Oct 2016 - How High Notes Can Work More Easily (when you need to tongue them)

Clarinet Mentors

For clarinetists who want to perform more easily and beautifully

In This Issue

October 1, 2016

A Note From Michelle Anderson - A new season of music making
Free Training - High Notes and Tonguing - how to do both well at the same time
Free Live Training For You - Join me for a live online clarinet masterclass next Saturday
Michelle Recommends - some mouthpieces for you to look at that are under $200
Better Clarinet Articulation - a new clarinet course designed to help you "go deeper" in refining your clarinet playing (free previews now available)
Upcoming Clarinet Events - Clarinet Mentors Festival in March, and Clarinet Cruise in 2018
Clarinet Is Easy - Complete how-to lessons for beginners and self-taught intermediate players

Hello From Michelle Anderson

Hello !

Welcome to the Clarinet Mentors newsletter. It is a pleasure for me to connect with clarinetists worldwide such as yourself. I hope you enjoy sharing clarinet news with me. Stay alert, because this newsletter has a new Youtube video to help you tongue high notes better on clarinet, my new guide to great clarinet mouthpieces which are under $200, a free mini course that you can sign up for immediately which has some of my favourite content on clarinet articulation, and in invitation for you to join me in a free online clarinet masterclass next weekend.

Having just passed Equinox, we start a new season of musical events here in Vancouver. I have a concert tonight playing Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, which is a great articulation workout for the whole wind section. I've been diving into my fast-tonguing workouts in case the conductor gets excited and goes even faster. This is very likely, since he already directed the string section to - "Push those woodwinds!"

I have a few things to draw to your attention in today's newsletter. We recently had a Clarinet Mentors live training with members of the Mastering Clarinet High Notes course. One of the themes was "How do I tongue fast and high?". Today's training video is related to that. The live training was so much fun, I decided to offer an interactive live session to the entire Clarinet Mentors community next Saturday. Please see details below for how you can participate.

Related to articulation, I am also happy to unveil the newest part of the How To Play Clarinet More Easily course, which is called Better Clarinet Articulation. As always when I launch a new Clarinet Mentors course, there are some great free preview videos that you can all enjoy now. Please do me a favour, and sign up for the preview videos now so that I can get your feedback.

I hope you are enjoying your clarinet, wherever in the world you are! Thanks for being a part of the Clarinet Mentors community.

Michelle

Free Training: How To Sound Better On High Notes When You Are Tonguing on Clarinet

Many people tell me that they sound pretty good on the clarinet, until they are trying to tongue quickly in the high register. I always maintain that the high register is simply "where our bad habits become more obvious". If something is not going well there, it indicates that there is something you can change. The bad habit is probably affecting all of your notes on the clarinet, but it is always more obvious when we are playing up high.

Most people do not even realize that they have developed bad habits when they tongue on the clarinet, because it is often overlooked in our training. I hope that today's lessons will help you. The first video, focuses specifically on tone when tonguing up high, and gives you three strategies to make this easier. Read further below to also access my favourite videos from my more in-depth Better Clarinet Articulation course.

Click here to access today's Youtube video.

Link to a YouTube video featuring 3 ways to improve clarinet playing while tonguing in the high register

Michelle Recommends - The most important piece of equipment to upgrade - your mouthpiece. Try these great mouthpieces that are all under $200

I often tell my students that one of the most important pieces of equipment that they have is their mouthpiece. A better quality mouthpiece can dramatically affect tone quality, as well as how "easy" it feels to produce a tone. It is also the piece of gear that seems to vary most from person to person as far as "what works". We all have different sized mouths, and they really do respond differently for different people. Ideally, you should play test a few mouthpieces out to discover what feels and sounds best for you. If you haven't seen this video, I discuss some things to consider when you are choosing mouthpieces: https://youtu.be/5y2pmOJ_huI

I thought it would be helpful if I tell you some of the mouthpieces that I have recently been recommending recently to my students to try. There are many amazing craftsmen who make good professional mouthpieces. Today, I want to recommend some that are easier on your pocketbook, but are still excellent mouthpieces

These are generally between $100-$200

Vandoren - Vandoren makes many good clarinet mouthpieces, and has for many years. If you are play testing mouthpieces it is worth trying any of them. Some models that have been popular with my students include the M30 and M13.

