a CLARINET STATCATO - 4 FORXAOCK FOR THD SERIOUS PERTORY Jeseph Senna OW THE USE OF THIS ROOK Tt is perfectly natural for you to want to skip over the next few pages and to start to play the exercises, to matter how strong the urge, however, don't go near the exercises or your clarinet until you have read the text of this book thoroughly and digested it. Tladditicn, reread it the first txo days that you practice, hy such a strong warning? Reeause if you just play through the exer- cises without knowing how to set the speeds or how lone to rest between re- Petitions you will accomplish nothing. As it is with all self-heln dooks. it 4s important to reat all you can sheet the goals of the book and the pro- cedure for achieving those goals. HOW THIS BOOK WAS DEVELOPZD Tais is not a theoretical work. It is based on cavefully controlled experiments. As exercises evolved, revisions were constantly nade, based on the results which a broad spectrum of students achieved. The resitlt is @ book unlike any other in the literature of clarinet instruction. WM FLISEUT OF 4 goon Stacce TH For a professional clarinetist the staccato mst be well developed in terns of quality, endurance and speed. The relative importance of each ef these facters is a matter of personal oreference or the type of * ved. playing is THE ATE OF MIs ROOK Since this book is designe? te he used without a teaches, and since the inprovenent of the quality of staccato is hest achieved with a tercher, this book is concerned only with endurance and speed, However, it is es- sential that the player develoo the quality cf his staccate efore he attensts to speed it up, Increasins the speed of an unpinasant sountinn‘THR TONGUE VIFWED 45 & MUSCLE, Clarinetists gave up the use of the throat to detach notes very early in the history of the clarinet. Today all forms of detachment are perforned with the tongue. We are accustomed to thinking of the tongue as a sensory organ, but it is also a muscle, and the whole foundation of this course of study ds the concept that this miscle can he trained by apvlying the same Arles as for the training of the becep, the tricep or the calf miscle.The performance of the tongue can be improved with proper exercise, I emphasize proper because indiscriminate exercise can be at best a waste a time. ‘t worst it'can be counterproductive. STEP RY STEP The exercises are organized in "steps". Fach step represents ond day's practice and it is played for five to seven days. If you follow directions carefully, in about one week you will observe preater speed and endurance. When you decide that you have made as much progress as you can on that step, r that different players need it 4s time to go on to the next step. Remem different periods of time to achieve the sane goal. Mon't try to rush your progress. There is nothing to be gained by playing through the book in record tine. If you feel you need ten days ona given step, then take ten nin ayn waTcH . You mist use a metronone to practice at the suegested speeds and you rust use a satch to measure the preserihed rest period between repetitions of each step. Don't try to quess the speeds or astimte the rest periods. It can't be done. Without a watch or a metronome you'll soon hecome over- tired and frustrates. 4 fundamental law is that the tonque muscle heconrs stronger when it 4s exercised to the point of moderate fatkque and then 4s given a proper rest.3+ HOW 10 SET THE METRONCIE Fach step has a: suggested initial setting. If you feel that this setting 4s too fast, bring it dow as many notches as you think necessary. Having selected your initial setting, play the exercise once, wait one full minute and then repeat the exercise at the next faster setting. Keep doing this until you can't keep up with the metronone, Now advance to the next setting and play the speed variation of the same exercise. This exercise is exactly the same as the original except that the rests are longer. It is anazing how extending the rests by two or three heats provides enough recuperation for the tongue so that it can deal with the added speed, Keep on advancing the speed on the variation exercise until you can't keep up with the metro- none. At this point you have finishéd your staccato practice for the day. You may play whatever else you want. but do not practice any more staccato, If you do you will become overtired and slopsy, You will also bring about a host of difficulties. SETTING THE METRONOME CN SUCSRSSIVE DAYS, Let us say that you practiced step one for three days, and each day you were able to go from setting 104 to 126, ‘ut one the fourth day you were able to go the 132. From this point on you will change your initial setting to 108. In other words, every time you achieve a new speed on a given step, reward yourself the next day hy advancing the initial setting. If you don't nake this periodic adjustment you may get too tired to reach the upoer speods. USING THE COMPLETE RANGE This book uses the range from lowest E to the hirhest G. (You my g0 higher 4f your type of playing calls for it.) It is a mistake to practice staccato on only one note or on only one part of the range. You mst prace tice on the whole range because the resistance of the reed is different on each note, and by practicing on all the notes your lip and jaw mseles will