It strikes fear into the hearts of bass clarinetists (and maybe even some clarinetists). Here's how you get over yourself and finally overcome that fear.
I never realised the tongue had such importance. I started focusing on the placement of my tongue and the altissimo notes came out like nothing on my bass. Thanks!
My senior year of HS I played the Chromatic scale as part of the final in tune in one breath. It was magical. The high notes spoke and the lower register didn't sound strained. When I was done, the row in front of me (the clarinets) turned around like, wtf. My high notes sounded just like a soprano. It was so great. Man, I miss my bass. :(
Start saving for one that’s what I’m doing and I’m a high school freshman Yk just in case my college doesn’t have band and I don’t get a bass clarinet I can just buy one
PEOPLE DO “UH” holy shit!!!! This explains why so many of my highschool classmates sounded so terrible !!!!! I never even considered that an option!! Thank you so much for this video!! I used to be able to play high notes on bass clarinet well into clarion register. But then I played the clarinet for a couple years and came back to bass and couldn’t get above a High D and with that one video, I unlocked all of the notes I used to be able to play instantly!!! We love Michael
I use a school owned instrument. It doesn't let me use anything above a high D. I wish I could play more with that bass clarinet, but it doesn't let me. (I'm able to go above and up to a High A on a clarinet that isn't damaged
Same. I can only get up a D in the second register.. (I use a school instrument that has *many* problems) this is after the last service.. before this I could barely get to a C
Love this!! This is so true, after you personally recommended some Weber concertos for me to play on the bass, that was where I began to go out of the way and play music mainly in the clarion and altissimo register and it has helped me so much! Thank you for emphasizing this, it's important for so many players :)
Thank you so much for yet another EXTREMELY helpful video! I've been practicing lately for my upcoming auditions for All State Honor band and it includes some of the higher notes I can play on the soprano but not the bass clarinet (i.e, the D three spaces above the staff and higher) and this definitely has helped me play them.
I am very glad that I found this guy because I started the bass clarinet last year and I'm doing a contest November 5 on Clarinet and Bass Clarinet and I can't get anything higher than a D with the octtiv which is 123, 123, both back buttons. It makes me so mad an frustrated but I know to keep trying and to not give up. Thank you. I am totally subscribing.
Thank you so much for making this video! I found it very useful, and you found out a lot about your own tongue by watching this video. I just started playing the clarinet a week ago and this has really taught me a lot!
I'm just switch from clarinet to bass clarinet and I absolutely loved this video it help me quite a bit with the upper register, I would love to see more videos on bass clarinet !!!
Hi, Mike! Loving all of your videos, and wish I had time to watch and implement them all. Someday... I wanted to mention that Fred Ormand had me do the fake-to-normal exercise (I still do it every day on whatever clarinet I'm warming up on that day. Love it.). He was a Hasty student as well.
Hey, Mike, love your videos! I just wanted to recommend that you use the other bass (with the silver keys) when demonstrating fingerings for the younger students, because they can't see those cool black keys very well.
Thank you for this explanation of the right place off the tongue for playing hight B and C. I used to play clarinet in a big band 12 years where i was a doubler with the bass clarinet. I used and still use a yamaha 221II with a single register key. It was always a challenge if i had to tongue right away the hight C or the B. As i'm french i used the word "oui" which mean 'yes' to get the right "e" and the right tongue position and it works pretty well. Thanks to you I can use now as I want the whole register of this bass clarinet. I'm not any more affraid to squeark if i have to play at the begining of a phrase hight B or Hight C. Thanks a lot. Your a great clarinetist and teacher. If i have met your teaching younger maybe i would have been a professional player today.
This is excellent. Thank you very much! A voicing/tongue position exercise I like to use is playing the fundamental tones in the chalumeau and then sounding the overtones without the register key. These will be a nice addition to that.
