Playing Loud Is Not All It's Cracked Up To Be

I posted this past Saturday about playing loud.  I believe I said something like:

"Boy and girls.  Playing loud is something you have to practice...not a fancy you indulge.  Conductors can tell when you can't do it."

Well, that's true, but it goes much deeper than that.  Then I had a small exchange with a lovely person on Tumblr about that because she said she never plays loud enough.  So, I thought I should address it.

I have talked, long in the past....way far back....about the way in which you perceive your tone.  You have to have a tonal concept.  You have to know how you want to sound, and you have to work until you get that sound.  This tonal concept should drive everything you do, and it should drive you crazy when you are not getting the sound you want.

That tonal concept takes you to places that you will enjoy.  You will sound better overall, and you will learn quickly how to mane the most of the tone you do have.  If you are playing enough, you are going to learn how to produce large amounts of sound, and you are going to learn what your limits are.  HOWEVER, there comes a point of diminishing returns.

Bass clarinet is not an instrument you play loud...it just doesn't sound good that way.  You play loud to develop your sound, but those are not your best tones.  The best sounds you will make are RESONANT.  If your tone is truly resonant, it will be perceived as much louder than it really is, and that is a triumph in and of itself.

How do you get a resonant tone?  The concept.  You have to go back to the concept over and over.  A big billowing tone that just sort of wafts out of your instrument like smoke.  It goes everywhere and everyone can hear it.  THAT is what you are looking for.

Think of it like this.  You are in your room late at night, and you turn the TV down to not disrupt anyone.  As the night gets later and you binge watch a whole season of your favorite show, you keep turning the TV down because you start perceiving it as louder and louder.  It is NOT getting louder, but you perceive it that way.

In the same way, the more time you spend with your tonal concept, it gets perceived as louder and louder.  The only problem is that no one EVER talks about tone.  They just don't.  They talk about technique and cleanliness and stuff you can teach to a chair.  You cannot teach a chair to play with a resonant tone.  I get yelled at for it all the time, but the simple fact is that I am using about 30-40% of my available air when I am playing "loud" and no one even remotely understands that concept.  That is why you I play on such an open setup.  I don't need all the resistance.  I just don't...it prevents me from making the sound I want.

Ok, how do I do THAT?

Well, you have to open your mouth.  If you have ever been in band, you have likely heard some form of brass instruction that centers around dropping your tongue, using more air and air efficiency.  THAT is where I learned that.  So, you can blame a lot of people for me playing "loud" but none of them play woodwind instruments.  I adopted the dropped tongue, open air and pedal tone practice from brass players.

Guess what, folks.  You're practicing the wrong things :)  There are three things I can recommend that will change your life if you're willing to do them (and I am have just realized I need to make a video of this.)

1.  Remington's Chromatic Exercises

Remington knew what he was doing, and this works well for everyone.  Play F concert, descend by a half step and back up to F.  Then down a whole step and back up to F and so on until you end on Bb concert.  Start on Bb and use that as tonic.  Now you go down a half step and back up.  Down a whole step and back up until you have reached the bottom of the horn.  The only catch is that all the notes have to sound exactly the same.  That is 10 million times harder than you think it is.  Now play it loud.  It just got harder.  Now play it louder.  It got even harder.  Do that a few thousand times, and you will be able to resonate that exercise to make it sound like you are playing a VERY broad sound without using much air at all.

2.  Field Warm Ups For Band

This exercise comes from Jay Bocook's "Field Warm Ups For Band".  Play pretty darn loud starting on low Bb concert chromatically down to low E concert and back up in quarter notes.  Then repeat that immediately in eighth notes TWICE.  That is three times through the pattern.  Every note has to be the same, and it you have to make it to the end of the exercise.  Good luck with that, again, it is harder than you think.

3.  Use Softer Reeds For God's Sake!

Time for some tough love.  Yes, I'm talking to you.  Your reeds are probably too hard.  They just are.  Your tone sounds generic because the reeds are not flexible enough for you to do anything other than what the reed provides, and the reed is providing VERY little.  Guess what, use softer reeds.  I play on a Gonzalez 2.75 which is about a Vandoren Blue Box 2.5  I know, I hear you gasping.  Dude, it works.  It just does.  Stop wasting your money on reeds that you know deep down in your soul are too hard.  You are killing your sound from the inside out because you cannot get any air into your instrument.

