for thousands of clarinetists. The lessons have great content, and are presented in a video format so that you can watch them again and again. If you would like to play with more ease and have a clear understanding of the fundamentals of clarinet playing, you can get more information on the Clarinet Is Easy course here (including some free preview videos):
Click here for the free preview videos to Clarinet Is Easy
If you are curious about this, you can try these lessons with a 100% 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee. (That means that you can try a full 5 lessons before you decide if you have received great value from the course.) If it is not the right style for you, you get your tuition refunded, no problem. I invite you to try it now! Many students have received amazing results so far from this course (and you can read their comments on the order page).
Michelle Anderson, the founder of Clarinet Mentors, is a professional clarinetist and teacher who currently lives in Vancouver BC. Her professional career spans 30 years and she currently plays regularly with the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, the Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the West Coast Chamber Music series. She has performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Touring Orchestra and many other groups. Michelle currently specializes in teaching adults to play clarinet more easily and quickly through online resources, and conducts the Vancouver Clarinet Choir.
Thanks for reading this biweekly newsletter. If you think a friend would enjoy this, please feel free to forward it. If they want to enrol in the Clarinet Mentors Community, they can go to www.learnclarinetnow.com.
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Helping you to find success on your instrument with proven, easy-to-follow systems that are designed to help you sound good, and feel better about your playing.
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