In This Issue
April 10, 2015
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- A Note From Michelle Anderson - still finding Easter eggs
- Free Training - Smoother Clarinet Fingers - how this simple household tool will train your fingers so that your playing sounds effortless
- My Clarinet VIP Opportunity - be first on the list for some exciting new clarinet training, coming soon...
- Michelle Recommends - Pad Cleaning Paper- a handy accessory to protect our pads
- 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 newsletter. I am always excited to share my clarinet ideas and tools with all of you! I hope that you enjoy today's lessons, and pull out your clarinet to try some beautiful slow music after trying out the training below.
Last newsletter, I asked you for your best pointers on the Gershwin famous clarinet glissando. I received some great tips, and I"m looking for more. I do want to create a helpful "how-to" video, and I intend on including some of the great strategies that I have received from all of you in the Clarinet Mentors community.
On a personal level, I hope life is treating you well. Our family hosts an Annual Easter Egg Hunt in our neighbourhood, and this year we had 18 children running around like crazy and having an amazing time. We think we left about 10 eggs out there somewhere, so we're still looking...
I am enjoying a concert with Lionsgate Sinfonia this week, and next week I start rehearsals with the Vancouver Opera for Sweeney Todd. This will be a fun show, and the orchestra will be on stage, instead of hiding in the pit. I'll actually get to see what goes on. (Hopefully I won't get too distracted by all the action!)
I have also been devoting every spare moment lately to finishing my next clarinet course, which I really believe offers all of the best systems and training that I have learned in over 30 years of teaching to help you to play the clarinet more easily. This has taken me almost 2 years to prepare (in the midst of a busy performing and teaching life) and I am very excited to release it soon. See below for details on how you can get involved in the release celebrations...
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Thanks so much for being part of my Clarinet Community. I hope that you enjoy your clarinet this week!
Free Training - How you can train your fingers to move much better on clarinet with a rubber band (yes, it's true...)
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I find that many people do not pay enough attention to how they move their fingers on the clarinet. We admire how the very best players seem to have the music flow effortlessly out of their instrument. To me, a measure of a masterful performer, is hearing no bumps or gaps in the music, but instead a very smooth connection and consistency between all notes. Primarily, this is affected by air speed and fingers.
Most people do not know how to train their fingers to be in the optimum position, and to move with the gentlest motion possible. This video gives you some guidance on one way to get started in this direction. I hope you enjoy it, and I really encourage you to try this technic out for a couple of weeks. It takes our body a while to learn new habits, but the good news is that eventually these good habits start to happen automatically. Wouldn't it be great if we all had a whole bunch of automatic, well-trained GOOD clarinet habits in our bodies? That's my goal here at Clarinet Mentors - to help you learn the systems that make it work seemingly automatically (once you've done the initial training...)
You can click on the picture below, or this link.
Clarinet List VIP Opportunity
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I am very exciting to be finally nearing the end of a two year project to create a clarinet course for you that uses ALL of my favourite clarinet pointers and combines them with a very organized set of lesson plans to help you master them.
This course will be designed for players with an intermediate level of clarinet skills. (If you are newer to the instrument, or basically self-taught, the Clarinet Is Easy course, below, is a great starting point to prepare you for this upcoming course.)
There are still lots of video edits to do, and worksheets to finalize, and the huge task of loading it all up to a website where you can access all of the great lessons. I am not announcing the exact release date yet, but I am hoping for the next month or two.
When this is complete, I will be ready to celebrate! I want to invite you to the celebrations. I will be hosting a series of special events, including some live online trainings that will allow members of the Clarinet Mentors community to have some live mini lessons, and ask me your clarinet questions. I'll also be sharing some great sample lessons from the course with you. If you are interested in taking part in any of these events, the best way to get the advance notice is to sign up for my VIP Clarinet List. It only takes a minute, and then I will know that you are interested in some great new training (and during my celebration week, it is all at no charge to you) to help you play clarinet more easily. I have a quick (less than one minute) video with directions on how you can sign up. VIP Clarinet members will receive special discounts and exclusive offers, so please sign up now by clicking here!
Michelle Recommends: Pad Cleaning Paper
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From time to time, we all get water dripping into our tone holes. Often we will hear an annoying gurgle when we press a key open, instead of the beautiful, clear tone that we desire. When this happens, you can "blast" the water out by blowing vigorously across the clogged hole, and then swab your clarinet to dry out the river that is flowing into that hole. It is also a good idea to dry off your pad. Cleaning paper is basically very absorptive paper that you can place under the pad to soak up any excess water and dry off the surface. I personally prefer the kind that do not leave powder in the instrument.
There are a few good brands out there. Here is what the Yamaha brand package looks like:
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 over 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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