Jazz Clarinet Tutorial

Why Play Saxophone Jazz on a Clarinet?

Charlie Parker (Gottlieb 06941)

I have often stopped and returned to the clarinet over the past 40 years. This time around I found that I can now play the music of the classic jazz artists Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Although I can play the saxophone and flute, I started with the clarinet and so the clarinet has been the easiest instrument for me to pick up after a long absence from playing musical instruments.

John Coltrane (Gelderen, Hugo van)

So playing Charlie Parker and John Coltrane present special challenges on the clarinet. The pieces, note range and tempos, were developed for the saxophone. I am documenting my learning experiences here as there is a significant learning curve trying to play these saxophone jazz classics on the clarinet. In some ways the clarinet is more technically challenging then the saxophone. For instance, the "octave" key on the clarinet goes up a twelfth not an octave. Some series of notes on the clarinet require anticipation, alternative fingerings, and finger slides to complete. But hey you know all this if you play the clarinet. A word of warning, the altissimo register on the clarinet is challenging with a jazz mouthpiece. The challenge with Miles Davis is in playing his subtle rhythmic variations.

The Music

The first aha discovery is that someone has actually done the stupendous job of transcribing many of the classic performances of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and John Coltrane in the keys of C, Bflat and Eflat. So run out and get your hands on the Charlie Parker Omnibook., Miles Davis Omnibook and the John Coltrane Omnibook from Hal Leonard in Bflat AND C. The problem is that not all the rhythms are represented in the notation.

I would especially encourage learning some of the rhythmic patterns from these transcriptions. Once you can play some of these transcribed solos, you can move on and try improvisation. Before you try to improvise on the clarinet, try to improvise by singing the rhythmic pattern in your head. And before playing against a backing track, listen to the backing track trying to predict the precise beginning of the next chord change while calling out the base note of the chord change. So SING, LISTEN, PLAY.

Jazz as Rhythm

According to Leonard Feather, rhythm is what separates out jazz from other forms of music, especially the use of syncopation* and rubato**.

*Syncopation

Syncopation is the creation of a rhythm that is unexpected as "a disturbance or interruption" or a "placement of rhythmic stresses or accents where they would not occur normally." Try playing a rhythmic pattern using a single note. An excellent example of syncopation is in the use of "displaced rhythm." You can practice this by play a repeating pattern of three eight notes with a drum machine or backing track. As you play, the downbeat moves from the first note, to the third note, and then to the second note of the three note pattern etc.

**Rubato

Tempo rubato is Italian for stolen time, "robbed from one passage or group of notes and given to another". Rubato allows for expressive freedom by changing tempo within a piece. Jazz has its roots in African music not constrained by Western concepts of math and meter. Start by playing "in the pocket" against a the backing track. Then try playing some parts before the beat, sometimes after the beat or sometimes on the beat (in the pocket)*. As you get the feel for say an eight bar chord change, you can vary your tempo within the eight bars and come right on in on the next chord change.

Swing

"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing" pretty much sums it up. So don't play a pair of eighth notes the way they are written. It is more like doo-ah, doo-ah etc. with extended duration on the first note of the pair. Or a triplet with the middle note missing and the first note held over the middle note. Try to swing the whole piece. In general the faster the tempo the less you swing the notes. Most notes can be slurred, or played legato.

*Shuffle feel simple" (Hyacinth)

Bebop Tonguing*

Tongue the short note and slur to the longer note. So if you have a 1/8 note intro, tongue the 1/8 note from the end of the intro measure and slur into the first note of the opening measure and then continue this pattern. So in the opening to Ornithology you could do: do-AHHH, do-AHHH, do-AHHH, do-AHHH, do-AHHH-ah.See *Jazz Basics by Eric Ruyle.

Metronomes

My good friend Leonard G. is a professional blues lead guitarist and he cautions against playing against a standard metronome as it is too "sterile." He recommended that I play against a drum set. On a Mac computer I found the program "Drum Beats+" has a practice 4/4 jazz swing drum backing track and supports rates of 60 to 190. There is also an IOS version of Drum Beats+. I really enjoy playing against this drum set based backing track.

