In This Issue
April 13, 2014
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- A Note From Michelle Anderson - Happy Springtime!
- Free Training - What Kind of Reeds Should You Use?
- Ricardo Morales Masterclass - If you are near Vancouver BC - April 16
- Michelle Recommends - Clarinets For Conservation - Please support this great group!
- 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 wish all of you a great springtime. Our national weather service, Environment Canada, issued a Special Weather Alert for us here in Vancouver this week. Usually this means a horrible storm, or extreme weather event is coming. It said something like "This weekend will be totally sunny, with temperatures a few degrees above normal. Enjoy it, because it will rain again on Monday.". Someone had a great sense of humour, and we had a spectacular weekend that truly felt like summer is just around the corner.
I just completed what had to be my absolutely busiest two weeks of performing of the entire year. It seemed like I was doing a concert every other day! All fun, but I was sure busy...One of my favourites was a chamber music concert with clarinet, cello and piano. I'll post some videos of our concert soon. We had a great time playing together.
If you are in the Vancouver area, please see the notice below about a rare opportunity to attend a masterclass with Ricardo Morales on Wednesday. He is one of the greatest orchestral clarinetist in the world. If you can be here, you will love it!
I wish you all the best, and thank you for being in my clarinet community!
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Free Training - What kind of reeds are best for you?
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I have received several inquiries lately from the Clarinet Mentors Community about what kind of reeds I recommend. I have noticed that there is no one definitive "Ultimate Reed". (If there was, we would all rush out to get it!) Different reeds seem to work differently for different people. However, I am very comfortable giving you my opinion of some of the brand names that I think are better quality. My students use a variety of brands, and as long as they sound good, I am happy with what they play. At times I will recommend other choices to them, but only so that they can figure out what truly helps them to sound the best that they can.
As I was recording a video on how to choose good reeds, I ended up having almost 45 minutes of material. That is too much for one of these newsletters. The good news for you, is that today's video is fairly short (just over 7 minutes) and focuses solely on some recommendations and descriptions of reeds that I think would interest you. In future newsletters, I will also feature two other new videos on how to ensure that you are using the correct reed strength, and some pointers for properly breaking in new reeds and taking care of them. Lots of information that I look forward to sharing with you!
Speaking of reeds, I also have two older videos that have very valuable reed advice on how to make your current reeds play better. I'm going to mention them here since reeds are the theme of this week's training. These were recorded on older technology for me, so you may find that the audio is a bit softer. The content is very useful. Check them out at: http://youtu.be/HI-Lx_8oMUI and http://youtu.be/d9MJcpYIikw.
Meanwhile, click on the video image below to watch today's new reed video, or click on this link:
There are some notes to accompany this video at:
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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Ricardo Morales Masterclass - April 16th 4:00 pm, Vancouver, BC
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I know that there are several clarinetists in the Vancouver region that are members of the Clarinet Mentors community. We are very lucky to have a special clarinet event here next week. Backun Musical Services is sponsoring a masterclass at St. George's School in Vancouver on Wednesday, April 16th at 4:00 pm, with Ricardo Morales. He is truly one of the greatest orchestral clarinetists in the world (as well as being one of the friendliest ones!). He will be performing informally, and then working with a selection of talented students in a mini open lesson format. Any clarinetists are welcome to attend, but we would appreciate an RSVP if you are coming so that we can set up for the appropriate audience size. You will also have a great chance to try out some Backun barrels, bells, mouthpieces and clarinets, so be sure to bring your own instrument along. For more details, or to RSVP, please send me an email.
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Michelle Recommends: Clarinets For Conservation
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Please check out this great project which brings amazing clarinet music to students in Tanzania, and also encourages the growth and preservation of the rare hardwood that our clarinets are made of!
Clarinets for Conservation is a great cause to support if you are a fan of the clarinet. This group supports student musicians who otherwise may not have access to great teaching, and also encourages the stewardship of grenadilla trees. Please watch the PBS video below for more information. If you click on the video image, it will take you to their Youtube video.
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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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