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Post by Zi on Jan 27, 2023 19:12:40 GMT
I found a series of videos on YouTube which are aimed at absolute beginners on the clarinet. Just in case anyone else is interested this is a link to the playlist. www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL06seol1EtFcMkVjGEe3VcsmP-JpG4WCMI didn't bother with opening the case etc because I'd figured that one out.  But I did watch the one on assembling the mouthpiece just to check I had that right and on the embouchure. I found the latter really useful and I'm aiming to work through some of the other videos. It does go very very slowly. If anyone else is at the absolute beginner stage then this might help (you can always skip ahead) but if you find something else that might be useful for a beginner then perhaps you'd post it here. I have several books but I must admit seeing someone demonstrate the embouchure was really useful even if all it did was reassure me that I'd at least got that right. |
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Post by Zi on Mar 4, 2023 9:15:49 GMT
I'm really struggling with tonguing on the clarinet. I don't have any problems tonguing the recorder but with the clarinet it seems very hit or miss. Any tips?
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Post by pavane on Mar 4, 2023 9:48:01 GMT
FWIW (not a lot) my genuine advice is: don't worry about it. I read a post on a clarinet forum a few weeks ago by someone seeking advice because he was self-taught, had been playing for a number of years and had reached a fairly high standard, and had now been told that he had never been tonguing properly. So long as you can start and stop a note reasonably cleanly, it doesn't much matter how you do it unless you reach a point in maybe 7 or 8 years time where you are playing in a group situation and your tonguing isn't considered up to scratch. But that's not very likely - which isn't meant to sound rudely like you couldn't get to that point if you wanted to, just that you probably don't want to.
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Post by Zi on Mar 4, 2023 10:35:02 GMT
Then I shan't worry. Thank you! Maybe it will resolve itself. Some things do. I know for most people it's not the same thing but I've seen that with The Collie. I've worked on stuff with her and it's resolved and other things I've intended to help her with but she's resolved them herself seemingly without input from me. I think the brain works on stuff on its own and sometimes it just needs time and patience. I'm not good at the patience thing with me (I'm patient with her of course - she's had enough impatience shown her!) I won't ever play in a group situation. My timing is too erratic. I'd drive the rest of the group spare and I don't like making people sad. I'm playing for fun. In fact, I've had to readdress why I am playing the clarinet because progress is so slow and often painful I have wondered recently if I should just give up and then I reminded myself that I'm playing it because I wanted to know what a reed instrument was like and I knew the oboe (which I prefer the sound of) was way too difficult at this stage in my life... if I was nearly 7 rather than nearly 70 it might be different. Anyway, I've found out what it's like and actually I could stop having done that but I'd like to be able to play simple carols - if I can hit that target then that's enough. It's onwards and an alpine horn - or whatever next...  Some days the clarinet makes nice sounds and I don't know why. I've fiddled with where the ligature is and how tight it is and all kinds of things and I can't figure it out. Maybe that will resolve too...  |
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Post by pavane on Mar 4, 2023 11:45:22 GMT
Honestly, I find exactly the same thing - some days it all sounds good and I think things are going well, the next day it sounds awful. I've just about stopped falling into the trap of thinking, when it does sound good, that I've hit on just the right combination of mouthpiece and reed and lig and that if I stick with that all will be well, because it won't. I do think it gets slowly better and the ratio of good to bad will slowly drift in favour of the former. Maybe embouchure is worse if, say, I'm tired, but I don't realise I am at the time. Dunno!
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