Voicing and clarinet undertones

ByBret Pimentel

A few months ago I shared a list of published opinions on how to avoid undertones on the clarinet.

Many of the ideas shared by the distinguished authors seemed like just descriptions of good basic clarinet technique (“ensure correct, stable embouchure formation,” “establish breath support/air pressure before releasing tongue”). I agree that the most important way to improve undertones is to have a solid baseline tone production technique. If you can play with a beautiful, characteristic tone, mostly in tune, with good response, then your undertones are probably mostly gone already.

I do have one small tip that I find helps a great deal with clearing up any remaining undertones, that wasn’t mentioned by any of the sources I consulted. My readers know I frequently discuss the importance of keeping voicing very stable, but as I have indicated previously that’s only one side of a multifaceted issue.

I have good success with lowering my voicing just a little bit in the upper clarion register. (I tell my students to think of warming the air by just a degree or two.) This seems to stabilize and clarify those notes.

As always, expect any change in voicing to have multiple consequences, for tone, pitch, and response. In the case of clarinet upper-clarion notes, I find a very slight lowering of my voicing to have only minimal and acceptable effects.

If anyone is aware of others teaching this technique, I would be curious to hear about it.

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    The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is widely used by college music students and is regarded by most (for better or for worse) as the unimpeachable source of all musical knowledge. In my studies for upcoming doctoral comprehensive exams, I ran across this in the “Flute” article:

    Materials used for the tube and mechanism include nickel-silver, sterling silver, gold and platinum, while the springs are usually of tempered steel or phosphor bronze, occasionally of gold or another metal. The choice of material, especially for the head joint, influences the flute’s tone: wooden flutes produce a rich tone with a very full fortissimo in the lower register; metal flutes produce a limpid, flexible tone with great carrying power and also allow the player very sensitive control over the tone-colour; gold produces a mellow sound while silver is more brilliant. To achieve a combination of these qualities a head joint of wood or gold is sometimes fitted to a tube of silver.

    The idea of different materials having different sounds is, of course, seen as conventional wisdom by flutists (and indeed by wind players in general), but it flies in the face of 100 years of acoustical science. Read More “New Grove on flute materials”

  • Woodwind doubling for flutists

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    Here is a cleaned-up version of my lecture notes from a presentation on woodwind doubling I gave last week at the Mid-South Flute Festival:

    Woodwind doubling for flutists

    • What is doubling?
      • Primary-to-secondary doubling: Playing multiple instruments within a family, such as flute (primary), piccolo (secondary), and alto flute (secondary)
      • Primary-to-primary doubling: Playing instruments from different families, such as flute (primary), clarinet (primary), and saxophone (primary) [The idea of primary-to-secondary or primary-to-primary doubling comes from a web article by Mary AllyeB Purtle.]
    • Why double?
      • More (and more varied) gigs. Also, doublers can sometimes get bonus pay.
      • More teaching opportunities
      • Larger network
      • Fun; expanded horizons
    • Flute with non-flute woodwinds
      • Doubling opportunities in musical theater, backing up singers, jazz big bands (requires strong saxophone). With strong enough skills on secondary instruments, gigs on those instruments become a possibility. Employers often value musicianship over virtuosity.
      • The flutist’s advantage: flute and especially piccolo are often weak spots for woodwind doublers. A strong, soloistic flutist with at least basic reed skills can be a hot commodity.
      • For maximum pre-existing gig opportunities, add alto saxophone first, then clarinet. Convincing swing style is also helpful. For create-your-own opportunities, any combination can work!
      • To do multiple-instrument teaching really well, you need to play all of your teaching instruments well! To do this at a lower level, you will at least need to be familiar with current/respected pedagogical literature, a variety of repertoire (including method books, etudes, and solos), a variety of excellent recordings, and a variety of equipment options.
    • Flute with other flute-like instruments
      • Doubling opportunities in situations that increasingly call for “other” flutes: recent musical theater, studio recording, even recent orchestral music. Check out my dissertation on this topic.
      • “World” transverse flutes: bansuri, dizi, “Irish” flute. Also non-tradition-linked bamboo, wooden, or plastic flutes
      • Historical transverse flutes (baroque, etc.)
      • Fipple flutes: recorders, pennywhistle (tinwhistle)
      • Endblown flutes: quena, shakuhachi, panflutes (Romanian, South American)
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      • Be a beginner (but an informed beginner). Get a good teacher. Buy quality instruments within your price range. Do thorough work from good method books. Give yourself all the advantages you wish you had had when you started the flute.
      • Work out a practice schedule that reflects your priorities. If you are juggling a lot of instruments, it may not make sense to practice each one each day, but do practice each one at least a few days in a row to get some momentum.
      • What to practice? If your goal is maximum gig employability, prioritize intonation, rhythm, tone, and sight reading. Practice scales, arpeggios, and other technical drills in all keys, through the full range of the instrument. (Musicals are notorious for “singer” keys and unforgiving tessituras!) Begin working methodically through time-tested etude and technique books. Start learning the easier standard repertoire if that suits your goals.
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  • Q&A: Woodwind doubling

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    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.

