Any advice for this fingering? Clarinet.?

Question

Okay, so one of my friends is learning music written by a non-woodwind...I don't play the clarinet so I can't offer her any help with this, but she says the fingerings are really hard for her. The tempo of the song is 119, it's actually Mr. Roboto, but I'm sure her part doesn't sound like it as it's Marching band music. Okay, so there 2 sets of triplets over and over again in the key of E flat. It goes A (in staff), F (in staff), E (bottom line), D (bellow staff), E (bottom line), and then F (in staff) and it goes back to the A and repeats for awhile. Any help would be much appreciative, since I'm not sure what to tell her. And if you need to know more about it or if you think i wrote something wrong, let me know! Thanks in advanced for anyone who tries!

Answer 1

It doesn't sound like there are any weird fingering problems, unless you used the wrong notes. Tell her to try long tones in the notes. Then gradually get a little faster and do them in quarter notes. Then, move on to eighth notes, and triplets.

Just add info if you need the fingerings for those notes, or if they aren't the right ones

Good luck!

^__^

Answer 2

she could ask her fellow clarinetists in the marching band if they're having issues with it or how they got it faster...

also, if she's lifting up her first finger to put on the A key, that could be slowing her down. she can roll it up to hit the A with the top edge of the finger, which will make getting back down for the E easier...

although, by "in the key of Eb", do you mean that the E's and A's are actually Eb and Ab?  or do you mean concert Eb, where they would  be natural?

Answer 3

So there is one of 2 things going on here: either you listed the right key signature and the wrong notes, or your friend is having trouble NOT playing the "G" between the "A" and the "F".

If it is in HER key of Eb, there should be 3 flats... Bb Eb and Ab.  This makes the fingering a little more difficult, and requires good timing between the left and right hands to get the Eb correctly, without messing up on the "F" and "D".  

If the piece is in CONCERT Eb, that puts her in the key of F... then the notes you list are correct, and she is just having trouble going from "A" to "F" without catching an extra "G" in between.  

Nothing will help this except for SLOW practice.  She can just repeat A to F to A to F to A to F... make sure she takes it slow... think about the note that comes next and try to hear the note in her head first.  Start to speed it up, little by little.  When it is about up to tempo, go slow again, but add in the E... AFEFAFEFA...  speed it up, then add in the next note... continue this until all the notes are there.  

She can do this if you got the notes wrong too, but do it in multiple breakdowns... Ab to F to Ab (etc...) and then F to Eb to F etc... then Eb to D to Eb...  then add just the F (F Eb D Eb F)... then add the Ab back in.  Remember to start slow on each go-through, and speed it up slowly as well.

If she gets to a point where it becomes sloppy again, slow it down until it can be played cleanly EVERY time... then start to speed it up again.

A metronome would help GREATLY with this type of practice... each repetition, just take it up 2-4 clicks.

There is one more trick to getting this... change the rhythm slightly, playing long-short-long for a few times, then play short-long-short.  Think about the next note in the sequence while you are holding a long note.  (So Ab-------FEb------DEb-----FAb------, then the opposite: AbF-----EbD-----EbF------Ab).  Try to do each repetition 5 times, then go back and play it up to speed... this helps to even out scales and other runs, too!

The only way to get this is through lots of repetetive practice, and lots of SLOW practice!   It is all about teaching your muscles where you want them to go... eventually, muscle memory will take over so she can concentrate on other things... like dynamics, tone, and where the next set is!  

Hope this helped... if not, email me and I can give you some more exercises.  Good luck, and Have fun! :)

Answer 4

i don't really understand what the problem is....?

can she not finger that, or does she think the notes are wrong or what??