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Joy to the World Holiday Scale Challenge
Bring joy to the world, one scale at a time! Did you know that the opening melody to Joy to the World is just a descending major scale? Why not add some holiday cheer to your practice routine by practicing this tune in all major key signatures? Better yet, why not challenge yourself to playing this melody in all key signatures in under one minute? I’ve written out this melody in all 12 major key signatures, and you can download this for free here. If you’re up for the challenge, feel free to share your videos with me or tag me on social media! P.S. If you’re looking for other…
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Back to Basics Boot Camp
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on all of us in many different ways. One of the most common refrains I’m hearing and seeing from so many musicians is that their practicing schedules are completely out of whack. That’s why I’ve created my Back to Basics Boot Camp. I developed this boot camp to help clarinetists get back in the swing of things in the practice room. During this 15-day boot camp, you’ll rebuild your embouchure and physical endurance, regain technical abilities including articulation, and improve your musicality and phrasing. This boot camp is completely free, and I hope it’s the impetus many musicians need to get back in…
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30-Day Self Care Challenge for Musicians
Backpacks are filled, pencils are sharpened, and coffee is copiously consumed – that can only mean one thing… It’s time for another school year to begin! I hope everyone is settling nicely into their back to school routines. With so many new classes to take, people to meet, and subjects to learn, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of another academic year. It’s also just as easy to succumb to the stress and anxiety of exams, juries, recitals, auditions, jobs, and other real-world stresses. Mental health is always an important subject, but especially at the beginning of school when emotions run high. I’ve shared some mental health…
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Jettel Boot Camp
By now, dedicated readers of Jenny Clarinet should know about my love for scales. I could practice them all day, every day without ever getting bored, and my scale book of choice was Baermann…until I discovered the Jettel scale exercises! Don’t get me wrong – there will always be a special place in my heart for Baermann, but the Jettel scales offer a wider variety of patterns (including both melodic and harmonic minors) and are devilishly difficult. I’ve worked on a few isolated scale patterns and exercises, but it’s much more fun when we all suffer work through the Jettel together! I’ve created the Jettel Boot Camp for September 2019,…
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Baermann Boot Camp, Round Two
A few years ago, I created my famous Baermann Boot Camp for clarinetists to complete the beloved Baermann Division III, Op. 63 scale exercises in just one month. (You can read the original post here and listen to me discuss it with Clarineat host Sean Perrin here.) My Baermann Boot Camp was the first of many boot camps I’ve created since then (such as Kroepsch, Uhl, and my 2018 and 2019 year-long boot camps), but Baermann will always hold a special place in my heart. It seems I’m not alone, because the majority of my social media friends voted to bring back Baermann for another round this June! Here is…
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2019 March Madness Orchestral Excerpts Tournament
Let’s face it – orchestral excerpts are a necessary part of our clarinet existence. Whether you love them or hate them, they’re required of most serious clarinetists. They teach us valuable fundamentals, ensemble playing skills, and loads of patience throughout the years. Which is why I’ve created the 2019 Jenny Clarinet March Madness – Orchestral Excerpts tournament! This is a combination March Madness bracket (for all you sports fans) and orchestral excerpts boot camp. I’ve created a bracket with 32 standard orchestral excerpts for clarinet, and this bracket will serve as the boot camp and practice guideline for excerpts in March. Here’s how it works: I used a random online…
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2019 Jenny Clarinet French Boot Camp
Are you looking to add a little je ne sais quoi to your practice routine? Maybe you want to practice à la française? Or maybe you just want to learn the Francaix Concerto or the Debussy Première rhapsodie, but don’t know where to begin? Say no more! I’ve created the 2019 Jenny Clarinet French Boot Camp, a 12-month practice plan centered around learning standard French repertoire and etudes! Each month contains a different method book or solo work, which I have organized into daily assignments. (Here is a sample boot camp.) Each month includes instructions and advice for each book or piece. If you follow my boot camp, you’ll complete one book,…
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Uhl Boot Camp
It’s been exactly one year since I launched my first boot camp on Jenny Clarinet! After the success of my Baermann Boot Camp from last October, I made my Kroepsch Boot Camp this past summer, and I even created a year-long boot camp for all you hard-core clarinetists out there! This time around, we’ll be tackling the notoriously difficult 48 Studies by Alfred Uhl. Treacherously technical and tonically tedious, these studies will be completed over the course of two months, focusing on one etude a day. I’ve never worked on the Uhl studies before, and a lot of my readers told me that they were planning to start working on them, so it looks…
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International Day of Baermann
Calling all clarinetists! Last October, I created the Baermann Boot Camp, a practice plan which allows you to complete Carl Baermann’s eponymous scale book in one month. Clarinetists from around the world bonded over torturous key signatures and those dreadful octaves, and we emerged stronger and more technically proficient after an intensive month of scales. A lot of people probably thought I was crazy for cramming so much music into just 31 days. Well, I’m about to share an even more ambitious idea. I’d like to introduce the inaugural International Day of Baermann on October 24, in honor of the 208th birthday of our patron saint of scales. To celebrate, we’ll be…