I Want To Do A Ballet

But I don't want to do a stuffy ballet that has no elements of modernity in it.  I want to do a ballet where a dancer gets to fully participate in the creation process.  I want the dancer to have a chance to design half the dances herself without the input of any music, and I would love to give her half the music to use to choreograph.  I saw some of the most amazing dancers today just from a local studio, but these were strong girls who were artistic, creative and fearless.  I want to work with people like that.  I want the ballet to be an indie pop/rock album, but I want it to mean something to little girls who want to be dancers as they watch someone who is strong and still young absolutely killing it visually.  I just think that would be so cool.  Not just for me but for the girl does the dancing, a chance for us both to create something wholly unique.

Too many projects and not enough time :)

PS–Guys, if you don’t already know, girls are STRONG, and most of them can snap you in half.  The “girlier” things they do, they’re probably even tougher.  You need to recognize.  Girls rule, and us boys, we drool ;)

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!

Music Is Not All Tears

I had my first rehearsal for a gig I do every year with a training orchestra here in town.  It's a lovely group, and the conductor is fantastic.  I played about half a movement of a piano concerto and Jupiter my time with his group ten years ago, and every year there is something really interesting going on in the group.  I have fun when I go to rehearsal, and this year is no different.  However, I was thinking about all the posts I see on Tumblr about crying and practicing and the like.  I wasn't perfect, but I wasn't crying.

Learn To Laugh At Your Mistakes

If you are laughing at your mistakes, you tend to get over them faster.  You are not to be so amused that you do not appear to care, but you should be able to laugh at yourself and say "Maybe I'll play that right next time" or "Oh, I actually played it right that time."  It won't be wrong at the next rehearsal, and you can enjoy yourself while in rehearsal.  Remember, I'm getting paid, and I'm laughing at myself...because I know what I'm doing.

Interact

Be interactive in rehearsal.  You cannot sit there and say nothing, and you cannot be the person who picks out every little perceived problem on the part.  You need to play your part well, ask questions if they really need asking and pipe up every now and then to let the conductor know you're still alive.  This is more fun because piping up leads to some fun banter between you and the people around you or even the conductor.  I was doing an Austin Powers impression in rehearsal...I don't know about you, but that's way more fun than sitting there all stone faced and angry because there might be a wrong note in this new part and I am going to theoretically analyze it to prove I'm right when I bring it up because how dare the conductor give us parts with wrong notes on them.  Just a tip--SHIT HAPPENS.  Play well, take it seriously, but have fun.

Don't Be Shy

I'm not necessarily advocating messing with the conductor, but I am advocating playing out until you get told to shut up.  You will have some nice exchanges over the quality of your sound this way.  You can see how far you can go, and you will learn how the group sounds.  This is especially important if you have not really played with most of these people before.  I play loud enough to get one dirty look from a flutist in front of me every rehearsal, and I love it.  They're not used to it, and I'm not playing out of tone, so it usually works :)

Don't Take Critiques Seriously

It's just a critique.  Like, I played the same passage out of time a couple times in this last rehearsal because I didn't want to insert as much space as was required because there was a phrase marking on the paper.  I tried to play it in a cute fashion, and it didn't work.  He got on my case ever so slightly, then I said I would stop playing it cute and it was fine.  That's all.  No hard feelings.  This conductor is a great guy.  Sidenote:  You can tell when the conductor is actually being horrible to you...make sure you discern the difference.

Don't Be Too Prepared

What I mean is, you are not so prepared that you can't flow with the group.  It's like the freshman who says "this is my spot."  That doesn't work...you need to know your part, but you need to flexible so you can move with the group and the feeling you get from the music.  This is NOT like playing excerpts for auditions (which is a flawed system in and of itself because it never accounts for musical feeling.)  This is just going with the flow.  If you're thinking that you have to railroad everyone to play your tempo, that won't work.  You need to follow everyone else.

Remove Anxiety

Well, that's what we just did.  Get rid of the anxiety and you are going to have more fun.  Playing your instrument is fun...even if college made you forget that.

 

Patreon, Here We Come

So, I am slowly creating a Patreon profile so that I can get more funding to complete my work.  This is not a sales pitch, it's more of a PSA.  You can use Patreon to create a great many things, and it might help you pay your rent, etc.  It's a very cool platform.  If you wanted to donate to me, that's great, but there's lots of good people on the site, and that is a very cool thing.

What The Bass Clarinet Means To Me: Anxiety Be Gone!

Anxiety is not something I ever thought I had...I just thought I was a freak.  I could be standing in the middle of a room and feel a tightness in my chest over nothing.  I don't like small talking people, and I don't like trying to make a thousand friends.  I have anxiety about different things every day, and I have been like that since I was...5.  I remember that clearly...but I never had anxiety when I was playing...not after I switched to bass.


