Category: Academy

As a young teacher, I had to make decisions about what to teach my students, and why. I decided that articulation was one significant area of the clarinet in which my students desperately needed more daily practice, but that the the exercises that I was encouraging them to practice simply did not exist in one single method book. I tired quickly of asking students to buy multiple books, switch frequently between them, and remembering in which pages from what books every exercise I was looking for resided. So, I wrote my own. The following pages I included in the section in my book on the subject of articulation. The following exercises are meant to help you practice achieving light and clean articulation. First and foremost you must blow enough air through the instrument, otherwise all you will hear is a percussive sound of the tongue hitting the reed. This is why it is important to practice slurring notes that are meant to be separated. Your air must be actively moving forward through the instrument at all times. The sensation will be similar to that of making a crescendo. Practice these exercises in at least one key every day. Choose a tempo at which you can articulate cleanly in sixteenth notes.

My college professor, James Campbell, used to ask his students "How does the clarinet work?" New students unfamiliar with this question would pause for a moment, formulating in their minds the best way to explain the complicated mechanics of their instrument. Those of us who had regular lessons with Mr. Campbell knew, however, that he was looking for the most obvious answer: "Air." His point was simple, but its implications monumental. Without air, nothing else on the clarinet works!