Hey everyone, here is the homework for this week!
Susan:
- Really focus on your sound this week. Start your practice sessions with a long warm-up, whether it be a chromatic scale or register slurs. Make sure you are always pushing the sound in the upper register.
- Keep working on your tonguing exercise in all registers of the clarinet. Half notes, quarter notes, triplets, eighths, etc. Try it with one note first, then two, then three.
- Make sure to bring a variety of different reeds next week so we can compare them back to back.
- Continue working through your band pieces, and some Galper exercises. At this point, you know the drill – isolate any problem areas note by note, then doing the entire bar/passage, then running through the whole section when everything sounds as clean as possible.
Jonathan:
- Keep working through C, G, F, D and Bb major w/ the metronome. At this point, you should be thinking about memorizing all of the notes of each scale, or at least knowing which scale is a sharp/flat scale and which accidentals each scale has. (eg. D major is a sharp scale, with two sharps – F and C.)
- Remember to sit up straight and support the air as much as possible! Especially in the upper register.
- Before playing Cry Me a River, try playing triplets to the metronome at 60. Remember, there are three per beat – they will sound like a mini waltz: “trip-e-let, trip-e-let”.
- Try playing through Cry Me a River without the ties written in, and then adding them back in. Think about subdividing like we’ve discussed. Try playing along with iRealBook as well, so you can hear the song in context!
Aubrey:
- Revisit your major scales this week, and isolate the troublesome parts (the break and B,C,C# over the break). Tonguing going up, slurred going down.
- Focus on your tonguing this week and embouchure/chin movement. Remember to keep your embouchure STILL and in place while tonguing. Avoid resetting it after every note, and try to use a lighter touch. Experiment with it as well.
- Look at the piece we looked at in the Galper book, Tarantella (or something like that?). Make sure the notes are even, and here again, focus on isolating problem spots bar by bar.
- Really work on the “feel” of the swing piece you are doing for New Horizons. Think of the eighth notes as having a bit of a delay to them, and every other note being more heavily emphasized instead of them being “straight” or rigid.
Thomas:
- Work on your C major scale with the metronome! Two beats per note. Remember to sit up straight, use as much air as possible, and really focus on relaxing your jaw and moving it downwards (especially for the lower notes!)
- Think about tonguing this week, and try tonguing throughout all the exercises we’re working on in the Rubank book! Remember you don’t want to have your tongue hitting on TOP of the reed, but right on the tip of the face of the reed. No cheating and just starting the note with air!
- Work on the quarter note exercise we looked at in the Rubank book. Try it with the metronome around 55-60.
Camille:
- Camille should work on her C and G major scales and arpeggios. Ideally, she should practice these the full range of the saxophone, ending on a chord tone (the 1st, 3rd, 5th note of the scale/arpeggio). For example, with G major she’d be going up to high D, and down to low B, but still ending on G. She should use the metronome (her worst enemy, haha)
- Keep working through Mercy, Mercy, Mercy. Make sure she isn’t holding out notes at the end of each bar/phrase too long. Also, try to make sure she isn’t starting notes that should be on the upbeat on the downbeat instead.
Audrey:
- Keep working through the chromatic scale and C major scale with the metronome. Make sure to remember not the press the octave key by accident! Also, make sure to tongue!!
- Remember to use a bit more air for the notes in the upper octave, especially D which always tends to be pretty dead sounding on saxophone.
- Keep working through the school band piece. Take it section by section, and isolate any spots that are giving you problems.