Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2000-12-15 15:44
Lindsay -
Bob Lowrey, who was an excellent player and a well known clinician way back when I was in high school, showed me a great exercise.
Play a secure note (say, D below the staff), starting it mezzo forte with the breath.
Then, move the tip of your tongue up and slightly forward as if saying the syllable LA, LA, LA, but do not let your tongue touch the reed. You want to just barely miss.
Move the syllable forward gradually, so that you brush the tip of the reed only for an instant, producing the smallest possible "tic" in the sound. Don't make any change at all in your blowing.
Work on this until you can do it consistently and evenly. Then move to scales, beginning slowly and working the speed up gradually. The feeling should be that of your tongue sweeping - almost bouncing - across the reed, but never stopping. Also, the sound never stops.
Once you get this extremely light action under control, it's easy to make it more forceful.
Equally important, you teach yourself to play with a continuous tone, which is interrupted by the tongue, without interrupting the effort of moving the air stream. This avoids the problems that come when you thing of the tongue as what starts the tone, rather than stopping it.
It will probably take you a week or so to learn this, and it's much easier if you have a teacher listening to you, or even your band director, who will I know be very pleased if you ask for help and show that you're trying hard.
Keep at it. Everything you learn makes it more fun.
Ken Shaw
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The Clarinet BBoard
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