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In This Issue October 17, 2012
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- A Note From Michelle Anderson - How we all can use a cheerleader
- Clarinet Tips - Some ways to use a metronome
- Free Training - How a metronome can improve your expressivity
- Free Teleseminar - Join me on a live call to ask your clarinet questions
- Michelle Recommends - Cleaning out your register key tube annually
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A Note from Michelle Anderson
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Hello Everyone,
A big welcome to all of you who are reading the Clarinet Mentors newsletter for the first time. My hope for you is that you find great value in the pointers and videos from these bi-weekly newsletters. I know that these tools can help you to play more easily, and I love it when other people enjoy playing my favourite instrument.
This week, I was at a X-Country event cheering on my young son who was running a long distance race in a four-school meet. As a bunch of parents gathered around the finish line, waiting for the first sight of the racers from our children's race, we saw a young girl hobbling toward the finish line. Clearly, she was from the race that had already finished a few minutes earlier. She must have hurt her ankle, because she was limping as she tried to finish her event. As people noticed her brave attempt to continue, they started to cheer. Soon all of the people at the finish line were loudly encouraging her to keep going. She was only about 30 meters from the finish line of a few km race. All of sudden, her energy noticeably improved, and she started sprinting to the finish line with a huge smile on her face. I don't know how long she had limped along on her own, but it was quite inspiring to see how the encouragement of several bystanders suddenly leapt her towards the finish line. Wouldn't it be great if we all had a crew of cheerleaders every time we needed encouragement when we are limping along in life?
It reminded me of the time that my good friend Kelly and I accidentally entered a 10 km running race that then finished with a gruelling 2.9 km steep climb up our local mountain (called the Grouse Grind). I had talked her into entering because I honestly had the impression that it was a fun, community "walk", and we were used to hiking up the mountain. We got a little suspicious when a bunch of trainers were leading everyone in warm-up callisthenics. Once the starting gun went, everyone started running down the road. We just looked at each other, stunned, and started running. We decided that once we got around the next big curve (past all of the onlookers), we would start to walk. Around the next big curve, were more cheerleaders. We were too embarrassed to stop, so we kept running. Every time we picked a spot to walk ("around the next corner"), there were more cheerleaders, and we somehow kept going. Part of that was stupid pride, but part of it was the excitement of the crowd's encouragement. In the end, after mostly running the first 10 km, we did go up the Grouse Grind, and somehow made it to the finish line. To this day I cringe when I think of how hard it was to walk up stairs for the next week, but we had a great time. I am still proud that we did it (if not a bit embarrassed that we did it partly so that we didn't look like total wusses).
How does this relate to clarinet playing? (In my own clarinet-geek kind of way, I think that everything in life can relate to clarinet playing. ) We all need encouragement to do our best when we are learning something challenging. Playing a musical instrument is a challenge. You can find your "cheerleaders" from teachers (take a lesson or more), friends who play music (have "jam sessions", or join a community group), your family (who like mine, suffer through the not-so-nice moments of my practising, but appreciate the better performances), on-line (woodwind.org has nice clarinet bulletin board), and from ME. I'll always cheer you on! Hurray to you for being here in the Clarinet Mentors Community! It shows that you enjoy learning new ways to make your instrument easier to play. Yippeeee! Keep going (and don't quit playing those scales around the next corner...)
 
What do we do with a metronome?
Many people have written to ask how this tool can be used to help our performance as clarinetists. The answer is that there are many useful ways we can use a metronome. I could probably keep the next year of newsletters going with metronome tips. I will put some in there, and in this month's free training, you will learn how you can play slow pieces more expressively with the help of a metronome.
Here are some other ways to use it:
- Play any technical piece at half speed with the help of a metronome, and then gradually speed it up as your fingers gain confidence. (You may notice that the metronome seems to speed up by itself when you hit the hard parts. Alas, unless you have a magic metronome, this may indicate that you have been slowing down.)
- Take a technical étude that has most notes in the same rhythm (such as all sixteenth notes), and set the metronome in quarter notes. Play it once with the beat matching the quarter notes in the music. Then play it a second time with the metronome beating time only on the offbeats. It feels very strange, but it great for our own "inner rhythm machines".
- If you are playing a piece in 6/8 time, use a modern metronome that subdivides the beat into triplets, and play along. Another great assistant to our "inner rhythm machine". There are good on-line metronomes that do this, as well as some great apps.
- Play a slow expressive piece with the metronome dividing the beat into smaller units (such as eighth or sixteenth notes), and then literally subdivide the notes as we play. (This is explained in the video below.)
- Use a metronome to help you tongue. If you have watched the stop tonguing video, use the metronome to time your tongue as it moves on the reed, and then off the reed equally. Each beat will indicate a movement onto, or away from the reed. Speed this up as your tongue gains in speed.
There are many ways to use a metronome, and I will elaborate on some of these in future newsletters. For now, enjoy the free training below. It is not often that we think of a mechanical metronome helping us to be more expressive, but here, it does.
I love feedback from you. Please send me your favourite "metronome tricks" and I'll include those in future newsletters.
How A Metronome Can Improve Your Expressivity
Today's training video is a long one - almost 14 minutes. I think that it illustrates a really useful tool to improve our expression and make a slow piece more beautiful to listen to. This technic really works effectively if you do it carefully, and although I generally use it with my intermediate to advanced level students (and myself), it works with all levels of player.
