May 2014 - Is your reed the wrong strength?
Is your reed the wrong strength?
Sent Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Hello ! Welcome to my newsletter. I am so glad that you are here to share clarinet knowledge, and I hope that today's free training on reed strengths will help you or your students. Recently I have been out leading clarinet workshops at several local schools with the Vancouver Symphony Connects program. I always enjoy working within groups, and it also reminds me of the trends in "what works with clarinet" and what "doesn't work" with clarinetists. It is pretty common to go into a room of 20 young clarinetists and find about a quarter of them who are not tonguing properly, and many who do not have enough mouthpiece in their mouth, or who routinely look down when they play. These are all the habits that children and adults both can easily fall into. I love hearing the difference in someone's playing when even one of these habits is changed to a better one. Hopefully some of the habits that you pick up here in the Clarinet Mentors community are helping to make your clarinet playing better, and to feel easier for you. I will be reinforcing these good habits in my videos that I share with you. I am definitely enjoying the onset of summer. It was so beautiful here today that I filmed the intro to today's video outside in the sunshine rather than in my studio. I am also spending a lot of time in my studio filming many new videos and preparing my next, extensive course. Speaking of which, you still have an opportunity to win a copy of my new course (coming out soon) by filling out a 5 minute survey on what you most want to learn on clarinet. (Deadline May 15th) Thanks to all of you who already responded after the last newsletter. I also need some help with some of my Clarinet Mentors projects, and realize that there may be talented people reading this right now who want to get involved. See details below! By the way, as much as I liked the last email template, too many people found it hard to read. So, here is a new one. If it is hard to read on your system, please let me know. I'm curious…. I hope you are enjoying your clarinet, and thanks as always, for being a part of my community.
I am continuing my series of reed videos today with some concrete recommendations on what reed strength you should be using. Many people play on reeds that are too soft, and will find that their high notes are harder to play, and that they cannot produce a full, warm sound. Generally, my recommendations are for people playing in a classical manner, or in the style of most community concert bands. Some jazz, klezmer, or folk styles may require slightly softer reeds for the pitch bending technics that are common within those genres. Nonetheless, these guidelines are useful for all styles. There is a worksheet to go with the video at:
You can click on the photo below, or go to this link for today's video:
This is a fun collection of classical and jazz pieces for clarinet and piano. They are good arrangements, and are very playable for intermediate level players. If you have a varied taste in music and want a variety pack, this is a good choice. Includes:
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.
I need help! All of the online aspects to my clarinet community started when a few of my adult students suggested that I put some of my teaching ideas onto video so that they could review things in between lessons. This was so much fun that I have now put up well over 50 videos on Youtube, and created a full 10 lesson course with hours of videos and written worksheets for beginning and intermediate players. I continue to create new videos every 2 to 3 weeks, and I am working on a very comprehensive course to give people a much more complete set of resources to help them play clarinet better. I love the interactions I have with all of you, but I am finding it tricky to get everything done! It is time to expand my community and get help maintaining the projects that keep things running smoothly here at Clarinet Mentors Headquarters. If you might be interested in joining my team, I am looking to attract the services of skilled assistants. My team can be compensated either in the usual way, or in exchange for private clarinet lessons. Clarinet Mentors team members would have priority access to Skype lessons. If you are interested in helping out, please click here for more details: Email assistant - Help me with sorting, managing and responding to the hundreds of clarinet-related emails that come to me each month. Music transcriber - if you are proficient with Sibelius, or a similar music notation program, I have many exercises and pieces of music that need to be prepared for publication in upcoming courses and newsletters. Webinar producer - No experience necessary - I have the technology to easily lead live online, interactive webinars. A computer savvy assistant with high-speed internet access is needed to manage questions and handle behind the scenes administrative tasks during live online events. I have many great ideas for fun clarinet events I would like to host in the future, and I'd love all of you to take part. If I get help with the day-to-day running of things, these bigger projects will come to life much sooner. If you'd like to be part of the team, please let me know!
How To Solve Your Common Clarinet Frustrations and Play Clarinet More Easily
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 https://www.clarinetmastery.com/join-clarinet-mentors
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