That's a BIG question that all of us spend years addressing! Without actually hearing you play or knowing what parts of clarinet technique are challenging for you, I've got a few general tips regarding How to Practice: (1) Practice what you CAN'T play. This means that you shouldn't spend a bunch of time going over parts that you are already comfortable playing because your time is limited! Save these sections for some run-throughs at the end of your practice session, because we do need these moments to feel good about our playing. (2) Break the music up into sections for practice purposes. Often, the music is marked in this way already, with rehearsal letters or numbers. Music is also often grouped into 4- or 8-measure sections that you will begin to recognize (for example: "Oh! It repeats itself after 8 measures!") (3) Pick a small part/section that you can't play well (yet!), and have a mental PLAN about what you need to do BEFORE you play it! Is it about rhythm/correct notes/air/tongue/fingers...? Have a plan and address ONE thing. Did you make it better or get more consistent? Great! Be satisfied with a little improvement each day; these little steps forward each day add up to big improvements over time. I hope this gives you a few more ideas about how you can practice your all-region music! Best of luck!!

Mine is Friday and no one can do this perfectly 😔😔😔😭😭😭😭😢😢😢😢

Thank you for your kind words!

You are welcome! Thank you for watching!

I'm happy to help!

That's a good question! The short answer: no, you haven't! The tip of the reed needs to seal on the tip rail of the mouthpiece. Most of us will try to get the tip of the reed where you can see a sliver of black mouthpiece above the tip of the reed. I think what you're seeing in this video is an illusion that has something to do with the curvature of the mouthpiece facing. It can appear that the tip of the reed is higher than the tip of the mouthpiece when you're looking at it from the beak-side of the mouthpiece! Try this with yours: place the reed where you think it should be, then turn it around to look from the beak side. It will look like it is too high!

@@SteveBecraft Thanks for clearing up my concern up Steve, I thought I may been following the wrong advice. .

I'm glad that I could help!

I'm glad to hear that you found this video helpful! Without seeing and hearing exactly what you are experiencing, I think your observation of how you get a better result when you only press the "lower most part" of the register key is instructive! My hunch is that when you move your thumb too much (as one can get away with on saxophone), you are slightly opening the bottom of the thumb tone hole. This is a common problem for less-experienced clarinet players, especially for someone who is coming from the saxophone! You might try to video how your thumb moves while interacting with the register key to check on this. It doesn't take much for things to go wrong on the clarinet--I think this is why I've heard doublers refer to the clarinet as "The Misery Stick"!! LOL

You are welcome! It's always a pretty big jump to go from the junior high music to the senior high music. I'm glad you've found this video useful!

If we look at our colleagues in the brass section, we realize that there is no shame in removing the neck and pouring out the condensation if we need to! Have you watched those horn players go through all their gymnastics to clear out their crooks?

Thank you for watching--it's always nice to hear that I've been able to help someone!

If you're successfully playing in the clarion register you are hopefully already doing some good things that will help the register change between throat A and the B one step above! Playing this interval smoothly takes most of us a long time to feel like we're doing it well. Be patient and continue working to improve your air, voicing, embouchure, and the control of your left index finger. Best of luck!

I appreciate the feedback! You are right, Sinatra was an amazing musician. Let me clarify: any scooping he did (or any great vocalist for that matter) was entirely intentional!

Yes, this is a problem and you have to crank up your volume all the way! This was my first video and I learned from my mistakes. They were still pretty low-tech productions, but I figured out what to do for the iMovie audio on some later videos. I appreciate you trying to watch!

There are so many variables...it could be the single register key, or something else. I imagine someone like Morrie Backun or Tom Ridenour might be able to tell us why! Thank you for watching!

I appreciate hearing from you! You are 100% correct: these videos cannot substitute for face-to-face human teaching at all. Like many of us during the pandemic, I made this video as a potential resource for the students and teachers who would normally attend my university's summer band camp. It has been nice to see this have a productive life beyond the immediate purpose, though!

@@SteveBecraft thanks again Steve, I appreciate your reply. (I'm a trombone player actually ... I just enjoy learning about other instruments!)

You are correct, the audio was quite low and you have to crank your volume way up! This was one of my very first videos and it was not a very high tech operation! It was recorded with a simple Zoom video camera, edited in iMovie, and uploaded to KZbin from there. I tried to make sure the audio wasn't clipping, but I missed something in the process and learned from my mistake. If I make any more of these in the future they should be at a better audio level.

@@SteveBecraft cool. I just wanted to let you know in case it was a technical glitch. I will try later on something with better volume than my old Lenova.

I'm not sure that there is a BEST mouthpiece for a beginner, but generally it is good to avoid a mouthpiece/reed combination that requires too much jaw pressure. Many of the jazz-style mouthpieces require more bite and/or embouchure control, so you should stay away from those for now! I think that the Vandoren Optimum AL3 is a very playable option, and other classical-style mouthpieces can work well too (Yamaha 4C, Selmer C*). I hope this helps!

L

I'm happy to help!

