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Here is the first in a series of interesting articles by percussion and piano duo, Passepartout, about their lives traveling and attending artist residencies without a home base. Chris and Nico are not only brilliant musicians, but also eloquent writers as well. This first article in their series can provide insight on their unique musical lifestyle. Click here to read their article.

Also watch Passepartout Duo perform.

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With a new term beginning I thought it would be a good idea to provide a few pointers for success during the term.

  • Write practise times directly into your class schedule. This way you know exactly when you practise each day.
  • Warm-up prior to you lessons and rehearsals. This will save time and allow for more time to focus on technique and repertoire.
  • Always practise with a mirror, tuner, and metronome.
  • Keep your reeds in rotation so you always have a good reed to play on. A bad reed can derail a lesson or practise session. See this article by Reiner Wehle on how to break in reeds. My motto: Life is too short to play on bad reeds!!!!!
  • Your warm-up is the most important part of your practise. A good warm-up should include long tones, scale technique, and articulation.
  • Organize your practise time. Practising should include a warm-up, etudes/studies, repertoire. Your practise time will vary depending on how much repertoire you are working on.
  • Set small achievable goals for your practise sessions.
  • Measure your practise time by tasks rather than time. Putting in multiples hours is useless if you don’t accomplish anything.
  • Listen to other clarinetists and see as many live concerts as possible of varying genres, styles, and ensembles.

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Students should have a music folder for their lessons, a notebook, and pencil. Each students should download and print the Clarinet Warm Up Materials and bring them to each lesson.

Additional study books may include the materials listed below. I will suggest specific books during your lessons.

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As clarinetists we often have to conquer difficult musical passages that have a lot of fast notes. This can seem like a daunting task but with determination, a plan, regular practice, and the right approach any passage can sound effortless. Here are some tips to mastering technically challenging music:

  1. The first course of action is to plan well in advance so that you have enough time to learn the music well. Panicked time crunched practice often yields poor results.
  2. Start slow! If you are making mistakes you are going too fast. Use your metronome to ensure you aren’t speeding up. Don’t be in a rush to play the passage up to tempo. My teacher in my undergrad use to say “It’s never too late for slow practice”. Slow practice allows you to learn the challenging passage without mistakes. It’s better to learn music slowly well, rather than learning it fast with a lot of mistakes.
  3. Focus on the sections you can’t do well. It’s easy to play what we can do well, but in the end the problem areas are the ones we should focus on.
  4. Distort the rhythm. If a passage is running 16th notes, practice in irregular  groups of 3, 5, 7. The emphasis will be in different places in the measure  forcing you to draw attention to different points in the passage.
  5. Play in short sections. If the difficult section is long, break it into small chunks. Master the small chucks slowly then merge the small chunks together. A chunk can be a 1 or 2 beats, a measure, or phrase.
  6. Learn the passage from back to front. Often times we want to play long sections of music which can be counter-productive to learning small chunks. If you start at the end of the passage you are forced to stop. Also working backwards allows you to learn the end well, which can often be neglected.
  7. Long-Short-Short-Short practice. If a passage has running 16th notes making one note in the grouping long helps you to focus on different parts of each beat. If the passage is in groups of 4 16th notes, practice it quarter, triplet; quarter triplet moving the quarter note to the first, second, third, and fourth notes of the grouping.
  8. Have anchors. In running 16th note passages have anchors or goal notes at key points during the passage. These are points of emphasis often at the beginning of a phrase, measure, or a high or low note in the passage. I often mark them with a tenuto or accent in parenthesis.
  9. Think of ways to make the passage more difficult than it is and practice in this way. When you play it the way it is written it will be easier.

