Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-07-01 15:03
Chong -
You're not alone. The Rabaud is *really* hard to get smooth. When you listen to the ancient Auguste Perier recording, it drives you crazy that he makes it sound so easy.
By working it out "in duples," I think you're talking about the exercises I posted a couple of years ago at http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=24907&t=24731. In that posting, I also gave some other exercises in groups of 3 and 4, which may help. It will also help to break the Rabaud cadenza down harmonically, marking each group of 4 notes (or perhaps 8 or more notes) for which scale or arpeggio it belongs to. Then, go to Baermann Part 3 and work out the exercises for that particular key.
The important thing is to work on the cadenza slow enough to get everything completely even. Otherwise you're only teaching your fingers to play it wrong.
When you're ready to go faster, you need to work at the very hardest speed -- the one just barely beyond where you can play smoothly and in perfect control. You'll find it's easy to go faster and "fake it." You really have to stop yourself from doing that. It's exhausting to keep control and work on the hardest speed, so do it only for 10 minutes or so. Then play something you love, take a quick rest, and go back to the hard stuff. It's about as much fun as eating light bulbs, but it's also essential.
Finally, it's easy to set your speed goal too high. When you listen to recordings with a metronome, you'll find the speed is often a lot slower than it seems. When you play something really smoothly, it sounds faster than it is. Take it a tick slower and add some "spritz" to it. It'll be plenty exciting.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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