    What are the highlights of your career related to doubling thus far?

    Hello, I was wondering about how feel about what you play as a woodwind doubler vs as a single instrumentalist. Do you feel like you’re still able to connect musically with things like pit orchestra as opposed to solo repertoire? Or what other options are there for woodwind doublers to express themselves?

    I’m not a Broadway pit orchestra doubler, or a Los Angeles studio doubler, or even working in a medium-sized market. When the opportunities have arisen I’ve done the usual journeyman doubling work: playing local musical theater, regional orchestras and chamber groups and big bands, church gigs, and rock and blues bands. I enjoy all of these, and in particular I enjoy the variety in my performing career.

    For me the biggest highlights have been connected to my academic career. This includes my attempts at bringing doubling to the recital hall, doing recitals (on my own college campus and others) of concert repertoire on multiple instruments. It also includes my teaching of multiple instruments in a studio setting, as well as woodwind methods courses, plus the textbook I wrote. This blog has been a highlight, too, that has put me in touch with woodwind doublers around the world, including some of my heroes.

    How does someone with a full time job, kids, etc. who does doubling as a hobby effectively split practice time among all of their instruments? I’m usually able to practice 1 hour per day. Should I split my session among instruments, or focus on one a day? What’s a good rotation? Any tips or tricks are appreciated!

    There’s never enough time in a day for a woodwind doubler. The answers to your questions will probably depend on you: what are your goals? do you want to play all your instruments equally, or do you want to have a “primary” instrument? are you practicing for specific performances or with specific goals in mind, or are you just trying to maintain and develop your skills in a general way? I think the answers to these questions will help clarify for you how you should be allocating your time.

    For me personally, an hour is just enough to feel like I’m making some amount of progress on a single instrument, so I suppose if I were in your situation I would mostly practice one instrument per day. Your results may vary. If you’re practicing for general skill development, I do think some kind of pre-planned rotation is valuable, though I don’t think the specifics are important. For me, just having some kind of purposeful rotation makes sure I don’t fall into a rut of, say, grabbing my flute every time because it’s easier than getting a reed wet.

    Thanks for your questions! It’s extra special to me to hear from fellow woodwind doublers.

    More 10-year anniversary Q&A

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  • Things you don’t need to cover in woodwind methods class

    ByBret Pimentel

    If you are teaching a woodwind methods course, you might be interested in my book.

    orchestral flutist
    Photo, KSMF Webmaster

    I’ve taught college-level woodwind methods courses for a few years now. This is a course primarily for instrumental music majors, who will go on to become school band or orchestra directors, and who need a crash course in the playing and pedagogy of each instrument that will be in their future ensembles. At the places I’ve taught, it means taking students from zero to playing a little bit of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone, all in one semester. It’s a semester-long sprint.

    There are a handful of textbooks available for these types of courses, most of which I own, and none of which I use in class. I’m continually surprised by the material that is and isn’t covered in these books.

    I try hard to keep my courses focused on core concepts, like position/posture, breath support, basic embouchure, voicing, and finger technique, and I try to keep those concepts as simple and clear as possible. I have students observe each other’s playing of these instruments, identify things that don’t look and/or sound right, and put their observations into terms of those basic concepts. (“So-and-so’s pitch sounds unstable, and his embouchure appears to be moving a lot. Perhaps keeping the embouchure still and increasing breath support will help to stabilize his intonation.”)

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    ByBret Pimentel

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    photo, valentina
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    • Poorly-designed tone exercises lack that self-destruct trigger. Often the creators try to prop them up with text explaining fundamental technique: “Use strong breath support! Keep your embouchure flexible!” If that kind of textual instruction is necessary to make the exercise useful, then the content probably doesn’t really matter—it might as well be a single note with a fermata.
    • Regardless of quality, any exercise you do with tone in mind is an opportunity to focus on your tone. That’s a good thing.

    Seek out high-quality tone exercises and do them regularly, but don’t forget to listen.

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