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Quick Fix Friday: Check Your Pivot Points
Happy Friday! What if I told you that I had a simple solution to pesky technical problems? Good news – I do! Let’s talk about pivot points. Pivot points are when the musical contour changes directions, or “pivots” (hence the name). For example, a technical passage can move upwards before descending or vice versa. I’ve found that a large number of technical issues happen around these pivot points. What usually happens is that your fingers (and maybe your mind) gets used to going in one direction and can’t pivot as quickly as the music calls for. (Think of it like running down a hill and not being able to regain…
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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!
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How to achieve delicate attacks on clarinet
At first glance, the words “delicate attacks” might seem like an oxymoron (who decided to call them attacks in the first place?!). Despite the seeming contradiction, it is possible to play beautiful, delicate attacks on the clarinet across all registers. First things first – what is an attack? Simply put, attacks are the beginning of each note you play. Depending on the articulation you are using and the style of music you are playing, some attacks will be more emphatic (such as accented or marcato notes), while others should be more subtle (legato notes and lyrical passages). It’s important to develop a wide variety of styles for your attacks so…