You might think that that's really nice and all, but how does that apply to you...well, it applies because there is something to be said for the thing that you are supposed to be doing.  You know what I mean?  I mean, you might get a little nervous before a performance, but that's a LONG way from feeling anxiety all the time. 


Finding the thing that you love to do that frees you from anxiety for even a moment is a VERY easy way to find other things that revolve around the thing that does not make your feel anxious.  You would be shocked to find all the things that you can do that revolve around the thing that you love to do.


WRITE ABOUT IT



Look, I'm doing that right now!  You can write about literally anything that revolves around it, and you will be able to keep writing as many times as the mood strikes you.  Hell, you could write a book.

DO IT



You do not have to be greatest of all time at what you do.  You just don't have to be.  You can be someone who LOVES it, and that is FAR more valuable than being the best ever.  Yeah, you can have high hopes and make lofty goals, but you just need to do it.  This is going to help you to have fun when you are trying to get to where you want to go.  Sure, you might have to wait a while, but waiting is better than NOT doing the thing you need to be doing and feeling like shit about it because the thing that you are doing is making you anxious as hell.



TALK ABOUT IT



Talking about the thing is going to make it feel more lively for you...technically this blogging counts as talking, or you can simply find a social media platform where you can talk to other people who do the thing.  You can get more out of this than you could possibly imagine, and you can do it for a long time without ever stopping.  If it makes you chatty, you are going to feel less stressed about like in general.  You get rid of the anxiety just long enough to enjoy the thing.



HELP SOMEONE ELSE DO IT



Helping people is the best thing you can do for yourself.  It really does feel better to help others than it does to help yourself, and you can learn about the thing even more than you thought.  You will make friends, and you will have a way of working doing the thing.  That's teaching :)


The time is now...I certainly don't know how to cure anxiety, but I know how I get around it as much as possible :)  I hope this helps...

Practicing Without Pain

Practicing is difficult if you think that you need learn everything in one night.  Practicing is difficult if you think it doesn't do anything.  Practicing is difficult if you think that you're going to die the next day when you get to school/your lesson/rehearsal or whatever.  Practicing is difficult if you hate your progress, and practice is difficult if you think that 1% progress is not enough.

You have to do a few things before you start practicing:

1.  Forgive yourself for not getting it all done at once.
2.  Forgive yourself for your mistakes.
3.  Stop comparing yourself to others.
4.  Stop playing something that makes you want to scream.
5.  Be willing to take less time to do more.

This may sound like therapy, but you need to remember that you are not a bad person or a bad player because you mess up when you practice.  Everybody screws up a lot.  There are some people who learn more the more they screw up.  Teachers often as you to practice, but they never tell you what a practice session looks like.  They never tell you that professional musicians have "preferred pieces" that they play more often than anything else.  So, if you are listening to a recording to someone shredding a piece you are playing, you re listening to someone who has played that piece literally a thousand times.  That's probably their thing...they are great players all of them...but you might be listening to someone's wheelhouse.  What if you are not in your wheelhouse?  You are going to think you're fucked.  You have to step back and think..."Oh, that's not my bag."  You'll work hard, but you can wash away the comparisons.

YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO MAKE MISTAKES AND BAD NOISES

Mistakes are often more informative than right notes.  Right notes just sound good, but mistakes tell you all the things you don't know.  You can learn about your own playing by listening to what you mess up.  You may discover small problems with your playing that are not obvious until you actually listen to your mistakes.  You have to love your mistakes because they point to things that will change your perspective.

NO ONE PLAYS PERFECTLY ALL THE TIME

If you want to spend all your time hating your playing, feel free to think other people are perfect.  Here's a secret...they aren't.  Mess up a lot so you can get it out of your system.

STOP RUNNING THROUGH THINGS

Yeah, you need to run through things...sometimes.  You need to practice things daily.  Runthroughs are going to drain you, and you are going to notice that you need multiple takes to get it right.  You may counter by saying that you have to be able to drop bombs cold in an orchestral audition, but I'm not stupid...I know the majority of the audience here is not taking orchestral auditions.  You have a concert coming up, and you will surrounded by other people who are playing.  Momentum is a real thing, and the band pulls you along.  It just does.

FIND YOUR THING

Everybody needs a thing.  Your tone, tonguing, range, something.  You need a thing that makes you say...yeah, I'm REALLY good at that.  You can be proud of that everytime you do it, and you will be able to fall back on that when you don't feel so good about a practice session.

TAKE LESS TIME

You can practice for hours and hours, but that does not mean the practice is working.  You will hit the point of diminishing returns somewhere around three hours.  Some people hit that point WAY sooner.  You could get more done in ten minutes than some people can do in two hours if you are focused.  That's just reality.  Stop judging your practice by duration and start judging it by efficiency.

