Reading is hard!

This week I reviewed previous lessons I had learned last week.  This included practicing notes E, F, & G and combining them with and without the use of 4 count rests.  I feel that my fingering of each of these notes is relatively decent, but I’m still struggling with how to be comfortable with my articulation and breathing.  It’s amazing how a couple of days off in between sessions sets you back and makes me feel like I’m stuck in a rut.  

Credit: Giphy

To get another explanation of how articulation works, I found a YouTube video series created by Sean Osborn.  He has created a set of 10 short videos to help beginners become familiar with the playing clarinet.  I watched both the video on breathing and articulation and learned some new things that I didn’t learn from my Udemy course.  One of these new learnings was understanding that one should use “the minimum amount of tongue, moving the minimum amount of distance, touching the minimum amount of reed.”  To demonstrate this more, he was able to use a medical camera to get a video of the inside of this mouth to demonstrate his incredible ability to articulate (tongue) while playing.  Check it out (start watching at 3:40 into the video clip below)!

Apparently while trying to achieve proper articulation, there is something called “anchor tongue”.  This means you tongue the reed with the middle of your tongue instead of the tip and then rest the remainder of your tongue on the back of your teeth.  I don’t know if I have this problem, but I would love a medical camera to assess the situation for me if anyone is willing to lend me theirs.

Back to my Udemy.com course.  After I reviewed some lessons, I moved on to learning intervals, also known as scale in thirds (according to my Udemy.com course instructor).  I was taught how to transition from the lowest note (C), skip a note (D) and play (E), go back to (D), skip a note (F) and play (G), and so on.  This was more difficult for me as I tried to read the sheet music provided as a reference.  I have not spent enough time becoming familiar with sheet music to be able to play six different notes on it in a musical fashion.  However, I was given some sound advice in our last class discussion about our projects from my dear friend Brad Raes, for which he suggested that I don’t spend too much time learning how to read music.  Because he’s a smart guy, this week I decided to simply watch my instructor as she placed her fingers on the instrument instead and mimicked her actions.  Going back and repeatedly practicing allowed me to memorize the fingering as well as the sounds as I put them into practice.  I know this isn’t proper, but I  much preferred it.  Rather than learning to read music, I may have to spend some time translating the notes to letters to make it easier for me to read and follow.  Does anyone know if there are tablatures for clarinet like there are for guitar?

Here is a recording of my attempt at doing intervals solo, without the use of a metrinome or my online Udemy.com instructor.  You can tell that I still struggle with keeping a good breathe as I advance from note to note, especially at the end.  

I tried moving on to Section Four – Slurring, but didn’t get very far. This section introduces three new notes (B, A, and G), which required me to use my right hand. I’m not sure I’m ready for this as I feel I still need more practice with the first six notes that I’ve been practicing using my left hand. I may have to look for other resources to help get me more practice, such as the “Measures of Success” book that my daughter uses in school or other YouTube tutorials. Does anyone know of any other options I could explore? Udemy.com is moving much too quickly for me.

Help!