Recommended: Jeanjean “Vade-Mecum” du Clarinettiste

ByBret Pimentel

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

Lately I’ve been doing some clarinet work out of the Jeanjean Vade-Mecum. The title page translates charmingly to:

“Vade-Mecum” of the Clarinet-player

6 SPECIAL STUDIES

to

render the fingers and tongue rapidly supple

But this is what really sold me:

NOTICE

The aim of these 6 standard-studies (combining the essential parts generally contained in several exercise books) is to prepare instrumentalists in a very short space of time (about 1/2 hour) when, due to their occupations, they are not able to devote the time necessary for developed exercises and must nevertheless be ready to execute difficult passages, from the standpoint of lips, tongue and fingers.

The movements to which these Studies oblige the clarinet-player to submit will rapidly overcome those imperfections, the diminution or the passing weakness that might result from either fatigue or irregularity of technical work.

“…not able to devote the time necessary … and must nevertheless be ready to execute difficult passages…” This, in a nutshell, is the quandary of the woodwind doubler.

The Vade-Mecum is only six etudes (though some are as many as four pages long), but intensely focused. At this point I’m a long way from being able to play the whole book down in a half hour, but what a half hour that would be!

Check out the kind of stuff that’s packed into this book:

First, there’s a whole lot of this…

Not especially exciting, but great for getting your fingers moving and ironing out little hidden weaknesses. Think this is easy? Think again.

Then etudes that focus on problems of each hand. How fluent are you in the throat tones? No, I mean really? These tackle all your least favorite fingering issues…

Left hand

Right hand

Something for your tongue…

Then a quick tour though all the major and minor scales and arpeggios, with varied articulations…

And finally an expressive etude. This one really covers a lot of ground—extremes of range and dynamics, varied articulations, long phrases, lyrical passages and technical hurdles, and more expression and tempo markings than you would expect to find in the entire book. It even calls for vibrato in one spot.

The Vade-Mecum is a Leduc publication, so as usual it’s a little pricey for its 20 or so pages. But this is money well spent if you’re an intermediate to pro-level clarinetist and interested in a serious and thorough workout in a short time.

A few of tips:

  • You’ll need your French dictionary. The text is very specific about which keys to use, etc., and only the front matter is translated into English (and German, Spanish, and Italian). Here are a few important words to get you started. Corrections/clarifications welcomed in the comments as I am not a real French speaker.
    • gauche = left; M.G. = L.H.
    • droite = right; M.D. = R.H.
    • sans = without
    • lâcher = release
    • clé = key
    • soulever = raise
    • pouce = thumb
    • et = and
    • ni = not
    • You’re on your own for the rest.
  • Jeanjean uses a not-entirely-straightforward fingering scheme, and doesn’t provide a legend. As best I can tell:
    • 1 = LH E/B
    • 2 = LH F#/C#
    • 3 = RH F/C
    • 4 = RH G#/D#
    • 5 = RH sliver Bnat/F#
    • 6 = LH C#/G#
    • 7 = RH 1st (lowest) side key
    • 7 bis = LH sliver D#/A#
    • 8 = RH 2nd side key
    • 9 = LH throat G#
    • 10 = LH throat A
    • 10 bis = RH 3rd side key
    • 11 = RH 4th side key
    • 12 = LH thumb register key
    • A = RH E/B
    • diamond shape = LH thumb tonehole
  • The man himself is a little mysterious: Paul Jeanjean’s pitifully short Wikipedia entry

Enjoy!

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    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

    Proper position of the right thumb for oboe, clarinet, and saxophone can affect player comfort, ease of technique, and risk of injury. (Thumb position is important for flute and bassoon as well, but I find the issues different enough that I won’t lump them in here.)

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    • Get comfortable with a long timeline. You can’t reach the highest levels of playing on a bunch of instruments in the same time that your peers are reaching the highest levels on single instruments, unless you’re a lot more talented than me. And you can’t afford to buy a section’s worth of top-quality instruments in that same time frame, either, unless you’re a lot richer than me.

    • Prioritize what motivates you. Lots of aspiring doublers seem very concerned about what instrument they “should” learn next. There’s no roadmap, and it’s hard to predict what gigs might come your way in the future. So you might as well devote your time, effort, and money to whichever instrument you feel most excited about adding to your collection.

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    Some other readers asked about the “secrets” to practicing multiple instruments.

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    Thanks for the thoughtful questions!