Another way to practice is against a recorded backing track. Jamey Aebersold's "How to Play Jazz and Improvise" comes with two CDs of backing tracks, including a slower tempo version. As an example of what is on the CD, track 3 is a backing track to be played against the Dorian scale in G, F and E, 4 bars of each key, repeated 9 times.

With the advent of Utube, you can practice against public domain backing tracks.

I strongly recommend always playing against either a drum track or backing track.

Mac iOS and OSX Software

If you have a Mac computer and/or iPhone/IPad I found the following programs to be very useful:

Mac 10.10.3

Drum Beats+

MetroTimer

iOS 8.3

Drum Beats+

MetroTimer Paid App Version

Music Theory

So to move on to improvisation, requires some music theory.

Scales

According to Wikipedia scales can be manifested by intervals (chromatic vs diatonic) and/or by the number of pitch classes (Octatonic 8 or Heptatonic 7). So the standard western scale is diatonic with 7 notes. The Bebop scales have 8 notes to allow chordal notes to fall on the downbeat. So the first challenge is to play all twelve major (Tonic) scales.

Common Modes

Playing scales, and more importantly, arpeggios (thirds) beginning on different notes of a Ionian Major scale is a key concept in playing jazz. Here are three common modes:

Ionian Scale (Mode I) I Major Tonic

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 or C D E F G A B <-- The white keys on the piano starting on C. Arpeggio --> C E G B D G A

Jazz Minor, Dorian Scale (Mode II) ii minor Dorian

1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 or D E F G A B C <-- The white keys on the piano starting on D. Arpeggio --> D F A C E G B

There are no avoid notes in Dorian!

Mixolydian Dominant Scale (Mode V) V7 Dominant 7th

1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 1 or G A B C D E F <-- The white keys starting on G. Arpeggio --> G B D F A C E

You might play say:

1 bar of ii Dorian minor

1 bar of V7 Dominant Seventh

2 bars of I Major Tonic

The popular ii --> V --> I progression.

and then do a change to a different base note. So to be clear, you can play a ii --> V --> I progression using just the white keys on the piano. A more complex pattern is the:

ii --> vi --> V --> I progression.

More Modes

Modes "are a set of scales derived from a parent scale." So with the parent scale of C we have seven available modes:

Mode 1 Ionion Major CDEFGAB (Tonic)

Mode II Dorian Jazz Minor DEFGABC

Mode III Phrygian Spanish EFGABCD

Mode IV Lydian Major FGABCDE (Subdominant)

Mode V Mixolydian Dominant GABCDEF (Dominant)

Mode VI Aeolian minor ABCDEFG

Mode VII Locrian BCEDFGA (Half diminished)

To play a scale over a chord in a given mode, visualize the base note of the mode*.

*http://www.markwingfield.com/teaching_pages/articles/plyovchng1.html

So once you can play all twelve Tonic scales, start practicing the Dorian Scales and Arpeggios in all keys. Challenge yourself to play the descending Arpeggios.

Chords Found in a Mode

I am now taking jazz lessons from a local piano teacher, Dave Scoggin. He points out that the chords found in the 7 modes are either minor 7th, Major 7th, Dominant 7th or minor 7th flat 5 (Half diminished). Using the white keys on the piano we have:

Mode 1 C Major 7th

Mode 2 D minor 7th

Mode 3 E minor 7th

Mode 4 F Major 7th

Mode 5 G Dominant 7th

Mode 6 A minor 7th

Mode 7 B minor 7th flat 5

ii-V7-I Progression stays with the same signature and changes mode by where you start the scale or arpeggio.

So if play in mode ii, V and then I you have a ii-V7-I progression which is

ii -- Dorian Minor

V7 --- Dominant 7th

I -- Major Tonic

So in the key of C you would start on

D -- Dorian minor

G -- Dominant 7

C -- Major Tonic

As an example, you can practice playing the ii - V -I progression such as:

G (ii) --> C (V7) --> F (I) 1 Flat Key of F Major

A (ii) --> D (V7) --> G (I) 1 Sharp Key of G Major

B (ii) --> E(V7) --> A(I) 3 Sharps Key of A Major

Dorian, Dominant 7, Major Tonic beginning on the same note and changing the signature by subtracting one flat or adding one sharp.