Now you have a recipe for resonance.  The final step is to play with a BROAD sound, not a loud sound.  Loud sounds are annoying, broad sounds cover everything in the room.  Just imagine the difference in your mind before you dismiss that concept.

Good luck!

Why Hard Reeds Do Not Always Work

You might have been told many times over that you need to use hard reeds.  Because.  No.  Just because.  Don't question me.  I'm the band director.  I know it all.  I went to college for this.  I probably don't play clarinet, and if I don't I DID take a woodwind methods class...I mean, that's some comprehensive stuff right there.

Just kidding.  That's how it is for most band directors because they do not play single reeds.  There are so many other instruments they might have played that it is unlikely you will land a clarinet playing director.  Even if you do, not all of them understand how reeds work.  Hard reeds are great...for some people.  Hard reeds tend to work better on soprano clarinet, but that is not a hard and fast rule either (see what I did there.)

Your only hope of playing the right reeds is to play what you like.  You need to make sure that you are on softer reeds that give you a chance to feel some sort of response.  You can slowly move to keep your pitch up (providing your embouchure is strong...not firm...just strong.)  You must remember that reeds are supposed to help you, and any reed that does not blow freely is likely too hard for you.  There are so many choices that you will not have to worry about finding the right one, but you do need to go searching until you find it.

I play a Gonzalez 2.75 on a Selmer D mouthpiece and Leblanc 430.  That's a BIG setup, and it works for me.  If I gave it to you, it wouldn't work.  If we traded horns, I would not enjoy playing your horn because it doesn't work for me.  It works for you.  You have to be happy with what you re using or you are going to have problems.  You can lie to yourself and say that it will get better, but your setup does not get better until you decide that you are going to make a change.  Just waiting for reeds to be more free blowing won't work...it never does.

No More Emotional Drain

Starting in 2001, I joined a community band here in the area.  We played all kinds of music, conferences and conventions.  I basically did the bulk of the bass clarinetting in a section that is beset with very nice people.  The section has changed slightly over the years, and I even took a 5-year hiatus from the group.

When I came back to the group, I was having a VERY hard time in my personal life.  So, playing was a good thing to do because I was so distracted by everything.  I had just gotten my contra and alto, and I started using the three-way setup in the group, essentially, to entertain myself.  I played some very good stuff, but I was mostly doing it for me.  It doesn't pay, so that was not the issue.

We played a conference this year, and the whole experience aside from the concert was a nightmare.  I had to spend ten minutes earlier this season explaining to the director that I shall not play with a bland tone.  I spend a good deal more time explaining the breadth and resonance in my sound as it relates to a band that is so big it shouldn't be a problem.

If you've ever dealt with a manipulative person, you know that they are working very hard to point all the conversation at them.  Everything is about making them look good, and even more is about making sure they look smart.  They change little details in stories hoping no one will notice, and they tell these stories to tons of people who were not there.  Manipulative people change history, and they are very good at making you feel bad because they are being a jerk to you.

If you have dealt with the same manipulative person on and off for nearly 25 years, you get used to their tells.  I mean, you never start out thinking they're manipulating you, but when you realize what is really going on, it's hard to ignore.  Because you're a nice person, you don't say anything.  You try to be as chill as possible, and you go on about your life.  However, there comes a time when you have to cut ties.

My life is very drama free.  I don't like drama, and I have close friends who don't like drama.  MY family doesn't like drama, and I'm not a teenager anymore.  When a band director uses you (and your classmates) as a teenager to make themself look good, it's kind of sad when you repeat the pattern (in my case twice) when you are an adult.  Some people have a "respect cup" that is bottomless, and they are going to make you fill it all the time.  There are band directors like that you who live on respect.  It's a drug, and when you don't play by their rules, they single you out (sometimes in EXCEEDINGLY subtle ways) to make sure that you fall in line.  I don't fall in line like that anymore, and so I have to remove myself from the situation.

The fact is that the majority of the people in the band are happy because they don't know any better.  That's fine.  There's no reason for me to mess with that, but I won't be party to it anymore.  I literally have too much going on to care anymore, and I need to focus my energy on projects that I know I can release this year.  I can really do something, but I can't if I'm constantly listening to someone who is trying to get their respect cup filled.  You may say that that's selfish, but you have to remember that I know what I'm worth.  I don't get paid to perform a service that is highly valuable, and I have to listen to the constant barrage of manipulative banter which, even though it no longer works on me, is upsetting to listen to.

