Clarinet Secrets: 100 Performance Strategies for the Advanced Clarinetist

by Michele Gingras

Overview

This second edition of Clarinet Secrets is a compilation of Distinguished Professor Michele Gingras’s acclaimed books that spearheaded Rowman & Littlefield’s Music Secrets series: Clarinet Secrets and More Clarinet Secrets. It is the result of Gingras’s thirty years of hands-on experience spent in the clarinet studio working with students. Learn practical and technical secrets about rapid tonguing and double-tonguing; circular breathing; sight-reading and transposition; reed fixing and repair equipment; improving tone, intonation, technique, and musicianship; contemporary techniques; classical and non-classical performance;
performance anxiety; auditioning; career planning and marketability;
and more.

The concepts are discussed in a straightforward way, explained clearly, and illustrated with photos, diagrams, and musical examples. Easy to use and intended for the intermediate and advanced musician, this second edition of Clarinet Secrets is perfect for students in a class or private situation, professionals, or instructors engaged in pedagogical research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442276550
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	02/24/2017
Series:	Music Secrets for the Advanced Musician
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	222
Sales rank:	760,200
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Michele Gingras is Distinguished Professor Emerita of clarinet at Miami University (OH), where she was named Curry Distinguished Educator and Distinguished Scholar of the graduate faculty. She has performed and taught masterclasses worldwide, released more than a dozen CDs, and written 200 articles and reviews for numerous international publications as well as two books: Clarinet Secrets (2004) and More Clarinet Secrets (2011). She is past secretary of the International Clarinet Association and is an artist clinician for Buffet Crampon and Légère Reeds.

Table of Contents

Terminology

1 Tonguing Strategies
1. Rocket-Speed Tonguing
2. One-Motion Tonguing
3. Energy-Saving Tonguing
4. Finger-Tongue Coordination
5. Effortless Staccato across All Registers
6. Relaxed Jaw
7. The Light Tongue Exercise
8. Ping!
9. Articulation Vocabulary
10. Double Tonguing
11. Flutter Tonguing
12. Slap Tonguing

2 Intonation Strategies
13. Practicing with the Drone
14. Hearing Difference Tones
15. Tuning with the Piano
16. Using Fingers to Modify Intonation
17. Flat Chin
18. Three-Step Embouchure
19. Training Wheel for Lowering the Pitch
20. Tuning Games
21. Playing with a Very Soft Reed to Eliminate Biting
22. Ear Training in Clarinetists
Quick-Tips Bulletin Board—Intonation

3 Tone Strategies
23. Breathing
24. Air Management
25. The Stereo Effect
26. Dissecting Tone
27. Practice Tone vs. Concert Tone
28. Tone Shopping
29. Printing Sound into Memory
30. Improving Embouchure Endurance
31. Knot in Tone
32. Playing with Fire
33. The Tone is Ringing!
34. Stopwatch Long Tones
35. Eliminating Cracking in High Registers
Quick Tips Bulletin Board—Tone

4 Technical Strategies
36. Natural Finger Motion
37. The Hat Trick for Scales
38. The Half-Hole Exercise for Wide Intervals
39. Half-Hole Thumb
40. Left Index Finger
41. Little Finger
42. Perfecting the Chromatic Scale
43. Perfecting the High Register
44. Play Air Clarinet
45. The Stick on a Fence
46. Working with a Practice Partner
47. Predicting Mental Concentration
48. Sight-Reading
49. Transposition
50. Unusual Transpositions in Orchestral Excerpts
51. Developing Technical Independence
52. Altissimo Chromatic Fingerings
53. Super Altissimo Register
54. Practicing in Front of a Mirror or Video Camera
55. Practicing in Front of a Mirror or Video Camera
Quick Tips Bulletin Board—Tone

5 Musicianship Strategies
56. Remembering Nature
57. Memorization
58. Listening to Opera Arias
59. Playing with Piano Accompaniment
60. Preparing your Music before the Performance
61. Keep a Practice Journal
62. Practice Tactics
63. Playing Posture
64. Recording Your Practice Sessions
Quick-Tips Bulletin Board—Musicianship

6 Reeds and Equipment
65. Breaking in a New Clarinet
66. Selecting a Mouthpiece
67. Mouthpiece Patch
68. Tool-Free Reed Prep
69. Positioning Your Reed
70. Express-Speed Reed Balancing
71. Reed Clipper
72. Reed Rush
73. Synthetic Reeds
74. Installing an Instant Neck-Strap Ring
75. Moleskin Padding
76. Tape in Tone Hole
77. Tape Types
78. Valentino Synthetic Corks
79. Swab Removal Tool
80. Emergency Equipment
81. Bore Oil
82. EZO Teeth Cushion
Quick-Tips Bulletin Board—Reeds and Equipment

7 Enhancing Repertoire
83. Be the First to Practice Second Clarinet Orchestral Parts
84. Eb Piccolo Clarinet
85. Bass Clarinet
86. Woodwind Doubling
87. Military Band Auditions
88. Clarinet and Organ Repertoire
89. Historic Chalumeau
90. German Clarinet
91. Jazz Clarinet
92. Playing World Music
93. Klezmer
94: Glissando à la Gershwin
95: Vibrato
96: Circular Breathing
97: Multiphonics
98: Growling
99: Braving Stage Fright
100: Technology for Clarinetists
Quick-Tips Bulletin Board—Extra Tips

Further Reading

Editorial Reviews

Just when you thought Michele Gingras had covered every possible topic in her previous Clarinet Secrets books, she comes up with additional niche subjects that we all just have to know about! With a slightly contemporary slant for those things (range, playing techniques, control) that make our literature so challenging, she and her guest contributors bring a myriad of helpful insights to bear. This new and improved version breaks new ground in useful and important ways.

Howard Klug

Gingras provides thoughtful insight into the idiosyncrasies of clarinet performance for advanced clarinetists. This is an invaluable contribution to literature on clarinet pedagogy. She tactfully addresses problematic issues clarinetists encounter and gives personal experience about clarinet performance. Gingras discusses the multitude of technological resources available and how the modern student can use them to address weaknesses in clarinet performance. This book is a complete compendium of how teachers and students should approach learning the clarinet in the 21st century. Many books focus on one or two aspects of clarinet playing. It is rare to find a clarinet guide that goes into such detail about all facets of clarinet performance. The explanations Gingras provides are straightforward and interesting. She combines logical solutions in a personal and engaging way for the reader. This book is highly recommended.

The Clarinet

Michele Gingras’s newest book contains many insightful and useful pieces of information on a wide range of topics about the clarinet. It reads like a ‘Clarinetist’s Almanac’—very handy and entertaining

Ricardo Morales

The second edition of Clarinet Secrets is a treasure chest of useful and interesting information for clarinetists of any ability level. It is greatly expanded from the original version, containing a wide range of new material—from the super altississimo register to slap tonguing and from multiphonics to transposition. Chances are you will find a little secret here that can make a big difference in your playing!

Robert Walzel