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    I have been watching with dismay some recent online message board conversations about clarinetists picking up the saxophone and saxophonists picking up the clarinet. I am of course a big supporter of doubling, but much of the discussion seems to center around embouchure, and the language used is not only misleading but also vaguely pejorative. Clarinetists seem to regard the saxophone embouchure as “loose,” a term I think most saxophonists would take exception to, and saxophonists consider the clarinet embouchure to be “tight,” a concept I would expect clarinetists to shy away from.

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  • Q&A: Reeds

    ByBret Pimentel

    Here are some of the questions readers sent me in celebration of this blog’s 10-year anniversary. I have edited, combined, and otherwise adapted some of them but hopefully there are answers here for those of you who were kind enough to inquire.

    How do you (or how do you help a student) select the appropriate hardness of reed?

    This is a careful balancing act and involves tradeoffs. In general a too-soft reed causes pitch instability (tending toward flatness), good piano response but limited forte range, improved low-register response but weak upper register, and a thin and/or bright tone. A too-hard reed usually has poor piano response, a more resistant low register, and a stuffy or labored tone.

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    Also: with clarinet and saxophone, reed strength is (a) inconsistent between brands and (b) tied very closely to the characteristics of the mouthpiece, so it’s not especially useful to make broad recommendations (“beginners should start on a 2½…”). It’s entirely likely that two clarinetists playing different mouthpieces might need dramatically different reed strengths.

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    Improving/adjusting reeds involves some specialized skills, one of which is playing the instrument at a high level. Reed adjustment is an iterative process of making a small change and then testing, small change and test, small change and test. If you can’t play the instrument well, then reed adjustment is shooting in the dark.

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    More 10-year anniversary Q&A

13 Comments

  3. Also try my website http://www.artmarshal.org. Ther you can liten to my quartet arrangements that are played all over Youtube.
    Read my biography there or on http://www.cherryvalleymusic.com
    Do you know my Book Take Up Jazz? It is on cherry valley.

    The Bobbitt exercises are three note exercises and actually cover the Jeanjean LH and RH exercises.
    Are you familiar with all other works by Paul Jeanjean: 3 Cahiers. Etudes Progressives et Melodiques. His etudes with chord referrals?
    There is no country in the world that has systematized clarinet education in the way France has done. From the time of Klose, who introduced the Boehmsystem mid 19th century on the Paris Condervatoire. His method was written for that purpose.
    Perier, Jeanjean, Klose. Every year the Conservatoire National de Paris invites composoers to write a Morceau de Concours (exam piece)Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsody was also a Morceau de C.

    Kind regards Art Marshall

    Reply

  4. Hi,

    I was wondering what is the name of the peice in the last etude and who wrote it?

    I have seen that he mentioned something about berlioz, but I couldn’t understnad if he wrote/arranged it, and couldn’t find it in the internet.

    Thanks.

    Reply

    1. Jeanjean entitles it “Pour remettre l’embouchure en place et améliorer la sonorité” (To restore the embouchure and improve the tone). I don’t know of any reason to believe that Jeanjean didn’t write it himself.

      A marking at the beginning of the etude mentions Berlioz: “Dans son traité d’instrumentation H. Berlioz appelle: ‘Son crépusculaire’ l’écho de l’écho.” In his book on orchestration, Berlioz writes about the clarinet’s unique ability to play extreme pianissimo dynamics, what he calls “the echo of an echo” or a “crépusculaire” (twilight) sound. Jeanjean requests that very soft volume in this etude.

      Reply

  5. You may also want to try Modern Daily Studies for Clarinet (Book 1) by Kalmen Opperman, which attempts to do much the same. From the forward:

    ” This book meets the daily requirements of the professional clarinetist who doubles and cannot devote himself to long practice sessions, as well as the student…”

    And happy to say, all in English. It’s not always so easy to get hold of (published by M. Baron Company), but try Vancott Music Services. This is a keeper and you won’t be disappointed. My copy cost $13.95

    Reply

  7. The Vade Mecum is a great book. I have used it for years. It really challenges your fluency on the instrument and gives a very intense workout. I think it is essential.

    Reply

  8. Thanks. I had a look at the Modern Daily Studies Book 1 mentioned above and it has 21 exercises in 43 pages, LH (3), RH (3), Register key (1), Chromatic (1), Scales (1), Staccato (2), Grace Notes (1), Octave (2), Chords (4), and Etudes (3). I saw a youtube of Keith Ridenour talking about Kal Opperman and how in his lessons he used both the Modern Daily studies and the Vade Mecum.

    I also was thinking the Tafanel & Gaubert would be one to try for flute. Just 17 studies. For sax the most consise book seems to be the Klose 25 Daily Studies that some say is all you need.

    Reply

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