I just finished writing lyrics for an album, half the music is done, and I am going to record the melodies in the next couple weeks.  The children's book may get a boost because I may have found an artist, and I have a thousand things I want to release digitally.

So, if you're experiencing drama in your life, it may be time to walk away or create some distance.  You don't kick over the table and tell everyone to fuck off, but maybe it's time to get out of the situation and try something else.  If you're a student who is stuck in the situation, hang in there as best you can.  The best advice I can offer is this:

1.  You're worth more than they say
2.  You have a long life after this to live
3.  I especially prefer when Lorelai explains to her mom the way she acts.  She tells her that she chooses to laugh at Emily's insanity and narcissism.  That is where all the jokes and sillyness come from.  She uses humor to get around the fact that she knows she is being manipulated in every conversation.  Choose to laugh at how silly it is on the other side, do something else with yourself and move forward.  You don't always just move on, but you can move forward.

The Current Setup (Bass Clarinet, Alto Clarinet, Contra Clarinet...OK, All The Clarinets)

My setup has changed...five thousand times over the past few years AND I starting practicing all the clarinets orchestrally.  So, I have a completely new setup that I use regularly on everything.  This goes from the efer all the way down to the contra and beyond.  The question is, what am I using now?

Eb/C -- They share a Vandoren B44 mouthpiece and size 3 Blue Box reeds
Bb/A -- They share an old Hite M41 (which is now just the M) and 3.5 56 Rue Lepics
Alto -- I use a Yamaha 5C mouthpiece and 2.5 Vandoren V12 Alto Sax reeds
Bass -- I use a Selmer D mouthpiece and 2.75 Gonzalez Bass Clarinet and Tenor Sax reeds
Contra -- I use the original Leblanc mouthpiece that came with the horn and 3 Blue Box reeds.

Eb/C -- I use a Vandoren V16 soprano sax ligature with the No. 2 plate
Bb/A -- I use the Vandoren Leather ligature with the leather plate
Alto -- I use a Rovner EDII (now defunct) Tenor Sax ligature with no plate
Bass -- I use a vintage gold Harrison ligature
Contra -- I use a Rovner Dark ligature

Eb -- 1930 Rampone Milano
C -- Pre World War I unsigned Albert system
Bb -- 1950 Leblanc Symphonie
A -- 1914 Selmer Paris (before they used serial designations)
Alto -- 1965 Leblanc Paris
Bass -- 1997 Leblanc 430S
Contra -- 1969 Leblanc Paperclip BBb

Any questions?  I'm happy to answer.

Keep Your Practice Journal

I never took a practice journal...ever.  I was never asked to keep one by a private teacher, not even in college.  So, it was kind of a foreign concept to me.  However, it didn't bother me.  I just never kept one.

Well, on January 9th, 2013, I was denied a contract release I had been guaranteed previously.  So, I said "Fuck it, screw it, fuck education...I'm done with this shit."  I took the year between January 9th, 2013 and January 12th 2014 to basically practice at school constantly.  I did a TON of practicing.  I learned all the excerpts I was never taught (which is pretty much all of them.)  I taught myself to play Bb clarinet correctly (which was a major hurdle in my life previously.)  I bought an Eb clarinet, a C clarinet, I had already bought an Alto Clarinet and Leblanc Paperclip BBb Contra in the fall of 2012.  So, I have a full collection of clarinets.  And I learned EVERYTHING.

However, I didn't write anything down until June of 2013.  Then I started charting everything.  I started writing down goals.  I charted my tone for each instrument and took all kinds of notes, set goals for learning solo pieces and I learned about 50 pieces in a year and about 100 excerpts.  Basically, I gave myself a Doctorate in performance in a year.  Most of what I got done at the end of the year was directly tied to what I wrote down in my practice journal.

So, what do you write in your practice journal?  Whatever you want.  If I took pictures of mine and posted it here, you wouldn't be able to read it.  It's scribble scratch, but it works for me.  Do your own scribble scratch and see where it takes you.

On a side note:  Don't keep a journal for every instrument you play.  Let them all intermingle.  You never know what you'll learn about one while you're practicing another.

Next up:  My new Bass setup ;) ... sort of.