So if you know the notes in mode ii Dorian, you add a "sharp" and now you know mode V7 dominant on the same root note and if you add another "sharp" you can now know the mode IM7 major scale on the same root note. This lets you leverage your knowledge of the Dorian scales. So if you know the D Dorian scale and see D-7 (no sharps) or D7 (1 sharp) or DM7 (2 sharps), you can play them all.

For fun beginning on G:

Dorian (Mode II) Bflat

Mixolydian (Mode V) No flats or sharps

Ionion Major (Mode I) Fsharp

When you play different modes starting on the same base note you are playing the modes "in parallel."

Again, to be clear, if you know all 12 Dorian scales you can quickly switch gears and play all 12 Dominant scales by adding one sharp or subtracting one flat from the corresponding Dorian scale of the same root. This is important when you switch from playing a series of Dorian chord changes (minor chords), to the blues -- which are based on a series of Dominant chord changes.

Practicing the different arpeggios (Major, Dominant, minor, Locrian) starting on the same root is considered playing in "parallel." If you can do this in all twelve keys, then you should be able to play say minor, Major or Dominant arpeggios starting on any given note. Given a set of chord changes in a set piece, you should then be able to play the corresponding arpeggios over the chord changes on the fly!

Circle of Fifths

If you are having trouble understanding how the various modes fit with various key signatures, search the Internet and download a circle of fifths with an inner ring showing the various modes. Then print out two copies. Cut out the inner modal ring and punch a hole in both copies and attach the modal ring in the center of the fifths ring so that the "Modes" turn inside the "Fifths".

ii-V7-I Voice Leading

According to Mark Levine in his book "The Jazz Theory Book," as you "go from the ii chord to the V chord to the I chord, the 7th of each chord resolves down a half step and becomes the 3rd of the next cord."

The Dominant 7 arpeggio always resolves to the single Major 7 arpeggio a fourth up or a fifth down. So the G Dominant 7th arpeggio resolves to C Major 7.

Common Scales

Blue Notes

An added tone that is "neither major or minor but 'in the middle', giving it characteristic flavor."

Blues 6 Note Minor Scale

This is a subset of the Dorian scale with an added raised 4rth (or flatted 5th) note. In the key of C: C Eflat F (Gflat/F#) G Bflat C . This scale adds to the melancholy of the blues.

So if you are now facile in the Dorian Minor Jazz scales you are just playing a subset of Dorian with a raised fourth note or flatted fifth: 1, 3, 4, (4#/b5), 5, 7, 8. The challenge is now to add to what you know. So if you know Dorian in all keys, you can try to play the Blues scale in all keys. Then play the Dorian scale, the blues scale and the descending Dorian arpeggios starting with the 9th, in all 12 keys!

There is also a Blues Major Scale in C: C D Eb E G A C. You can try this scale this against a major chord or against the IV7 chord in a blues progression.

Pentatonic Scale

The minor pentatonic scale is just a subset of the Dorian Minor Scale as 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8. So if you are now facile in Dorian in all keys, you can try to play the minor pentatonic in all keys.

Dorian, Blues, Pentatonic

Yup. Three scales of notes you can now use to play against a set of minor Dorian chords. Cool!

Bebop Scales

The Bebop scales add one extra note so that the scale can be played with the chordal notes tending to fall on the downbeat. Depending on the backing chord, the "extra" note is generally used as a "passing" note. Don't sit on the oddball note. The Bebop minor and Bebop dominant scales give you an option to play against existing chord changes, the Dorian minor or Myxolidian Dominant respectively. So the goal here is an Octatonic Scale.

According to Jamey Aebersold "How to play Jazz and improvise" you can play a Bebop Minor as:

C D Eb (E) F G A Bb C

So we are adding a major third to the Dorian Minor Scale as 1, 2, 3, (3#), 4, 5, 6, 7. You can play this C Bebop minor scale against a C Dorian minor chord where E is the passing note. So now you know four scales to play against a Dorian minor chord (Dorian, Blues, Pentatonic, Bebop minor).

