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Quick Fix Friday: Increase your air as you ascend
Happy Friday! This week’s quick fix is an easy way to improve your sound, especially as you ascend to new clarinet heights! The quick fix? Increase your air as you ascend! It’s always important to play while using enough air (both quantity and air speed). It’s even more important as we get higher on the clarinet. This goes back to basic sound production on the clarinet. The air causes the reed to vibrate, and faster vibrations/more vibrations per second = higher notes. This is why we need even faster air to produce quality higher notes. So, when you cross the break and start working your way towards the altissimo register,…
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Practice Hack to Build Better Transitions
Most musicians know that it’s not about how long you practice, but how well you practice. (quality over quantity!) Most musicians also know that it’s important to break pieces down into smaller section to gradually loop together. However, something I’m not sure most musicians know (or actively incorporate into their practice sessions) is effectively looping sections together. Enter one of my favorite simple practice hacks. When you are practicing a section of music, always end on the next downbeat. The problem with not looping to the next downbeat – Many musicians end on the last note of the measure or section they’re practicing. This overemphasizes weaker parts of the beat…