If you just want the quick tool, without background and additional valuable advice, you can watch the video from about 5'39" to 9'30". I only recommend that because for those of you that tend to be in a hurry, I don't want to lose you in the long introduction. You can have the under-4-minute version. Of course, I think that all of the material in the video is relevant, and interesting, so please make time to watch the whole thing if you can. A great time to do it is with your clarinet in hand, so you can try it out as you watch. I do refer to a piece of music that you should download and either print out, or put on your computer screen as you watch the video. You can find it at:
The basis of this exercise is to take all of the longer notes in slow piece of music and to subdivide them into smaller units. In this case, we are subdividing the half notes in Rose Etude #3 into eighth notes. The metronome will keep us steady. Our main focus here is twofold - one to develop our inner sense of pulse on these long notes, and secondly to ensure that every subdivision of the beat is enhancing our phrase by either continuing our crescendo, or our diminuendo. Each new eighth needs to convincingly be louder or softer than the note that precedes it. We want this to be even and natural. It is harder to do than it sounds, because if we suddenly jump to a higher note, it tends to "bump" much louder than it should. If the music is descending, your instrument wants to get softer. If we should be on a crescendo, than we need to exaggerate the loudness of each eighth much more than if our line is ascending.
With these quick tip videos, you are getting a glimpse of a useful tool. If you can take this tool, and find uses for it in all of the slower expressive repertoire that you are working on, you will come to appreciate it as a favoured, important tool.
Click on the image above to view this video. I have more videos currently in production. If there are topics that you would like help with, please send me some suggestions. If you are on Facebook, you can post your comments at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Clarinet-Mentors/237380966382664
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Free Teleseminar with Michelle
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As the Clarinet Mentors community grows, I have been really enjoying the contact I have had with many of you. I have been examining the various methods of communication that exist online right now, and have decided to set up a Clarinet Mentors teleseminar. A teleseminar is basically an online presentation where you can listen in on your telephone, or through your computer. These can be interactive, with guests speakers, participants typing in questions, and can feature slide shows or live video. It seems like a great way for me to interact with a bunch of you at once, and for you to meet some of the other Clarinet Mentors members.
My plan is to offer a few of these in the upcoming months, each one with a slightly different focus. My extensive, 10-lesson beginner clarinet video and workbook package is nearing completion, and it will be available for purchase in mid-November. This course is designed for less experienced players, and covers most of the core basics to sounding good on clarinet (as well as how to read music, and to play the notes that would usually be found in a beginning clarinet manual). My first teleseminar, tentatively scheduled for November 12th at 5:00 PST, will be dedicated to clarinetists at this level. Of course, all levels of players are welcome to take part, and I will look at all questions that come in. My focus will be to give you great information on the most important fundamentals of clarinet playing. We will be able to go into much more detail than we can during the short videos that are part of these newsletters.
I invite you to mark this on your calendar, and join me. I'll send out the registration information for this free session in a couple of weeks. I'm excited to try this out with all of you! If you live in a time zone where you cannot attend live, I will arrange for a replay to be available for a couple of days after the event. I hope to "see" you all there!
A Simple Maintenance Trick For You
Usually, I use this recommendation section to refer you to a fun clarinet gadget, or a new recording. Today, I want to recommend a maintenance technique that you can do to improve the sound of your clarinet.
Our register key has a metal tube that protrudes into the inside of the clarinet. That's the annoying metal piece that your swab gets stuck on from time to time. Over time, lint and dirt (most likely from the stuck swab), accumulates in that tube and muffles sound. This will be especially noticeable on your throat tone Bb (which hopefully you have improved by adding resonator fingers to based upon a previous Clarinet Mentors video). Every now and then, I notice that the Bb is especially bad, and I get suspicious that the register tube is clogged with debris.
Your register key is one key that is pretty easy to remove all by yourself. If you look at it, there is one screw holding it in place. You can loosen that with a small screwdriver. As you start to pull out the screw, the key may want to spring away from the instrument, so keep a hand on it. The spring is attached to the key, so you won't lose it. Carefully set the screw in a safe place, and the key in another. Now you can see into the metal tube. Clean it out by blowing the debris out, or by gently pushing your screwdriver through it (although be gentle so that you don't scratch anything). If you happen to be looking inside your clarinet while you do this, you may see a bunch of lint coming out into the clarinet. You will need to swab this out once the tube has been cleared.
Once it is clean, set the spring back into the groove that is cut for it, hold the screw's tube in line with the posts at either end, and push the screw back in. Sometimes you need to wriggle this around until the screw goes in properly. Tighten your screw, and you are set. I usually do this about once a year. The main note that it improves is the Bb, but it can be significant. It takes about five minutes to do, and you'll probably enjoy pulling pieces off your instrument!
Last issue, I recommended recording yourself as part of your practise routine. I mentioned that I really enjoy my digital recorder, the Zoom H2, but that I hadn't really looked at all of the options that are on the market today. John T. wrote to me and recommended the Tascam DR07 Mark II. He says that it performs as well, at a much lower cost. Thanks John! You may want to check that recorder out if you are looking for a good-sounding portable device.
Michelle Anderson is a professional clarinetist and teacher who currently lives in Vancouver BC. She has been a professional performer for 30 years and 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, and conducts the Vancouver Clarinet Choir.
Thanks for reading this biweekly newsletter.
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Helping you to find success on your instrument with sound teaching techniques, and useful learning systems.
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