I like the sound that Jamey Aeboersold calls Bepop Minor #2 as:

C D Eb F G (G#) A Bb C

Here we are adding a raised 5th to the Dorian Minor. I think raising the 5th this adds a bluesy sound as does flatting the 5th in the blues scale.

Or you can play a C Bebob Dominant scale as:

C D E F G A Bb (B) C

So we are adding a Major 7th to the Dominant scale. You can play this C Bebop Dominant scale against a C Blues Dominant chord where B is the passing note. Making any sense? So you now know at least four scales to play against a Blues Dominant chord (Dominant, Blues, Bebop Dominant, Pentatonic).

Scales against Chords

So you don't really _just_ play a scale against a chord. That could get a bit boring. You can think of the scale of notes as the pallet of colors (note choices) that you get to use against a given painted background (the chord).

Chord Progressions

If you go around the circle of fifths, that is a regular chord movement. ii --> V --> I is a regular cord movement in a counterclockwise motion.

According to Mark Levine in his book "The Jazz Theory Book" jazz musicians should practice going around the circle of fifths in the counterclockwise direction (while classical musicians are taught the cycle clockwise).

Blues Progression

So the 12 bar blues is series of chord changes based on Dominant 7th scales. So if we play C7 F7 and G7 we are playing I-IV-V dominant 7th scales starting on C.

According to Mark Levine in the "Jazz Theory Book," "Traditional music doesn't 'explain' the blues very well." That is an understatement. You can play the C blues scale or the C pentatonic scale against all of the 12 bar Dominant 7th chords in this blues progression. Go figure. You can also play the blues major scale against the IV7 chord.

Here is a variant of the blues changes used in the Jamey Aebersold book "How to Play Jazz and Improvise."

or starting on C:

or starting on G:

Playing by Ear

Eventually, you will want to play by ear. I would start by singing a simple blues tune. Then play the same blues tune in all 12 keys. Then play the tune against a backing track. If you just play scales, muscle memory takes over. If you play a tune in all twelve keys, you will end up playing by ear. Then try playing scales against the backing track. Finally, play the tune against the backing track, improvising on the second and third chorus using the notes in your scales.

Learn the Chord Progression

Although you can just play say the C blues scale against a C blues backing track, it can get boring. Try calling out the chord changes along with the backing track. Then try playing the first note of the chord changes. Then trying playing scales against the chord changes, etc. You get the idea. It also helps to call out the mode of the chord changes as in "I-2-3-4 IV-2-3-4 I-2-3-4" etc. So if you are playing a C blues, you start in C7(Dominant). You may then go to F7 (Dominant). You often finish with a- (dorian minor) and G7 (Dominant). The ii and V7 are related. They both use the same scale notes found in G7 (Dominant). To be clear, in the C blues, ii is d- (minor), V7 is G7 (Dominant) and all the notes are found in the I-M, C major scale.

The Turnaround

At the end of the twelve bar blues, you can signal to the listener that it is time to either change key or repeat the twelve bars. This part of the blues is called the turnaround. The simplest turnaround is to play the V7 in the last bar. The V7 want's to resolve back to I7. So if you want to go back to C7, play G7. If you want to change to C#7, play G#7.

Time to Improvise

When you are ready to improvise, find a tune that you like. Play the melody notes from memory. Now accurately play the notes in rhythm as written. Then arpeggiate the chords as written. Then play the scales with each chord change. Finally, try to improvise over the backing track.

Backing Tracks

Backing tracks are available for many classic songs over U-Tube. If you use the Hal Leonard Real Books, you can purchase a set of backing tracks for most of the songs in the Real Book combined onto a thumb drive!

Concert Key

If you play with a group, most of the instruments are tuned to C. When the piano player hits C it is Concert C. When the Bflat clarinet player plays C, the sound is actually Concert B flat. To play the blues in C on a B flat clarinet, the piano will play in Concert B flat. If you want to play with a piano in Concert C, play the Bflat clarinet in D, a whole step up from C. If you want to play in the Concert E Aeolian minor, the relative minor of Concert G, play the B flat clarinet in F# Aeolian, a whole step up from E.

Minor Chords

There are four types of minor chords of particular interest:

Dorian minor third, natural 6, flat 7 No avoid notes. Mode ii.

