Now that you’ve got your instrument, your reeds, accessories, and music, what’s next?
Well what’s next is actually playing, practicing, taking lessons, and working towards your goals. What should your goals be and how much should you be practicing? Well that all depends your level and where you want to go in your playing abilities.
Beginner students
Let’s start with the new to music middle school student.
The first goals should be learning to read music (if you don’t already know how) and learning the notes on the instrument. After you’ve got some range under your belt then you can start branching off into different goals like improving your tone, intonation, articulation, and phrasing.
I suggest practicing 15 to 30 min a day when you’re just starting out, mainly to build up your embouchure and stamina. Play anything you want but play with purpose. If you want to learn how to play Star Wars but you don’t know all the notes yet, then work on new notes in your band book. If you want to learn how to play broadway music but the tempo is too fast for you, then work on scales and technique starting off slow and gradually increasing the speed. That’s really the first step. You don’t know what to practice to get to your goals? Take some lessons with a private instructor! Believe me, we are more than happy to help you get to where you want to be!
Intermediate Students
Playing everyday is still a must, but increase your time to at least 30 to 60 minutes. This will allow enough time to warm up, work on scales/technique, and any pieces you want to work on. Don’t skip the warm up! It’s so important it will have its own blog post in the upcoming practicing series.
Goals for the intermediate player should be all about improving your tone, intonation, and technical abilities. By now you know all, or most, of the notes on the instrument and can reach them fairly well. Now it’s time to refine your technique. Work on etudes that stretch your abilities and pick pieces, whether they are classical or not, that are just outside your ability so that you have something to strive for. Nothing is more boring to me than playing a new music book cover to cover almost perfectly the first time through because it’s too easy. The gamer in me hates that! No replay value!
Advanced players – High School and above
Plan to practice for at least an hour a day at least 4- 5 times a week but no more than 3 hours in one sitting. This is important! After about 3 hours most advanced clarinetists agree that you start experiencing embouchure issues. By that time, it’s time to take a break.
Story time! – I was recording with a trio (Cello, Clarinet, and Piano) and the composer started to take us past the 3.5 hour mark of solid playing. My embouchure started to weaken around the corners and I could hear the air leaking out of my mouth. I knew within minutes I would be unable to play, and that’s exactly what happened. Halfway through the next page my embouchure gave out and all you could hear was air! AHHH!! Moral of the story: Unlike pianists who can play for hours and hours at a time, web clarinetists have about 3 hours of good solid playing before we start sounding like Darth Vader!
Practicing as an advanced player is more about refinement then perfection.
Maybe I should explain this more because my colleagues might actually gasp at that statement.
Perfection, to some, correct notes and rhythms without any mistakes, but is that really music? Yes and no. True music is about the notes and rhythms, but it’s also about feeling, musicality, programming and thematic content. For the advanced player it’s easy to get caught up on the technical aspect of playing but don’t forget to feel the music. Where is the phrasing? What are the dynamics? What are the articulations? What’s the melody and where is it going? These elements are what make up music! Not just perfect notes and rhythms.
So whatever your level, start playing! Playing the clarinet has brought me so much joy that I want to share it with the world. I want others to learn that playing the clarinet, or any instrument for that matter, can bring you light in the darkest times, can give you a form of expression that can truly be magical.
What some tips for practicing? Head over to my practice series! Lots of tips, tricks, and advice on how to optimize your practice time.
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