• Friday Favorites: Clarinet History Books

    Happy Friday! I love learning about the clarinet’s history, and there are so many wonderful resources available. Here are a few of my favorite clarinet history books (please note that some of these may be out of print or difficult to find. I recommend checking out nearby university libraries or using interlibrary loans): Clarinet Virtuosi of the Past by Pamela Weston – Perhaps my favorite book on this list, this book examines famous clarinetists of the past, including Anton Stadler, Heinrich Baermann, and Richard Mühlfeld. Pamela Weston is a brilliant writer and scholar, and she wrote other clarinet books, including The Clarinet Teacher’s Companion, More Clarinet Virtuosi of the Past, Clarinet Virtuosi of Today, and Yesterday’s Clarinettists:…

  • Friday Favorites: Technical Exercises

    Happy Friday! You all know I love my scales, but I also enjoy a good technique-building book! Here are some of my favorite books and exercises to help polish and develop better clarinet technique: 11 Technical Exercises Paul Jeanjean Vade-Mecum du Clarinettiste Fritz Kroepsch 416 Progressive Daily Studies for the Clarinet Périer 331 Exercises Journaliers de Mechanisme Klosé Daily Exercises and Technical Studies from the Celebrated Method for the Clarinet Cyrille Rose 40 Studies Ernesto Cavallini 30 Caprices Kalmen Opperman Velocity Studies Frederick Thurston Passage Studies Giovanni Battista Gambaro 22 Progressive Studies Gaetano Labanchi 35 Studies for Clarinet Jean Xavier Lefevre 60 Exercises for Clarinet Happy practicing, and I hope you have a great weekend!

  • The Complete Guide to Scales

    Longtime readers of this blog probably know by now that I’m a scale fanatic. Scales are one of my absolute favorite things to practice, and I think that they are also one of the most beneficial elements of any well-balanced practice routine. I spend a lot of time with my students explaining what scales are and why they’re so important, and I wanted to create this guide to share this information with you, whether you’re a beginner or scale aficionado. First things first – what is a scale? You’ll probably encounter several different definitions, depending on which music theory book you reference. Basically, a scale is a group of notes…

  • Friday Favorites: Articulation Exercises

    Happy Friday! Another week, another opportunity for me to share some of my favorite clarinet-related things! This week, I’m sharing some of my favorite articulation exercises. Developing a polished articulation style (both quality and speed) is very important for clarinetists, and here are some of my favorite books to help you in this pursuit: Reginald Kell 17 Staccato Studies (also Clarinet Staccato from the Beginning) Gustave Langenus “Tonguing Study” from Book Three of Complete Method for the Clarinet (No. 11 – page 22) Robert Stark Daily Staccato Exercises         Randall Cunningham Tongue Twisters Fernand Gillet Exercices Sur Les Gammes, Les Intervalles, et Le Staccato Pour Clarinette Reiner Wehle Clarinet Fundamentals 1: Sound and Articulation Avrahm Galper Tone, Technique, and Staccato…

  • Friday Favorites: Scale Studies

    Happy Friday! This week, I’m sharing a few of my favorite scale books. Since I’m somewhat of a scale fanatic, this was a bit difficult to narrow down! In my opinion, no practice session is complete without scale studies, and I’ve linked some of the scale books below to exercises, Boot Camps, and Digital Downloads that I’ve created as resources to help you learn these materials. Without further ado, here are my favorite scale books for clarinetists (listed in no particular order): Carl Baermann Complete Method for the Clarinet, Op. 63 (3rd Division) Pares Daily Exercises and Scales for Clarinet Emile Stiévenard Practical Study of the Scales B. Albert 24 Varied Scales and Exercises for Clarinet…