When done on saxophone this is called "bugling", that is, selecting your harmonic at will. Here you only have 1, 3, and 5 but the idea is the same and it's probably still called bugling even if half your partials are missing.
Oh wow...wish I had bumped into your channel earlier. I was always struggling with the higher register would get to an E and start sqeaking all over the place. I'm going to try these tips out. Thank You!
Thankfully when I started playing the bass clarinet (started on the alto clarinet) I didn't play the uh sound. Actually my first lesson on the bass clarinet I could barely play a sound lol
Ghostly Sik If you have this problem, then use your mouthpiece on another bass clarinet, or get someone who can play it to use their mouthpiece on your bass clarinet. If you can't play right on another one, it is you. If someone else can play on yours than it is you. If not, then your instrument needs to be repaired.
When I move from E to Eh, my tongue is still touching my teeth in the back, but definitely down in the front/middle. As a saxophonist that moved to clarinet, I felt like playing altisimo register came easily. I've only found one bass clarinet (i am lent the horns from local schools/universities) that I can clearly and comfortably play above altisimo E. But with this one I can play the full next octave above it. It's odd to think of them as "non-standard notes" same on saxophone. As always, learn SO much from your videos! Thank you so much for them! I'm sure this one is going to help me improve even more! :D
Wow, I had no clue that we were supposed to finger altissimo C# the same as Bb Clarinet. Thank you for this video! I've been having the hardest time with my upper Clarion lately, with every note 10-30 cents flat.
Great video as always. You should get back to making videos on orchestral excerpts, because there are a lot for the bass clarinet. You should do excerpts like Rhapsody in Blue, Mahler, Pictures at an Exhibition etc... Even if there not used for auditioning, it still good to learn then and are fun to play. (btw, i play tenor sax, bass clarinet and bassoon, my primary is tenor sax)
Thanks for this video! I managed to extend my range another octave! For me I play a high concert B-flat by uncovering the top half-hole and go up to a concert C like that and then I cover the top half-hole and play from a concert D-flat up to a high G and then just repeat those steps messing around up to a ridiculously high B. At some point it gets to be parlor tricks because the notes get wonky and out of tune but it sounds great on my Bundy bass clarinet! Now I can play along to Whitney Houston!
A year ago, I got a shock when people told me that you can change your tone(which I have locked down to be amazing) by moving your tongue. After being told that, I tried it out, didn't change anything for me, I could have my tongue touching the roof of my mouth and it sounded the same as the "uh", I also sing a lot and am quite accurate with my notes, I find it hard to be flat or sharp on purpose or even accidentally, and my orthodontist actually said the reason for this, I have a mouth shaped in one of the 4 possible ways(from the different evolutionary trees of the human) meaning while I can do the things I just mentioned(which have their uses) I fail to pronounce an italian "r" meaning I don't do it with my tongue, rather the roof of my mouth. So the tongue position doesn't change this insutruments for "everyone", just most of the people. Feel like I had to speak for the minority here :)
Mike, I have used your tongue position (Eeee, Ehhh, Ahhh) along with your "Step Away From The G Please" exercise. It certainly works great and I appreciate this tutorial. I also tried the same using a chromatic tuner with an optional contact microphone (inexpensive). Perhaps due to my very poor ear, the tuner displays the results much more vividly and helps me correct my embouchure in addition to the tongue position. This works for a Bb soprano as well as a Bb bass clarinet. Just don't forget that the tuner will display two semitones lower (F instead of G). Your thoughts please.
You are amazing at this! I just got a new bass clarinet and I've been using these exersizes on my new one and it sound great now! But when I play it on my older bass clarinet it sounds weird
Great explanation about the tongue position. So often my clarion A comes out at altissimo D........l am using too firm an embouchure rather than correct tongue position....lm off to practice.
Hi Michael I literally just discovered your channel 24 hours ago. I have started teaching myself the Clarinet, and I am interested in the Bass Clarinet. (Blame Eric Dolphy for that.) What has been your personal favorite of the student Bass Clarinets? The Kessler? I could never afford a wooden Bass Clarinet. Thanks, William in Australia.
