TMEA ALL-STATE TRYOUT MUSIC BE SURE TO BRING THE FOLLOWING: 1. Copies of music with numbered measures 2. Copy of written out master class 1. Hello, My name is Dr. David Shea, professor of clarinet at Texas Tech University. On this CD is recorded this year s TMEA All-state tryout music for Bass Clarinet. Each etude is first recorded at a performance tempo and then again at a practice tempo. I also offer some comments, which I hope will help you prepare for your upcoming auditions. I wish you the very best of luck and hope to see you as a member of the TMEA All-state band at the T.M.E.A. convention in February. The tryout music this year is from Artistic Studies, Book 1 from the French School edited by David Hite, which is published by Southern Music Company. Before I proceed with the specifics of each etude, I would like to give you some general suggestions to help prepare you for your audition. I would like to start by emphasizing that it is very important that you have a working instrument. If notes do not work on your horn, see if your band director can make arrangements to get them fixed. Playing the bass clarinet should not be a physical and frustrating struggle. With a working instrument it should be easy to play. Preparation is very important. If doing well in the audition is important to you, then prepare intelligently and do the necessary hard work. Many students wait until late October or November before they get serious about learning these etudes. This may work for some advanced students, but if you are trying to make the all-region, all-area or all-state band for the first time, I would strongly encourage you to start earlier and let time work for you. Mastering difficult music takes a steady consistent effort and great patience. Start slowly and allow yourself the time to let the music get thoroughly into your fingers. I would recommend starting your work on these etudes as soon as school starts, and apply a slow steady effort throughout the Fall semester. I have supplied a pdf on using practice methods which you might find useful. This document can also be found at the TTU Clarinet Studio Website. My last suggestion is to practice all etudes for an audition by starting with a cold runthrough. This means play from the beginning to the end without stopping just like you would do in your audition. This run-through illustrates how well you truly know your etude, but is not necessarily the best you can play it. In a pressure situation, however, you can only count on how well you know the etude. The other benefit of this runthrough is that it provides an opportunity to practice making mistakes and recovering. Many talented students become so obsessed with not making mistakes that they stop playing every time one occurs. One cannot do this in an audition, so it is necessary to practice what it feels like to play through mistakes. The cold run-through practice may be a bit discouraging at first but you will notice that if you continue to do it everyday
over the course of many weeks, it will get better and better. When you can play all of your etudes from beginning to end without stopping or practicing the hard spots, you are ready to have a great audition. Now to the etudes 2. (Master Class Selection Number One) Selection number one, found on page 58 is in the key of d minor. The tempo is Quarter Note = 76-88. You are to play the entire etude. Errata for this selection, In measure 27, slur the last two notes (making the entire measure slur-two) a. It is helpful to practice this piece with the metronome set to the eighth note beat. From your first practice sessions, find a slow practice tempo that you can manage to play comfortably with the metronome. It does not matter how slow this tempo is, but it is very important to find a tempo where you feel in complete control. This speed may be as slow as 100 to the eighth note, or even slower. Once you master the etude at this tempo, you can start working up the speed in 5 point increments. If you find the proper slow tempo, you will be surprised at how quickly you can increase the speed, even within the same practice session. Review the practice guide pdf that is included with this recording to review this practice strategy. b. The slur two slur two articulation in the opening phrase needs to be played with out crunching the slurred pairs, and without clipping the ends of the slurs. Make sure each note is held long enough and that there isn t any space between the slurred pairs. Listen to the recording to see how this sounds. c. In this etude, there are many different articulation combinations. During you initial practice sessions, take the time to learn them correctly from the beginning. The longer you spend approximating the articulation, or playing inconsistently, the longer it will take to learn the articulations properly for your audition. d. In general, I would recommend not clipping the ends of any slurs. This is often the reason why technique and tongue finger coordination are problematic. There are many who feel that clipping the ends of slurs cleans up the articulation. This can be the case, but for most younger players who are having articuclation problems, clipping is usually the source of the problem. e. To practice articulation in this etude without clipping the slurs, get a straw, or imagine that you have a straw, and blow and articulate the first line, or any articulated passage in the etude. Keep the air flowing as you articulate. It should sound like this (demonstrate). Immediately play the passage on the bass clarinet after tonguing with the straw. Go back and forth a few times. You will notice that if you think of using the tongue only to start notes with a clear attack, dand keeping the air moving through the clarinet, you will get a clear articulation that feels easier and maintains a better tone.
