The following is a comprehensive list of what clarinetists need to do to successfully Cross the Dreaded Break:
- Put the correct fingers in the correct places at the correct time.
- That is all.
I frequently meet young clarinetists who have been taught that a successful Crossing of the Dreaded Break requires many other things, including but not limited to:
- A long lecture by the band director or private teacher about how impossibly difficult this is going to be
- Tightening the embouchure
- Experiencing crippling fear
- Blowing harder
- Getting a more expensive mouthpiece
- Using a band method book that postpones crossing the break for absolutely months and months
- Being really tense and working much too hard
- Moving up to a much harder reed
If breath support, embouchure, and voicing are correctly established, then Crossing the Dreaded Break ceases to be a Thing. It’s just another note: a moment ago you were playing B-flat, and now you are playing B-natural. As long as your fingers get where they are supposed to go, then that’s all there is to it. Personally, I don’t even use the word “break” with a beginning student—there’s no need to get them all uptight about what really is a non-event.