 

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No one ever seems to have a lot of time to practice, so it is essential to be as effective as possible to get the most done in the shortest amount of time. Each practice session should include time on fundamental technique, etudes, and repertoire. The fundamentals of playing clarinet include:

  1. Long tones
  2. Scales and arpeggios
  3. Articulation

Key habits for effective and efficient practice are:

  1. Put practice times in your daily schedule. Just like you schedule classes, also schedule practice time.
  2. Plan out your practicing. If you only have a half hour to practice plan that time so you are doing the fundemantals and repertoire
  3. Set goals. Since you know how long your will practice, set goals for each task. Make sure the goals are realistic for the time frame and if you don’t achieve the goal, carry it over to the next practice session.
  4. Take notes. Keep a notebook that details you practice session and your successes and challenges during each session.
  5. Don’t practice things you can play well. Focus your practice time on problem areas.
  6. Slow Practice.  Practice with a metronome to keep from playing fast. Learning difficult passages slowly and correctly will save you time.
  7. Revisit difficult passage regularly. Once you learn a difficult passage, revisit it daily to make sure it stays in your fingers.
  8. Practice smart! Remove distractions like cellphones and computers. Are you actively listening while you play or going on autopilot?
  9. Use a mirror. Practicing in front of a mirror helps you to monitor embouchure and hand position.
  10. Use your metronome and tuner.
  11. Use your metronome and tuner. (This is so important I put it twice!)
  12. Record yourself. Often times what we hear when we are playing is not the same as what others hear in the audience. Record short passages and listen back regularly to be sure that the product you are putting out is the same as what you think you hear. Even a cellphone voice recorder will work in a pinch.

 

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The difference between a good and a bad reed can make or break a performance. Also a good reed can help you progress confidently while a bad reed can hold you back. Therefore, it’s important to take great care when selecting reeds. Frequently, I ask students about their reed selection process and they explain that they select one reed from a box and play on it. This process is a gamble for a number of reasons. If a single reed is selected there is the possibility that it could be outstanding or poorly matched to your set-up leading to squeaks and poor tone. Each clarinetist has a different instrument, mouthpiece, and facial structure which means a reed that works well for one person might not for another. Given the variables involved, in any box of reeds there is a variety. For example, in a box of  3.5 strength reeds there will be reeds closer to 4 and 3. This fact makes it essential for clarinetists to try all the reeds in the box to see which are a fit. Selecting a reed is like buying a pair of shoes. It is essential to find a shoe that is comfortable; the same idea holds true with reed selection.

Reeds should be purchased in at least quantities of ten. Most boxes of reeds come with ten reeds. Having more reeds increases the number of good reeds that you will get from a box. A good reed has a variety of characteristics:

  1. A clear focused dark tone is the primary quality with a sound free of fuzz and buzz.
  2. A reed that has an ease of playing. Balance should be achieved between free blowing and resistance. Too much resistance will create a fuzzy tone while a free blowing free will be bright and unfocused. Between these two extremes is a reed that offers ease of playing while maintaining enough resistance to blow against and hold tone.
  3. Ease of articulation response is essential as well. A more resistant reed will articulate slowly while a free blowing reed will be difficult to control. Again, when selecting reeds you should seek a balance between these two variables.
  4. A good reed should allow you to play in all registers with a matched even tone. If the tone is fuzzy in the chalumeau register and strident in the altissimo, it is not a good fit.

I begin my reed selection process by taking all the reeds in the box out of the package and their individual wrappers. On each reed I play a scale the full range of the instrument (F major 3 octaves) and a line of an articulation study (Langenus 11). Through this process I am able to assess the tone across all registers, resistance, and articulation.

  • If the reed sounds good and articulates well I add it to a “YES” pile.
  • If it’s a little fuzzy or light but has an overall good tone I add it to a “MAYBE” pile.
  • If the sound is really fuzzy or bright with a bad tone I add it to the “NO” pile.
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Date your reeds

I complete this process for all the reeds in the box. At the end I usually have 3 or 4 YES reeds. These reeds I date and put in my reed case. Adding the date on the reed allows me to project the life cycle of the reed and not mix up older reeds.

I will complete this process again with reeds in the MAYBE pile and determine if any are worth practicing on. The reeds in the NO pile are composted right away. Life is too short to play on bad reeds!!!

Reed storage is key to their longevity. After initially testing reeds, the plastic holders they are packaged in should be

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Recycle these do not Reuse

placed in plastic recycling. These holders do not keep the reed flat. Reeds not places on a stable flat surface will warp. There are a variety of reed storage devices which boast particular features. However, it is most essential to keep the reed flat and protect the tip.

Repeating this reed selection process weekly or bi-weekly (depending on the amount of playing you do) will ensure that you have the best reeds for your instrument set-up.