f. Using this imaginary straw practice is one of the most successful teaching tools I use in my studio. It really can help train you to articulate better. g. In different parts of the etude, there are several passages which use accents. These accents should be thought of as an emphasis on a note, and not a hard tongued accent. Accented notes should sound more weighted and heavy. This will result in a stylistically appropriate performance. h. Now for some specific comments. In measure four make sure you play C# on beat 2. The accidental carries through the measure and with the B natural preceding the C# so it is easy to carelessly play a C natural. i. In measure 7, if you are familiar with fake fingers for altissimo notes, you can try playing C# using an overblown throat tone F# fingering, E can be played using a an overblown throat tone A key fingering, and D can be played as an overblown throat G. Standard altissimo fingerings also reasonable for this particular passage. j. The long C# notes throughout this etude and the occasional long B natural, in other words, the B s and C# s in the middle of the staff, I would highly recommend using the right pinkie to finger these notes whenever possible. This may be unfamiliar to some, but it is always good to keep everything in the right hand when possible, and with some practice it is much easier to coordinate the technique. k. The technical demands of this etude, in general, are not too bad in this etude. Your work should be to play the articulations correctly without over clipping staccatos and slurs. Keep really good time, and do your best to play long and smooth phrases. Make it sound easy and you should do well on this etude in your audition. 4. Selection number two, found on Page 52 is in the key of G Major, Quarter note 80-96 You are to prepare the entire etude. 5. (Master Class selection number two) a. One of the most difficult aspects of this etude is the variety of articulation patterns. It is important that you learn the correct articulations from the beginning. You will waste a lot of time later trying to correct them if you go by feel and are approximating the proper articulation when you are learning notes. b. The slur three tongue one articulation is one of the least favorite articulations for students. Here are a couple of tips. Think of the fourth notes as being a pick up to the next beat. Think 4 1 2 3, 4 1 2 3, 4 1 2 3 etc. Next, do not clip the slur before the fourth note. This will make the articulation feel awkward and will often cause unevenness within the beat. Finally, make sure the first note of each slur is long enough as this articulation lends itself to students crunching the first two sixteenth notes. You might even think of holding the first note slightly longer than your instinct tells you. Try this and record yourself to monitor how even you are playing the sixteenth note passages with this articulation. c. Part of your practice should be to slur everything to insure the notes are even. However, within the same practice session, put the articulation back and maintain the evenness of sixteenth notes.
d. To improve technique, try to use right hand pinkie fingerings on B s and C# s whenever possible. In the first four measures for example, one could play everything on the right. Also, in measures 20-28 can be done without using the left pinkie finger when crossing the break. In general, whenever there is an arpeggio figure, try to play with right pinkies as you are crossing the break. e. In measures 6, 36, and 53, use chromatic F# s before and after the E#. (Remember E# is fingered like an F, don t play Eb). f. This etude is relatively straight forward from a technical standpoint. Do not clip slurs, pay attention to articulation details and work slowly with a metronome. If you do this you should be in good shape for your audition. 7. (Performance of number two) 8. Selection number three is on page 49 and is in the key a minor. Quarter note 50-56. Play: You are to play the entire etude. Errata: The slur in m.13 should extend to beat 4. a. Although the tempo marking indicated for this etude is to the quarter note, I would highly recommend that you practice and perform this etude wiyh the eighth note beat set to 100-112. The judges will definitely be beating the eighth note behind the screen, so it is a good idea to count in eighth notes to insure accurate subdivision. b. In a slow etude, you will be judged not only on your expressive phrasing and beautiful tone, but also your ability to shift from one complicated rhythmic grouping to the next. In addition, be careful that longer notes and rests are held full value, especially if you are counting in eighth notes. Make sure half notes are counted four beats, quarter notes as two, and eighth notes as 1 beat. c. Now for some details, in measure 9 play the 32 nd notes very late in the beat. Think of them as grace notes to the next eighth note. It is easy to come in too early on these notes so they end up sounding like 16 th notes. d. Measure 15 is a passage that frequently causes problems for students. In the thirty second note gesture, be careful to carry through the accidentals from the beginning of the measure. e. Also in this 32 nd notes gesture, try stretching the first three 32 nd notes a little to get across the break, and then gracefully accelerate through the rest of the passage. This makes the passage a little easier, and it will sound more musical. Listen to the performance to see how this is done. f. In measure 19 and 20, if you are counting in eighth notes, make sure you come in off the tie after the second beat in each gesture, and try to avoid pulsing the second beat with your breath. Try thinking of the thirty second notes as three pick ups to the next beat. This will sound more elegant and will help you to avoid the rhythmic trap of coming of the tie to early. g. In measures 22-24 there is a difficult rhythmic passage that you will want to learn
correctly. There are many different changes in subdivision, and you need to be comfortable switching from duple to triple feel with the subdivisions. It may be useful to practice counting this passage without the clarinet before trying to play it. Listen to the recorded performance to check that you are playing the rhythms correctly. h. The accents in measure 29 should be heavy and not over articulated. i. In measure 31, there should be no space between the accented notes, but instead they should be smooth and heavy, which is done with the air and light tongue. j. In measure 37, use the top trill key to trill from A natural to B natural. k. My final suggestion for this etude it to really exaggerate the dynamics. However, as you do this, use your ears to make sure that the flow and beauty of the piece is kept intact. I often hear students do extreme dynamic changes that sound awkward and unmusical. It is always best to perform your dynamics using your ears and not just your eyes. l. Listen to the recording to hear how all of the details of this etude can be executed while keeping a natural and beautiful flow of musical line. 9. I hope you enjoy exploring the etudes as much as I have. Use your imagination have fun! The hours that you invest in etudes will be very rewarding if you keep in mind that they re not so much about playing the clarinet but about making music. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at Texas Tech University at david.shea@ttu.edu or 806-742-2270 ext. 269, or visit the Clarinet Studio Webpage at webpages.acs.ttu.edu/dshea.