This is something I've realized I'm inconsistent about. Once my A clarinet comes back from the shop, I'll pull out my Peter and the Wolf and practice preparing my fingerings.
Thank you, Jose, nice to hear from you! I hope you’re well. The view duration on this one is a bit discouraging, but I guess, as Abraham Lincoln said, “People who like that sort of thing will find it to be exactly the sort of thing they like.”
I have found that sometimes when anticipating finger position in order to set myself up for accuracy my fingers can get stuck. Does this happen to you?
I see it with students transitioning from “just-in-time” playing. When the entrenched program is to get the finger to the key just as it is needed, the brain will try to fire the “push” signal whenever it gets there, and if you’ve gotten it there early there can be a battle between the old (just in time) and new (get it there early) programs. Part of the brain wants it to push, part knows it’s not yet time. It takes creativity to defeat habits sometimes. Alternating half tempo (with super fast, super prepared fingers) with full tempo can help. There are dozens of “tricks.”
I have been playing the clarinet for 50 years and I have passed LTCL PERFORMANCE in clarinet and when I was young I played in several Symphony orchestras, I performed the Webber concerto n 1. I This topic can be very confusing. My tactic for good virtuosity is NOT TO ANTICIPATE. Most people and students who anticipated a hard passage "nervosly" prepared, the shape of their hands changed while approaching the difficult part, everything when wrong. I was known for good technique. My aim was to not prepare, talking about a preparation that kind of comes from fear of playing the hard part. Not what this man in this video is teaching might have a lot of value. But it's not always black and white
You’ll have to report how that works. I know piano players think shapes because we’ve talked about it, but there’s so much more real estate to cover on piano, and the percussive nature of dynamics means that often fingers are arriving from some distance. Also, finger arrival and attack/articulation ARE the same thing, unlike clarinet. It’s always interesting what we can learn from other instruments.
This is something I've realized I'm inconsistent about. Once my A clarinet comes back from the shop, I'll pull out my Peter and the Wolf and practice preparing my fingerings.
Thank you, this is a very useful and perfectly well-explained approach.
Thank you, Jose, nice to hear from you! I hope you’re well. The view duration on this one is a bit discouraging, but I guess, as Abraham Lincoln said, “People who like that sort of thing will find it to be exactly the sort of thing they like.”
So beautifully explained.
I have found that sometimes when anticipating finger position in order to set myself up for accuracy my fingers can get stuck. Does this happen to you?
I see it with students transitioning from “just-in-time” playing. When the entrenched program is to get the finger to the key just as it is needed, the brain will try to fire the “push” signal whenever it gets there, and if you’ve gotten it there early there can be a battle between the old (just in time) and new (get it there early) programs. Part of the brain wants it to push, part knows it’s not yet time. It takes creativity to defeat habits sometimes. Alternating half tempo (with super fast, super prepared fingers) with full tempo can help. There are dozens of “tricks.”
I have been playing the clarinet for 50 years and I have passed LTCL PERFORMANCE in clarinet and when I was young I played in several Symphony orchestras, I performed the Webber concerto n 1.
I
This topic can be very confusing.
My tactic for good virtuosity is NOT TO ANTICIPATE.
Most people and students who anticipated a hard passage "nervosly" prepared, the shape of their hands changed while approaching the difficult part, everything when wrong.
I was known for good technique. My aim was to not prepare, talking about a preparation that kind of comes from fear of playing the hard part.
Not what this man in this video is teaching might have a lot of value.
But it's not always black and white
I want to get this for my piano playing.
You’ll have to report how that works. I know piano players think shapes because we’ve talked about it, but there’s so much more real estate to cover on piano, and the percussive nature of dynamics means that often fingers are arriving from some distance. Also, finger arrival and attack/articulation ARE the same thing, unlike clarinet. It’s always interesting what we can learn from other instruments.