Pushing The Limits: Playing Loud

Playing the Bass Clarinet isn't a mystery, but so many people make it out to be harder than it really is.  Case in point:

I teach a private lesson and the kid tells me, "So, everytime I try to play out it's out of tune."  Well, how do you know that?

"The Director told me it sounded wrong."

Did you director give you a solution?

"No."

Before I say this please remember that I AM a band director:

Stupid band directors!

Every band director on the planet wants more from their low woodwinds, but very few of them actually know how to get it to come out.  When you're playing louder on a Clarinet the pitch goes through the floor.  On Bass Clarinet this drop in pitch is only accentuated by the size of the instrument.

So, what should your band director know that they don't?

You can't just "play louder" you have to "play broader".  If you're listening to the lower parts and riding the wave with them it's easy to bring the color of the Bass Clarinet out without playing massively out of tune.

This means you're listening.  Listening is good.

What if it's still a little off?  Then you're going to need to adjust your embouchure.  The softer your lower lip is the more flexibility you have to move the pitch up and down.  Keep the top of your embouchure strong, but let the lower lip rest so it can push the pitch up and down.

The reed is huge and it doesn't take much, but you can make small changes without trying that hard.

That, my friends, is something most band directors have no clue about.  They think you're supposed to use a Clarinet embouchure.  Not so.  Soften the lower lip and you'll be amazed at what you can do.

The next time you're sitting next to the Tuba and Timpani just remember that adjusting the pitch and "playing broader" makes your tone color jump out of the band.  It's the best sound you can imagine.

Go, blow your conductor away.  I mean it, go!  We'll talk soon.

I'm baaaaaaaack

Someone commented that I had kind of wound it down.  Well, I'm back.

We're doing weekly updates on "Zen and the Art of the Bass Clarinet".

Come back very soon because we're going to have some pretty cool things going on here.  I've got a lot more to say!

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So, I've Been Busy

Since I last posted I've taken on about 8 (maybe less, not all have come to fruition) freelance writing gigs and I have no time to write, just to write.  This blog, however, is a priority because this is my main instrument.

I also took a gig playing for a local training Orchestra where I'm playing on the premiere of the Conductor's 3rd Symphony.

I'll be doing some excerpt studies on here to sort of get everyone through the process of learning long and drawn out Symphonic Lietrature.  

Stick around and hopefully I can get something good up here.

Peace...

Back to School...Back to Reality

So, I teach school. Band actually. Beginners, to be frank. Kids with little common sense: if you must know.

Every new school year is an opportunity to change the way we provide instruction, the methods with which we teach, and the way in which we want kids to learn.

This year I'm thinking about getting "away" from the book more than I have the past couple of years. I've had spats of being "in" the book, then "out" of the book, then back "in" and now I think I'm gonna be about a third "in"and two-thirds "out".

What does this have to do with Bass Clarinetting? Well, you have to go through spells as a player. Things have to change. You can't keep doing the same thing everyday forever. You WILL go crazy, no matter how much you claim you love practicing. It's inevitable.

I heard an old interview on Friday on with Merce Cunningham, the eminent dancer, choreographer and dance company leader(he was also John Cage's life partner, talk about a pair!) Terry Gross, in her 1980's interviewing splendor, engaged Cunningham in this very long discussion about the body, practice, demand, and the artistry of men vs. women.

They're going back and forth about all sorts of stuff and then she ask him if he still warms-up or practices daily. Even in his mid 60's (at the time of the interview) he said yes. Not only that, but he said it wasn't regimented,he just did something.

Aha! Anything!

There's something to a familiar routine, but there is also something to be said for changing your "routine". When I was in college my idiot Band Director would have the whole order for the rehearsal on the board(that's fine) but he would have some stupid harmonic minor scale on the board just for fun. Yeah, that's stupid. Do things that you're going to succeed at. If you cna play your harmonic minors, cool. If not, don't warm-up on it...practice it.

How interesting!?!? Right!?!?! What if you just...warmed-up? What if.....gasp....I told my students to just....warm-up. Yeah, I can teach them to warm-up (like I was taught) then make them do it. Ding ding ding ding ding, we have a winner!

Most times people DON'T warm-up because they weren't taught how to or they feel like they have to have this insane regimen that is a mile long. This is not the case.

Don't write it down. Write down what you should be practicing and enjoy a leisurely warm-up.

Back to reality doesn't have to be tedious. It could turn out to be refreshing...

How To Tell You Don't Have The Melody

So, were at church today and where we go we have a worship band.  Not an orchestra...I'm not bitter, but an orchestra and traditional service would be nice every now and then (only because I could play in it.)  We've got a Bass Player that plays with the group almost every week.  He's actually a really good player, but he's a little too impressed with himself and it's starting to get on my nerves.

He plays a lot of extra mess on top on the Bass movements that he is supposed to be supporting and it bothers me because I can't hear anything when he's going crazy every other bar.  Listen people and listen good.  The Bass Line is not something to be trifled with.  The Bass Line is not the melody.  Here's how you can tell:

1)  When you are playing something that obviously is not the melody, but you can't really hear the true melody...you're in the wrong.  I think people who use electronic equipment and point monitors at themselves forget this all too often.  You can really tell a pro because they either don't use a monitor at all, or they use an ear piece and not a huge monitor, turn it up too loud and get way too INTO their playing.  If I can hear your mess over the tune, you're wrong.  If you're constantly playing with the volume controls on your equipment, you're wrong.

2)  If you play an acoustic instrument and you can clearly hear yourself, you're probably wrong.  Rarely does a Bass Line also act as a melodic line or fragment.  I could spend all day citing examples of Bass Lines in literature that are also melodic fragments or melodies themselves.  Here's an easy way to tell....you're exposed...nothing else is going on.  When other people are trying to do their thing too, you're not the melody.

3)  If you have all these "great ideas" in your head...keep them to yourself.  Here's an assignment for you:

     a)  Buy any FUEL album.  Something Like Human, Sunburn, Natural Selection, whatever and listen.  The Bassist play solid, firm, Bass Lines.  He rarely plays extra stuff and when he does it actually a melodic fragment that will come up later or is a supporting countermelody.  It is NOT random stuff but, rather, quite calculated. 

     b)  Listen to the "Screamers" album by the Eastman Wind Ensemble.  It's a great collection of Circus Marches.  Now tell me how much of the Bass movement in those pieces is melodic and, if it is, tell me how much of it sounds random.  I bet your answer will be zero.

     c)  Start listening to Bass Lines in popular music and tell me how random all of it sounds.  It doesn't.

We've got to be better consumers of music if we're going to be better performers.  If you're listening to music you like and you don't know they part you would be playing then you're not consuming the music very well.  Everything I own, every CD, I can sing along to the Bass Movements in the music, because it's MY part.  I'm consuming something that is improving my playing.  If you only know melodies and words and you play a Bass instrument you're going to play like someone who has the melody or the words.  Not helpful.  Not helpful at all.

Think about it.  Think about how much time could be saved if every listened with their part in mind.  We could change the world...well, not really, but you get the idea.