I love this finally after 5 years of playing I understand correct tongue position. However I play B flat Clarient. Will the G exercise still work for me too as it looks great.
Hello, I'm working on Jonathan Russell's Bass Clarinet Sonata right now. Do you have any tips for the extreme altissimo? I can play up to double c pretty easily but the piece calls for the f# above that.
Moving from sax to bc. I struggle with second register B and C, particularly when tonguing. I can hit those notes more strongly and more accurately by extending the altissimo register downwards but am told that they do not blend well with the other 2nd register notes because they occur at different places on the harmonic series. Does this mean that their use in altissimo passages should be preferred if you are not descending to the 2nd register ?- Even if you do there will in any case be a change in the harmonic structure of the notes at some point in that descent.
Agreed, it's not that hard, but in moving from saxes to bass clarinet I had to work out altissimo fingerings above G by trial and error, with a teacher watching pitch, timbre and ergonomics. My instrument is a cheap, Chinese-made , composite bodied low C model which has lasted well for over 3 years (US$1500, and if I get another year out of it I'll consider myself well ahead on the deal). In gradually extending the altissimo I can now get to a second altissimo Eb but there seems to be a barrier just above that. Is that because the harmonic curve has levelled out so that further harmonic intervals are microtonal? I doubt if I'd ever use the higher notes seriously but being able to hit them accurately really improves the playing of those notes a little lower. Also playing in a local community band It's nice to know that I can play both lower than anybody else ....... and higher.
Hi... So I'm a student who's been playing on bass clarinet for about 3 years now..(I started freshman year, Im now a junior). I'm struggling to plan any note above an above staff g (rests on top). I'm wanting to try out for Region band this year, but a large majority of my music has notes slightly above a G. I really need help and I have 5 weeks to try and get it to where I can at least play a high Bb. Please help. My band director has tried helping, but it doesn't seem to be enough.
Z Robinson I'm a senior in college. I really recommend long tones, register jumps, and scales and arpeggios. long tones on a chromatic scales as your warm up every day is the best way to improve range and tone. sorry it's too late for contest but long tones will follow you for the rest of your musical career.
And air support exercises... you may not be applying enough pressure on the reed or enough air to "fill" the sound of the higher notes. Or, there's an off chance that you have a leaking or broken pad... which almost never happens unless water or age takes a toll.
So I have a student model Yamaha bass clarinet. and it came with a Yamaha 4c mouthpiece, but I usually play with 3c. should I use the mouthpiece that came with it or keep playing with the 3c?
I have a question, I'm thinking about buying a bass clarinet, I'm going into 7th grade but I'm going to be in a advanced 8th grade band and I'm planning on using this bass clarinet for high school. My question is, what bass clarinet brand would you recommend for me?
11:15 in other words the tongue position you feel on the G should be the same for all of the notes? And that our tongue shouldn't move at all? Or that exercise was given to us to make us aware that our tongue does move. Also, for the G do you use eh or ah?
For me it is just high c before altissimo. It is because I can't easily push down the register and f key down without having the weight of other keys being pushed down
i played clarinet for almost 3 years before moving to bass clarinet and now i have only been playing it for 3 months and i am much better than my friend who has been playing for 4 years... i don't know why, is it better to start on clarinet before moving to bass or am i just naturally good?
#1 Malec Shipper I've played Clairnet for 3 years also and when I started bass I was decent I've been playing bass for3 years now and I'm pretty good I guess but yes it's not very hard to switch
When u play the clarinet for a long time u experience faster, shorter notes than a bass clarinet player. Bass clarinet music often gets quarter notes and long tones. That's why it's so much easier for a clarinet player to play the bass clarinet
Funny I switched from bass clarinet to soprano, so did the two other guys in my section. The hardest thing I found to transfer is high notes and articulation.