Melodic minor third, natural 6, natural 7 Bright (In a sense, an inverse of the Dominant Chord which has a major third and a flat 7)

Harmonic minor third, flat 6, natural 7 Exotic

Natural minor third, flat 6, flat 7 Dark. Mode vi.

Just as there are seven Modes in the Major scale there are seven Modes in the Melodic Minor scale.

Minor Chord Progressions

I really like playing the minor chords. Unfortunately this is difficult music theory. I will try to explain as I understand it. In the Key of C Major, if you start on A you are playing in Mode 6, the relative minor or the Aeolian minor. If you look at this A as the one chord, then there is a corresponding "2 5 1" minor progression that ends on A Aeolian (B --> E --> A). Another way to look at this is as a "7 3 6" progression as B half diminished, E minor, A minor.

In Autumn Leaves, the C instrument "7 3 6" chord progression is F#m7flat5 / B7flat9 / Em. For the Bflat clarinet the same progression is G#m7flat5 / C#7flat9 / F# minor. The scales that I play are G# Locrian / C# diminished / F# harmonic minor. The F# harmonic minor has an exotic sound from its minor third, flat 6, natural 7 construction. You can also try a melodic minor against the progression.

Diminished Chords

There are only three sets of four notes that make up diminished chords. In a diminished chord the notes are 1 1/2 steps apart. Each chord can only use four notes in various order.

C: C Eb F# A

F: F G# B D

G: G Bb C# E

Diminished Scales

You can combine the notes from two diminished chords into a scale.

Against a minor 7 flat 5 try a whole /half diminished scale starting on the tonic. C tonic: C D Eb F F# G# A B

Against a dominant 7 flat 9 try a half / whole diminished scale staring on the tonic. C tonic: C C# Eb E F# G A A#

Playing in a Small Ensemble

Playing and practicing by yourself is a great way to prepare, and the rubber meets the road when you join an ensemble. I was blessed to join a group with a strong pianist with good teaching skills, patience and knowledge of jazz music. I have simplified my solos and added space to my improvisation. I have learned the standard set with our three piece ensemble (Piano, Clarinet and Bass):

1) The horn player plays the entire piece straight.

2) The horn player plays the entire piece as improv.

3) The keyboard player plays the entire piece as improv.

4) The horn player plays the entire piece straight.

5) The horn and keyboard player use eye contact to create a closing phrase.

The Clarinet

Over time I have progressed from my student Selmer, to an intermediate Yamaha YCL-72 to a professional Buffet R13. Some of the French Selmers have a larger bore, preferred by some for Jazz. The Buffets have a poly-cylindrical bore preferred by many for classical music and often for jazz. The Buffet Crampon R13 is arguably the best selling professional clarinet.

The Buffet-Crampton R13 (*Image from Buffet-Crampton)

These instruments are "fair traded" and require customization so it makes sense to purchase this instrument from a dealer with a great technician. In fact, only the dealer that sells the instrument is required to repair and tune the instrument. New clarinets can crack and the key-work will loosen over time and require adjusting. In fact, the key work is designed to be "bent" for adjusting. I purchased my Buffet from the Music Center of Hawaii after seeing the support of the the technician and owner Robin. Robin needed to shave the tight tenon between the upper and lower joints for a solid fit, somewhat typical for the R13. Mouthpieces

Mouthpieces have the greatest impact on the sound aside from your embouchure. I was flabbergasted when I tried to play my Selmer on a standard mouth piece. The resistance was terribly high and the sound was tiny. I was able to track down my HS** mouthpiece and was amazed by the improvement in resistance, volume, tone and my ability to bend notes. So if you want to swing, you will want a mouthpiece with a large tip opening.

Tip Opening

Most jazz mouthpieces with a large tip opening also have a medium or long lay. Besides the Selmer HS**(Medium Tip), I can vouch for the Vandoren B45 (Medium Tip 119.5) and the Vandoren 5JB (Large Tip 147). I have worked my way up to the Vandoren 7JB (Extra Large Tip 170) and prefer the tone of the 5JB. You will need to experiment to see what tip opening works best for your current embouchure. So the large tip opening reduces resistance, increases the volume of air, darkens the tone and increases the ability to bend notes. These may be desirable in Jazz and may or not be desirable in classical music. The downsides of a large tip are that it takes great chops to play them well and the high notes are more difficult to play. In general, you use a much softer read with a wide tip mouthpiece so if you use a # 2 to # 3 reed on a B45 you may use a # 1 1/2 to # 2 reed on a 5JB. You may want to start playing on the 5JB with a #2 Juno reed. The straight jazz cut Juno reeds play a little softer than the corresponding French file cut Blue Box Vandorens of the same #.

