How can I improve above all my classmates on clarinet?

Question:I've been playing now for 3 years. I have a wooden clarinet (a Lablanc Soloist) which is new. I am currently 2nd chair out of about 15, but I want to be the best. How can I do this, other than private lessons and practicing alot? I already practice about six hours a week.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I've been playing now for 3 years. I have a wooden clarinet (a Lablanc Soloist) which is new. I am currently 2nd chair out of about 15, but I want to be the best. How can I do this, other than private lessons and practicing alot? I already practice about six hours a week.

Well ...........

1) Practise! But don't just spend time in the practise room for the sake of it. 1 solid hour of GOOD practising a day is better then 6 hours of just fooling around! So think about WHAT you practise! Trevor Wye, although he is a flute teacher, has an excellent way of using practise time effectively. He divides practise into 8 parts these are warm ups and memory, scales, finger exercises, tone colour exercises, studies (etudes), pieces, and orchestral studies! Now you many not do orchestral studies or finger exercises but you can substitute this for your band pieces. Other topics that you can put instead are listening, improvising, sight reading etc depending on what you need to practise! The point is to spend time effectively!

Also don't Practise the things that are easy and that you already know how to play. Practise the difficult bits!!!

2) You also need to make good use of your lesson time! During practise write down any questions you have! and ask your teacher. Borrow her/his Cd's and music! Tell them your goal and they will help you get there! Use their resources that they have!

Good luck with your goal!

Learn to breathe well.

practice is the only way

Practice, practice, practice. Private lessons help.. but that's really all you can do. Good luck :)

I played the clarinet in high school...anyway, are you friends with whoever is 1st chair? you know what they say about keeping your enemies closer! find out what he's doing different and do it better

Some ideas--all equally important!

1.) Divide your practice into elements of playing. Spend about 15-20 minutes of an hour practice session on warm-up: tone and technique.
2.) When practicing tone, listen for: sound evenness between notes and quality of sound on each note. In your non-tone practice, pay attention to your sound, especially when playing at different dynamic levels.
3) Be methodical with your technique. Always practice scales with a metronome, and try to play them in one breath. Gradually increase the speed and rhythm, but make sure you're playing them evenly.
4) When you are practicing technical passages in music, isolate difficult fingerings or short passages--usually if you're have technical trouble, it's one combination of notes causing difficulty! Then try practicing the whole passage slowly, and gradually increase your speed. Isolating difficult fingerings is definitely more efficient than playing it wrong over and over, and in the long run, so is starting slow and gradually increasing your speed. Also, work with a metronome regularly in practice.
5) Work with a tuner on intonation.
6) Get together with other musicians regularly to play duets, practice band music, etc...especially with the person who is 1st chair.
7) Listen to recordings of fine clarinetists--you can learn a lot through listening!!!

6 hours a week won't cut it. Minimum 3 hours a day if you want to be the best you can be.

Long tones...and more long tones!

If you have problems, try a leger plastic reed (not the best sound..but always the same so you don't have to keep adjusting for the cane reeds changes)

Keep working of breath support and note attacks.

If you want the best sound...try different mouthpieces.

Dave hite premier, Clark Fobes debut, and almost any of the Vandoren line (B45, AT45, 5RV, or M15 are popular chaoices)

And getting a lesson or masterclass with a real pro might be able to make your practicing more efficient.

And......enjoy it! If you don't nobody else can! And "above my classmates?"...Never forget..unless youare playing an unaccompnied solo...you MUST play WITH your classmates if you want it to have a chance of sounding musical.

Last..and most certainly not least...second chair...or third clarinet....EVERY part is CRITICAL. Stop worrying about what you are playing..start worrying about how well you are playing it!

Scales are important to know and don't just practice your band pieces, practice something that will help with your technique.

My practice schedule is...
scales
band pieces
practice pieces from my clarinet lessons (good for improving technique)
scales
Something fun like maybe learning to play a christmas carol!

well..

1: memorize all your scales...
if you can play all your scales you can play anything ..the chromatic scale is a definite positive.

2: learn to sight read
its a must for a good player. maybe ask your band director for some old music too mess around with

3: Breathing techniques is a must
the better you can breath the better your instrument will sound and the easier it will be to play.

4: jumps and alternate fingerings
learn to be able to transition to any note you want with alternate fingerings as well as the primary...some alternate fingerings are better

5: learn to play all notes in tune.
allways a good thing..the C-G in the 3rd octave may be a killer but if you can play them in tune...kudos to you. it makes the music sound better

6: efficient practice time
yeah 6 hours a week but how many of those hours are per day? if you have an hour a day to practice:
15 min-long tone warm ups...improves your tone
15 min-scales
30 min-selected studies and music

7: musicallity
be able to play in most time signatures, keys, dynamics, articualtions, use a metranome the stuff that makes music cool.

8: emotion...
put something into every piece you play..its an art so create some type of emotion with in it..use your imagination and have fun with it.

9: reed and mouthpiece set up
make sure you have the correct size reed for your embrocure...hite mouthpiece with a rovner ligature works wonders on tone.

10: who cares if your the best if your having fun. music is about expression and having fun with it. dont stress it out. 2nd is just as good cuz you support the first...find out what makes the 2nd chair player better than you (without being cocky or concieted) and work on your weaknesses.