• A Note From Michelle Anderson - Happy Solstice!
• Free Training - Are You In Tune? - How you can tune your clarinet, and what notes to watch out for...
• Michelle Recommends - A Chromatic Tuner - A tool to help you play in tune more often
• Would You Like To Join Me For A Special Group Masterclass? - New Opportunity: a great way for you to get some one-on-one help, and learn with the support of a small group
• Clarinet Is Easy - Complete how-to lessons for beginners and self-taught intermediate players

Hello  !

I hope you are enjoying your clarinet, and thanks as always, for being a part of my community. I have been hearing from clarinetists all over the world, and I appreciate how many people are playing music for the fun (and challenge) it brings into their lives. I realize that many of us have the same challenges, and my hope is to help you learn to play more easily through the resources here at Clarinet Mentors. I just realized that the online part of Clarinet Mentors is almost exactly two years old. I feel like celebrating, because this modern technology has allowed me to connect with thousands of clarinetists worldwide. Please watch your inbox next week for a very special Clarinet Mentors 2nd Birthday offer that will be coming your way soon!

I have started summer travels a bit early this year with a quick family visit to the interior of BC. This is beautiful, mountainous, and dry wine country. Hot sun, and beautiful terrain. This seems like a good place to enjoy the longest days of the year. 

I hope you are enjoying these long summer days (and to my southern hemisphere friends, your days are about to get longer....), and that your clarinets are making beautiful music.

When I had been playing clarinet for about a year (and unfortunately, had developed about every bad habit a beginner could have, but was full of enthusiasm), I decided that I wanted to study with the best clarinet teacher in town. He normally didn't teach beginners. He made a special concession to teach four of us if we could share one hour a week. He set it up so that one week, we all came together for an hour. The following week, two of us each received a half hour private lesson, and the next, the other two. It was great! During our group lesson, he would teach us some of the most important clarinet concepts that we all needed to learn. I was always a bit nervous or intimidated to play for him alone, but it was really easy to watch him work with someone else. I learned as much, if not more, by watching him teach others (who had the same challenges as me), because I was not in the hot seat! In fact, one of my favourite teachers from the Aspen School of Music used to encourage us to sit in on other students' clarinet lessons (as long as everyone was comfortable with it) because he knew how much we could learn from this. At least once a summer he would gather all of his students together to play for each other before the big clarinet mock-audition that we all took part in. I learned so much through this process, and I want to offer you a similar opportunity.

I want you to have what I call a "Clarinet Breakthrough". This would be to take one area of your playing that frustrates you, and make clear and noticeable improvement within a few weeks.

I am going to open up two group masterclasses. One will be for people who are fairly new to the instrument (likely playing for less than a year), and the other for more experienced, but still intermediate level players. There will be 10 people in each class, and we will schedule together 5 sessions of approximately 60 - 90 minutes in an online group masterclass. Each participant will benefit from a weekly themed-lesson where I will share some technics that apply to everyone, and I will then work one-on-one with a couple of people each session. To participate, you need to be able to join in via the internet with a web camera and good internet connection. (If you can Skype someone, you can join me.) I realize that more than 20 people may want to take part. Once details and dates are finalized, I will likely start with first-come, first-served, but I hope to expand this in future to allow more people to take part. I want to group people of a similar playing level, and who are able to share enough of a similar time zone that everyone can be available for a consistent weekly time. You can take part even if you miss a live session since I will record our sessions to share within the small group. However, I would like people who are committed to taking part live as much as possible because I want to be available to answer your questions on the spot as they come up. In my experience, the support and encouragement that everyone receives from each other makes this an invaluable learning environment. Much better than trying to go at it alone!

If you are interested, please find out more details here:

SPECIAL GROUP MASTERCLASS WITH MICHELLE