1% IS STILL PROGRESS

Did you make 1% progress today?  Then you did something.  Awesome!  You should not be discouraged because you fixed a tiny thing today or did a tiny thing today.   You need to be proud of what you did so you will want to practice again tomorrow.  People who hate practicing are dreading it the next day...that's a fact.  People who are ready to practice the next day at happy with at least one thing they did the day before.

If you hate your practice sessions it is like running a marathon, cutting off one leg and then running the marathon the next day.  I imagine you won't be too excited about it the next day.

PRACTICING IS NOT HARD

It's only hard if you make it hard on yourself.  There is so much shame and BS going around the music world that you can hate your playing without even realizing how much you hate it.  Stop hating it and start loving it...practicing might get a little easier.

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.

And Another :) Up High With A Little Grace (But Just A Little)

I blab here, too, so, enjoy :)

New Video---Right Down The Middle Of The Horn

I talk for 15 minutes in this video, but it's all about playing right down the middle of the horn.  For me, this is the sweet spot on the instrument.  Give it a shot, and hear me out...I hope it helps!

Does Your Setup Really Make A Difference? (No, I mean REALLLLLLLY)

Ok, I really mean it.  Does your setup really make that much of a difference?  I mean, does your horn to the mouthpiece, ligature and reed actually do something for you?

Yes and no.

Your Horn 

Your horn helps you up to a point.  Wooden horns sound a little nicer because they are made of wood and have thicker walls.  A horn with a larger bore gives you more room to move the sound around.  An extended horn allows you to play notes you cannot play on a standard horn.  Certain horns have notes that are right in a sweet spot, but most instruments are VERY similar.  A new horn or a nicer horn is not going to make you suddenly better.  It's great to have a nice horn (I have a very nice horn,) but that horn does not make me a good player.  You cannot learn to play with your eyes on another prize.  Learn to play what you have, plan to get something better in the future maybe (but never blame the horn as long as it is adjusted properly.)  Yes, broken horns suck, but you can even learn to play past certain leaks if you're really dedicated.  However, everyone can go to the shop (and most of the time your school band will pay for it.)

Your Mouthpiece

Mouthpieces make a big difference, and they are much cheaper than instruments.  You can play any mouthpiece you want, but it has to be the right one for you.  You NEVER EVER play a mouthpiece simply because someone told you to.  I don't care if Jesus whittled it by hand out of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  I just don't care.  The price of the mouthpiece of whatever other marketing they use is NOT helpful to you unless the mouthpiece is actually nice for you to play.  This is why you order mouthpieces on approval and try them.

Your Ligature

Ligatures provide response, but they do not make you a better player.  They do not allow you to do anything, but they do give you a certain level of response.  It is like the ammunition you put in a gun.  You can get the regular bullets, or you can get armor piercing rounds or you can go all military and get fragmentation rounds that explode when they hit a target.  Your ligature does the same thing, you're in a first person shooter with your ligature.  You can use something soft like a Rovner for softer response, or you can use a metal ligature for more crisp response.  The metals and materials make a difference, and you could spend a LONG TIME thinking about which one to use.  These ligatures do not make you better, but they allow you to do the things you already know how to do.

Your Reeds

Your reeds make a HUGE difference.  Go watch my videos and you can tell which reeds were good and which were not.  It's pretty obvious.  They die, and you have to rotate them.  They can make a HUGE difference if they are too hard, and they will squeak at you all the time if they are too soft.  You can spend a lifetime finding the right reeds, but they are the biggest predictor of your success because they directly interface with your air to make sound.

Notice how I never said any of these things makes you better.  I have actually seen marketing for ligatures and mouthpieces with "testimonials" of people saying that that product "allowed" them to do....whatever.  Guess what, if you need a specific product to do something that is relatively standard, you're not practiced enough at it yet.  You should learn how to do the thing really well, they you can do the thing on ANY equipment, but you can look for the equipment that makes it the EASIEST to do the thing?

If that made any sense...

The First Video Is Up (And It's About Tone....Oooohhhhhhh)

I could posted anything for my first video.  I could have played some ridiculously high mess, or I could have growled, flutter tongued and techniqued my way through the video, but that doesn't really hold my interest.  I can do all those things, but I feel like Quigley.  I didn't say I didn't know how to do that, I just said I didn't have much use for it.

So, I started with tone:  The video is here https://youtu.be/uK3P3EYSuqs and it's just me playing Amazing Grave at the bottom of the instrument with a lot of resonance, a little volume and many styles and speeds of vibrato.  I would never release that as an album, but it is something that I would use to teach.

You have to get all the sound out of your instrument that you can, and it's kind of hard to do that when you are not actually blowing air into the instrument or thinking about it.  I blab for like 15 minutes in the instructional video (which is coming soon), so go watch if you want a primer in thinking about your sound (and yes, I've thought about it a lot.)

Happy hunting!!!!

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.