D'Addario Reserve - These are also good mouthpieces at a very reasonable price. A student of mine recently chose one out of many others, and sounds fabulous on it.

BG - I only recently became aware that BG makes clarinet mouthpieces. I had a chance to try some, and have my students play test them. They are very good. They only have 2 options, but that makes choosing a bit simpler! BG has long been established as a great clarinet ligature, neck strap and reed accessory maker.

Backun Protégé - Although Backun also produces some fabulous top end mouthpieces, the Protégé is an excellent mouthpiece to consider for most players.

La Vecchia - I had the pleasure of meeting Bob Bernardo in person at ClarinetFest in Kansas this summer. Bob is the US distributer of Steuer reeds, which are one of my favourite clarinet reeds. (I do recommend you try them.) He also is very knowledgable about clarinet mouthpieces, and hand crafts his own line. I tried one out that he quickly custom adjusted to suit what I wanted, and it is an excellent mouthpiece. Personally, I think he could charge much more for these. I have a student who recently bought a La Vecchia, and the improvement in his sound was dramatic.

There are many fine mouthpieces made today. I cannot recommend one definitive mouthpiece, since what works well for me, might not work for you. However, I can comfortably endorse the fine manufacturers above. Hopefully you can try some of these out, and choose the one that best fits you!

Join me for a free live Clarinet Mentors online masterclass next Saturday, October 8th

When I launched the Mastering Clarinet High Notes course in July, I offered the participants monthly live training sessions. We've been featuring 6 - 8 clarinetists from all over the world in an interactive, live, online masterclasses, and everyone has loved it. In a masterclass setting, a few people bring forward a clarinet challenge, and have a mini lesson with me. We usually find one or two things that make a clear improvement to each player,. The "observing clarinetists" can usually relate to whatever challenges the other players have. Sometimes I have learned more at masterclasses by watching teachers work with other students than by having them work with me.

I'd like to invite you to take part in a free masterclass for the entire Clarinet Mentors community in a week. It is the weekend of Canadian Thanksgiving, so I am offering my thanks and appreciation to all of you by sharing in this interactive event with you.

How can you take part?

1) You can volunteer to be a performing participant and have a mini clarinet lesson with me during our session. This involves having a reasonably good internet connection, and some kind of computer/tablet/phone with a web camera. You will send me your "clarinet focus", as well as a very short bit of music that illustrates this challenge. I'll do my best to help you improve. I have room for 6-8 performing clarinetists. If you would like to take advantage of a free mini-lesson with me, send me an email ASAP. I'll schedule the first people who express interest.

2) You can join live and be part on the online community. This will allow you to ask questions or give feedback both in a chat box, as well as during some open Q and A sessions. If you think you will be able to participate live, please let me know. I need to know how many people are attending, because that will affect the software that I choose to use.

3) Can't watch live, but want to be part of the experience? Email me your clarinet questions, or leave me a voicemail (and be sure that you mention it is for the masterclass on the 8th) at: https://www.speakpipe.com/ClarinetMentors. I will try and answer them during our session.

I will be recording our masterclass, and making a replay video available to everyone who is unable to attend live.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU WILL BE JOINING LIVE BY REGISTERING HERE, AND I WILL SEND YOU DETAILS

The event will begin on Saturday, October 8th at 1:30 pm my time. To find out the time where you are, please go to: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html and enter Canada - British Columbia - Vancouver, and then convert that to your location. Please do RSVP if you are attending live as I may need to change the software that I use if we have a larger attendance than I expect currently.

Better Clarinet Articulation - Register Now For Instant Access to Three Preview Lessons from Michelle's Newest Clarinet Course

I love providing lots of tips and tools for all of you in the Clarinet Mentors community on how to play clarinet more easily and beautifully. I now offer over 90 great training videos on Youtube for clarinetists worldwide to enjoy. People often ask me why I just give all of this away. Why? I love music so much that I want to share that appreciation with others. I've seen many students almost give up because they were frustrated and thought that they just didn't have enough talent to play their own music. Nonsense, I say! If we are frustrated, it is likely that we have some bad habits and simply do not know how to fix them. My mission at Clarinet Mentors is to give people to tools to identify their bad habits, replace them with good ones, and enjoy sounding great while making good music!

