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Warm-Up and Daily Practice

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Warming up is an important part of daily student and professional preparation, and should exercise all basic performance skills.

Start with long tones. Play a chromatic scale for the full range of the instrument in long tones, taking the time to check and correct each note's intonation.

Play all the major and minor scales in slurred 16th notes at quarter note=60. Both Baermann Book III and Voxman Selected Studies have scale exercises that cover the standard range. The scale exercises in Klosé Celebrated Method Part II (page 123 of the combined volume) do not progress as far into the altissimo register. Concentrate on evenness, economy of motion, and playing relaxed.

Continue with arpeggios in all the major and minor keys, still playing slurred 16th notes at quarter note=60. These exercises can be found in Klosé and Voxman.

Follow this with scales in thirds in all the keys with the same tempo and articulation as before. Baermann, Voxman, and Klosé books all contain these exercises.

Now that your fingers are warmed up, repeat the above three exercises adjusting the metronome to the fastest that you can cleanly play each type of exercise. It is particularly important not to "slop through" the notes for the sake of speed. If you cannot play it evenly, with economy of motion, and relaxed, then you are trying to play it too fast, too soon.

Dr. Robert Spring of Arizona State University has written an article in which he describes his warm-up regimen, including both fingering and tonguing practice. (If you have heard Dr. Spring perform either in person or on recording you will want to learn how he developed his high velocity articulation.)

Below are some other warm-ups that have been recommended by KLARINET mailing list subscribers:

Stark -- Arpeggio Studies, op. 39; Opperman -- Daily Studies

long tones - twelfths, beginning on low E (slurring to 3rd line B by depressing the register key), and ascending chromatically to the thumb f (slurring to second ledger line c), each 12th on one long breath, played mf-f (comfortably solid sound, no fancy dynamics).

First five exercises in Klosé Book II.


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