Curiously, larger air volume does not necessarily equate to better separation as the more brilliant tones of the B45 may carry further and stand out more than the darker tones of the 5JB that I prefer. Thankfully, with amplification, you can have both the dark tone of the 5JB and separation/ projection.

*Clicking on some of the Vandoren web site links pop up a great comparison chart for the Vandoren mouthpieces.

The Jazz Mouthpiece 5JB from Vandoren

Misc

The Vandoren mouthpieces come in "Traditional Beak" and "Profile 88" which differ in the angle of beak. I am still experimenting with the two versions which allow different presentation angles. Currently I am still using "Traditional Beak" mouthpieces. Many of the Vandoren mouthpieces, including the B45, also come in an "American" Series 13 version which is tuned to note A at 440 Hz resonance. I found the Vandoren mouthpiece cushions to be a good idea. Vandoren sells them in packs of six. It took a while to get used to the cushion on my upper teeth and now I prefer the cushioned feel.

Reeds

In the past I just used the ubiquitous Rico reeds. I think the better cane reeds do sound brighter which is not necessarily a bad thing. The better cane reeds tend to be stiffer for a given # rating. Rico and Vandoren both sell better cane reeds. Reeds come in straight cut and French file cut. The French cut reeds are sanded near the base of the cut. An example of this is the Blue Box Vandoren Traditional Reeds. I started using the Vandoren Juno reed which is actually a student reed which is a better cane reed with a jazz straight cut that is easier to play. The softer reeds are great for tone on the low notes! Hitting altissimo, even with a with a soft reed, on an open tip mouthpiece takes practice! If you cannot get the Juno reed from your local musical instrument dealer, it is possible to order them on the Internet from the UK!

An alternative reed that may work for you on the B45 and 5JB mouthpiece is the Vandoren V12 2.5 reed. This reed is cut from thicker cane and is designed for a mouthpiece with a longer lay such as the 5JB and to some extent the B45.

I think it is a good idea to have a set of playing reeds and to rotate them. New reeds have not reach their full potential. Also, do not be surprised that one reed will sound great "out of the box" and the next reed never sounds good, even over time. I soak the tips of the reeds for a few minutes before I play them. New reeds get a good soaking and a unidirectional massage away from the base of the reed to seal the pores on both sides and the base. Some players actually sand or polish their reeds! I have not heard a good unifying theory as to why reeds play better after being broken in and polished/sealed, but they do.

You can sand the left lower corner of the reed with #400 grit sand paper to alter the general blowing response.

I like the Selmer reed case with a glass bottom plate. And yes the reeds go player side up and butt end closer to the hinge of the Selmer reed case when they are dry.

*Image of reed cuts from wikiHow.

Synthetic Reeds

I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that once you have developed a strong embouchure, consider trying a synthetic reed like the Legere Signature reed. I am currently using a Legere Signature 2.0 reed. Although I still prefer the sound of my best cane V12 2.5 reed, the simplicity and consistency of playing with a Legere Signature reed is appealing. Just pick it up, place it on the clarinet and start playing with good tone. No pre-moisturizing, no reed break in period, and no dry reed squeaks. The down sides of the Legere include:1) There is a great variance in strength between reeds. 2) Over time the strength slowly weakens. Cleaning the reed with soap and water after each use seems to prolong the life of the Legere synthetic reed.

