Tag: finger technique
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Keeping your fingers “close”
There’s a common idea with woodwind players and teachers that it’s important to keep your fingers close to the keys. Keeping the fingers within a certain reasonable distance does have benefits: It’s easier to keep track of where the keys are and not “miss,” especially for beginners Allowing the fingers to rise too far can …
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Woodwind doubling and clarinet problems
Here are a few of the common problems woodwind doublers have with the clarinet: Flabby/saggy/tubby/airy tone and flat pitch. This is a dead giveaway for a self-“taught” clarinet doubler. The clarinet’s voicing is quite high, higher than any of the other woodwinds, and beginning clarinetists sometimes struggle for years to make that proper voicing a …
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Woodwind doubling and oboe problems
There’s an increasing expectation that woodwind doublers be competent and confident oboists. It can be a challenging double, but a worthwhile one. Many of my doubling gigs have come to me because of my ability and/or willingness to play the oboe. And even though it’s not my strongest instrument, there are considerable spans of my …
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Things beginning band directors say to clarinet sections
Tough love for teachers of beginning clarinetists.
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Isolating problem spots
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in MusicianshipEarlier this month I posted about a fundamental practicing concept that sometimes escapes my less-experienced students. Here is another: Me: Play your D melodic minor scale. Student: [Begins D minor scale, plays a wrong note in the second octave.] Me: Whoops, remember to play B-natural. Student: Okay. [Starts over, makes same mistake.] Me: Please start …
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Slowing down
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in MusicianshipI can’t tell you how often I have had this happen in lessons, especially with my younger students: Me: Play your E-flat major scale. Student: [Begins scale at breakneck speed, plays 3-4 notes, makes a mistake, stops. Begins again at the same speed, makes a different mistake, stops.] Me: Wait— Student: [Begins again at breakneck …
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Learning fingerings as shapes
I observe that many woodwind players, when learning a new fingering—whether a beginner learning a standard fingering or an advanced student learning a new alternate fingering—tend to think of them as sequences: “This finger plus this finger and this finger and this key over here.” Sometimes my students even want to recite the fingering aloud …
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The magical properties of air
Good breath support, besides helping tone production in obvious ways, can have a surprising (and positive) impact on other aspects of woodwind playing.
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Crossing the break on the clarinet is easy
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 …
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Staying connected to the clarinet
In general, I’m not that concerned about keeping fingers close to instrument keys. A lot of woodwind players and teachers seem to believe that “close” fingers mean more speed, which I haven’t found necessarily to be the case. To me, a much larger factor is tension: if my fingers are tense (because, for example, I’m …