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!
Showing posts with label practice.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label practice.. Show all posts
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
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...
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...
Friday, March 13, 2015
First Video Coming Sunday...
My educational video series for kids playing low clarinets is coming. I'm literally going to start from scratch. So, you could in the 6th grade, barely able to hold the thing or take it out of the case, or you could in high school or college just trying to survive the instrument. It's going to be mostly bass clarinet, but there is A LOT to talk about. Not the least of which is how you should sound if you want to make a difference. I could literally write a dissertation on this, so, I hope the videos are helpful. I'll try to ramble as little as possible, and I'll try to make it fun and engaging.
Video links to come soon...
Video links to come soon...
Sunday, January 4, 2015
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
I'm Back, Again?
Ok, this is, I believe, the third time I have come back to the blog after a long hiatus here or there. I've been working at home and practicing while my wife is in graduate school. She's probably going to get a thousand Master's degrees, but I've started taking control of my career. The blog is going to become a place to promote my music (which I am in the middle of recording.) I hope to have six albums out before the summer. All of them are nice and smooth easy listening tracks I'm recording as A Man Of Few Words.
I'm also going to start a video series on YouTube for band excerpts on bass clarinet, on for basic pedagogy and another series of background tracks that you can listen to while you are working. I'm going to actually leave the blog up on my computer this time, and I will actually *gasp* reply to comments. I read a few lovely comments that I had never seen before because I just wasn't looking after the blog at all.
So, I'm back, but this is my career, and I hope to do it full-time from now. When I get my first two albums done, I hope to have them on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora and the Google Play Store. So, you'll be able to enjoy my stuff wherever you are. More updates to come when new videos or tracks are out there. However, I can't do any of that if I keep yapping on here. Did you know how much goes into getting your music on iTunes, etc? Sheesh! I have to get to work finishing this music, working with an aggregator and get my stuff out there.
That's it for today, hopefully more good news is to come!
I'm also going to start a video series on YouTube for band excerpts on bass clarinet, on for basic pedagogy and another series of background tracks that you can listen to while you are working. I'm going to actually leave the blog up on my computer this time, and I will actually *gasp* reply to comments. I read a few lovely comments that I had never seen before because I just wasn't looking after the blog at all.
So, I'm back, but this is my career, and I hope to do it full-time from now. When I get my first two albums done, I hope to have them on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora and the Google Play Store. So, you'll be able to enjoy my stuff wherever you are. More updates to come when new videos or tracks are out there. However, I can't do any of that if I keep yapping on here. Did you know how much goes into getting your music on iTunes, etc? Sheesh! I have to get to work finishing this music, working with an aggregator and get my stuff out there.
That's it for today, hopefully more good news is to come!
Monday, February 17, 2014
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.
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.
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