*** I am now using wet sandpaper 1000-3000 to sand the occasional overly stiff Legere reed as needed.

Ligatures

The single post ligatures are easier to use than the double post ligatures. Examples include the all contact metal Vandoren Optimum, the all contact "fabric" Rovner 1R-Dark and the metal/fabric hybrid Rovner Versa V1-R. IMHO, The Optimum sounds brighter, the Rovner darker. The Versa is an interesting hybrid with a metal bar and two fabric flaps so that you can have direct metal to reed contact for a brighter sound or you can cover the metal bar with fabric for a darker sound. My preferred ligature at this point is the Rovner Versa V1-R without any additional metal inserts and with the fabric flaps place between the reed and the metal plate.Barrels

I tried a few different barrels and will reserve judgement.

*Image from Vandoren

Thumb Cushions

Not all commercial thumb cushions worked for me. I do like the minimalist BG Proteg Support Pouce Standard on my R13. OR just cut off a piece of soft tubing and stretch it over the thumb piece. One advantage of using tubing is that it does not interfere with placement of the dismantled clarinet into the case. After a while, you can dispense with cushions.

Technique

Altissimo

Well as I alluded to earlier, playing with a soft reed on an open tip mouthpiece is great fun and makes hitting the altissimo notes (those notes above the first C above the staff) difficult. DO NOT BITE. Yes I can hit the altissimo notes if I bite and THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA. Your lip will be sore and you will not be able to play day in and day out for long periods. So let us be clear, notes above C6 are altissimo. They are overblown, demonstrated by lifting the first finger of your left hand off the clarinet, by a seventeenth. Yikes.

What can you do for altissimo besides using a stiffer reed on mouthpiece with a smaller tip opening? I have a few suggestions and your experience may vary:

1) Use a lower angle with the clarinet so it is closer to your body. This puts the mouthpiece parallel to your lower teeth so you make contact with the front face of your teeth, NOT THE TIPS of your teeth.

2) Push up on the clarinet against your upper teeth when you see an altissimo note coming. This stiffens your mouth without biting.

3) Experiment with different amounts of jaw opening, keeping your upper teeth in the normal position.

4) Learn the proper embouchure.

With the proper embouchure, it is possible to easily hit the altissimo F using a 5JB and a 2.5 V12 reed.

You may need to consciously relax your embouchure when going from prolonged altissimo, back to the lower register.

Breath Control

It sometimes helps me to breath in on the downbeat when a run of notes starts on the upbeat. This is an advanced technique.

Musical Acoustics

It helps to understand notes as sound waves and that some combinations of sound waves are harmonic. According to Wikipedia, "frequency ratios that are simple fractions (e.g. 2/1, 3/2 or 5/4)... will sound consonant as in the diatonic scale CDEFGABC.

2/1 --> An Octave

5/4 --> Major Third

4/3 --> Perfect Fourth (Similar intervals in both just intonation and in equal temperament tuning)

3/2 --> Perfect Fifth (Similar intervals in both just intonation and in equal temperament tuning)

Thus arise the consonant harmonics of unison, octave > perfect fifth and perfect fourth in that order. Unfortunately, a perfectly tuned "just intonation" instrument would only sound good in the parent key. Instead, the actual notes are adjusted for "equal temperament" and additional notes are added which allows for one instrument to play in equal temperament in all keys. I find it curious that the 12 bars blues is made up of scales that start on the perfect intervals Modes I, IV and V. Of course the human voice (think barber shop quartet) can tune to just intonation on the fly and is not restrained by the need for equal temperament tuning!

Sound Reinforcement

Outdoors the clarinet may get loss without sound reinforcement. I would rather not over-blow to be heard. You can use a Shure instrument mike and DO NOT aim it at the bell. A lot of the sound of the clarinet comes from the open tone holes. So if you are going to use an instrument mic on a stand, aim it at the tone holes. Better yet, consider a set of condenser mikes that attach to the clarinet. AMT makes such a beast that clamps to the bell joint.

Have fun,

Jeff

Bibliography:

How To Play Jazz and Improvise, Jamey Aebersold Jazz, New Albany, IN, 1992.

The Jazz Theory Book, Mark Levine, Sher Music Company, Petaluma, CA, 1995.

Blues in ALL Keys for ALL Instruments Jamey Aebersold Jazz, New Alabany, IN, 1988

The Real Book Bflat Hal Leonard, Milwaukee, WI

The Real Book Backing Tracks USB Flash Drive, Hal Leonared, Milwaukee, WI