We can use left hand palm keys to trill from C or C# up to D! The intonation might be a little weird, but it can be a good option. For C to D, hold your C fingering and use your left index finger to trill the highest of the left palm keys (If you hold up the saxophone and look straight at the 3 palm keys, the "highest" of the 3 keys for your hand actually opens the MIDDLE pad of these 3!) For C# to D, trill the "middle" palm key--the one you would use to play a D above the staff. (This key opens the LOWEST pad of the 3 palm keys) Re: your other question, it takes time and practicing the right things! One way that I practice seamless playing from note to note is to play all of my scales slowly as a warm up. I'll pay attention to how I move my air through every note and into the next note; I check in with my finger motion (clean, precise, efficient). Next, I'll work these at a quicker speed (always with a metronome!) and strive to use my air and fingers in EXACTLY the same way even though I'm going quicker. Of course, register changes, low notes (pinky keys and voicing!), and palm keys take extra attention and are tougher to develop! Hang in there, be persistent, and know that there are no short cuts!

@@SteveBecraft I really appreciate your great advice. I am glad also concerning question 1 that someone doesn't say you can't use the palm key except with the octave key , here is an exception and the teachers on youtube should mention it that you can trill on the 2nd octave using them without the octave key.

I'm glad I can help!

I appreciate hearing from you--I'm happy to hear that this was helpful!

It makes me happy to read this--I'm so glad that I could help!

Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad that I can help you and your students!

You're welcome! It's nice to hear you say this--I know that many people don't have the patience to follow the video to the end!

Glad it was helpful!

Fico feliz que tenha sido útil! (With Google Translate, I think I said: "I'm glad it was helpful!"

Glad it was helpful!

The mouthpiece pitches for the other saxophones crawl across the bottom of the screen starting around 7:40. If you weren't staring at the screen you would have missed them! Tenor should be a G5. I hope this helps!

I'm glad that I can help! Thank you for the compliment!

Thank you for your positive comments! I actually don't work on playing any overtones with the mouthpiece alone, but it doesn't surprise me that some do. I think that trying this with such a "short" instrument (the mouthpiece!) could be more frustrating than not! Maybe for someone who has comfortably developed their altissimo controls this would be a fun challenge, but I wouldn't recommend it too soon. A slightly more manageable challenge could be mouthpiece + neck, as Tim McAllister shows in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6uodWevap2Sb8k The sequence that has worked for my students is: 1) Mouthpiece A, followed by "warping" down to a P5 or more; 2) on the sax, warping down a P5 from a palm E and/or front F; 3) overtone work in the Santa/Dabney book, "Voicing...". I hope this is useful!

I am not very high tech with my operation! This was recorded with a simple Zoom video camera, edited in iMovie, and uploaded to KZbin from there. I've tried to make sure the audio isn't clipping, but besides that I don't know what else I should be doing. If you have any suggestions I'm happy to listen!

@@SteveBecraft If you want to post more videos like this on your channel I would highly recommend you take a look at OBS-Studio (Open Broadcaster Software). Its simple, you don't have to use all the different options. You can keep it simple. And there are bazillions of tutorials on youtube. The quality is good, costs nothing, runs on Win, Mac, Linux. And you can adjust easily your audio-level. Just my two cents.

@@8tungdata Thank you for the input--I'll take a look. I did just go back to look at the original in iMovie, and I think I see what my problem was. I'll experiment with the next one, and if it doesn't seem like it will be better, I can check out OBS Studio.

You are welcome!

Steve Becraft just learning the clarinet. I play the flute. I’m older 😂 never played an instrument until I was 49 🤦🏻‍♀️

Good for you! I hope that you are having fun!! Learning new things is what makes life interesting.

Thank you!

I'll be sure to let him know you appreciate his playing! Thank you for watching!

I hope it went well, and that you didn't blank on any of your scales!

Steve Becraft , i forgot the first two scales and just winged them with random scales, i did good on all the other exercises and stuff though, hopefully i made it

It sounds like you have new goal for next year: more scale practice! :)

@@SteveBecraft yup! already started practicing them tonight

I'm sorry that you didn't get what you were hoping to find, Chris! You are correct, I don't really get to the USE of voicing on the saxophone in this video since it is an introduction. I've been teaching this technique over 20 years now, and a high percentage of Jr. High, Sr. High, and incoming college students cannot immediately lock into the mouthpiece 'A' due to embouchure problems, air issues, and too high or too low tongue positions. The introductory information is to try to account for these variables.

Then you didn't listen to what he was saying. His approach was to first explain why these things are important, most of us are not taught why we do things but only how to do them - in my experience knowing why to practice in a certain way greatly improves the learning cycle.

I'm glad to hear this! I hope that you can play your very best!!

@@SteveBecraft I think you’ll be happy to know that I ended up marking first band ninth chair!

@@mememaster9281 Congratulations! It's always nice when hard work pays off!

Thank you--I'm glad you like it! And two octaves...I'd love to hear it LOL! When I learned this technique from Pat Meighan, he said that a P5 was essential control, and anything larger than that was just gravy.

Is that a Blauhaus Neck ?

You are welcome!

No--it's a Buffet neck that was gold-plated by Taplin-Weir.

You are welcome!