For those of you that want to go deeper, and appreciate an organized system for putting this knowledge into practise, I have created some online courses. All of these have a series of free preview videos for you to check out, detailed 30-Day practise routines, and lots of fun repertoire to work on. They also all have an amazing 100%, 30-Day Full Money Back Guarantee. Signing up for a course helps fund all of the great free videos that are available to everyone.

I am excited to finally be launching a course that specifically helps you to improve on clarinet articulation. I want you to try out the preview videos and get your feedback on what you think of these videos. You can sample some of my favourite lessons at no charge by signing up here: https://www.clarinetmastery.com/pl/11321

I always like to celebrate my newest courses with some super-duper special opening bonuses. The course will go up for sale in a week, but you can take a sneak peek now. Watch for the very special Grand Opening Offer later in the week.

Upcoming Clarinet Mentors Events

I love meeting members of the Clarinet Mentors community. Usually this is online. I have a couple of special events coming up that gives me a chance to meet with you live, and really celebrate our love of the clarinet with some special concerts, lessons and events.

Please join me for a very special clarinet event that takes place in Nashville March 9-11, 2017. This event offers the Clarinet Mentors community a chance to interact with some of the greatest clarinet players in the world. It also lets me meet you in person. This event is hosted by Bil Jackson at the Vanderbilt University in Nashville and sponsored by Backun Musical Services (which means some of their incredible artists will be on the performance roster). This is a beautiful facility, and promises to be a totally inspiring event for all of us. I hope that you can come to be inspired, and to learn.

You will have access to:

Recitals and concerts with some of the world's greatest clarinetists
Masterclasses - observing some of the highest level teachers with some of the best, most talent student performers
Masterclasses for YOU, the passionate amateur adult, in a supportive, nurturing "no pressure" setting where you can learn an amazing amount
The opportunity to take some live in-person lessons with myself and other well-respected clarinet teachers
Sessions with clarinet makers and clarinet gadget folks - your chance to try in person equipment that could really help you play clarinet better

Click here for more details:

http://www.clarinetmentors.com/ClarinetFestival/index.html

Clarinet Cruise 2018

If you might be interested in a fabulous one week Clarinet Cruise to Alaska in the late spring/early summer of 2018, please put your name on the information list here: put your name on the information list.

Clarinet Is Easy - Your Step-by-Step Beginner Course - Now Available! (Also enjoyed by many intermediate level players)

How To Solve Your Common Clarinet Frustrations and Play Clarinet More Easily

I firmly believe that if anyone has the "recipe" for how to play clarinet, things are really relatively easy to do. Most of our frustrations come from inadvertently learning bad habits along the way. With that in mind, I have created for you a 10-lesson comprehensive course for beginners (and self-taught intermediate players) that gives you the tools to truly learn the clarinet easily, while avoiding all of the most common frustrations that can plague us. I believe that these lessons can save you hours of grief by giving you the best practise systems that have worked for thousands of clarinetists. The lessons have great content, and are presented in a video format so that you can watch them again and again. If you would like to play with more ease and have a clear understanding of the fundamentals of clarinet playing, you can get more information on the Clarinet Is Easy course here (including some free preview videos):

Click here for the free preview videos to Clarinet Is Easy

If you are curious about this, you can try these lessons with a 100% 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee. (That means that you can try a full 5 lessons before you decide if you have received great value from the course.) If it is not the right style for you, you get your tuition refunded, no problem. I invite you to try it now! Many students have received amazing results so far from this course (and you can read their comments on the order page).

About Michelle Anderson

Michelle Anderson, the founder of Clarinet Mentors, is a professional clarinetist and teacher who currently lives in Vancouver BC. Her professional career spans over 30 years and she currently plays regularly with the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, the Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the West Coast Chamber Music series. She has performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Touring Orchestra and many other groups. Michelle currently specializes in teaching adults to play clarinet more easily and quickly through online resources, and conducts the Vancouver Clarinet Choir. Michelle is a Backun Musical Services Artist and plays on Backun clarinets and mouthpieces.

Thanks for reading this biweekly newsletter.

Helping you to find success on your instrument with proven, easy-to-follow systems that are designed to help you sound good, and feel better about your playing.

Clarinet Mastery

Oct 2016 - How High Notes Can Work More Easily (when you need to tongue them)

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