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tighten your embrichure

...that would be where exactly? wait...i'm asking a woodwind related question. *looks around...where IS it more appropriate?

okay, here is a warning before I make a super long post: I'm in seventh grade but you can still trust my advice o_O; if I can teach my friend then I can teach you too o-o;;.

Okay, if your embouchure is too tight loosen it but not too much. RELAX before playing, I don't care if you can't relax before a concert or competition (I'm too hyper before competitions..) or a audition (I sort of relaxed before my all southern one...and my all state one I was relaxed ^_^) you HAVE TO RELAX! it'll only cause you to squeeze the life out of your clarinet and squeak, here is the trick: low notes-a loose but slightly tight embouchure; aka the comfortable embouchure (i call it that) high notes-tight but NOT TOO TIGHT, its relaxed but slightly worried so it hangs on and high notes can be produced that way. did that make sense?

It can be the tongue that is causing the problem if not the embrouchure, does your tone sound staacato like when you tongue? is the notes hard to get out when you play? if so its a tonguing problem, the tongue should touch the tip of the reed lightly...its that or you don't tongue correctly, last year when I started, from sept-janurary I didn't tongue, i blew, (I don't know WHY my teacher never noticed) my cheeks always puffed up and I was finally corrected, it could be that or...

ghost tone before your high notes? well, check your reed, and what size is the reed by the way? two is way too soft, I've been using twos up until summer then i moved to three and now I play at 3 1/2. I could play the high notes now because of the reed, I used to squeak.

the ghostly sound happens if you recently started playing the high notes (it most happens at the high C to the REAL high G...dunno about the other notes...i should look at them once and a while...) then its not something to worry about, you can fix it in time. Like I said, it could be the tonguing or the reed. You should take a deep breath from your diaphrapm, it works, and you should have the sound of the note in your mind before playing.

you can find sites that have recordings of high notes, if not PM with the specific notes you can't play (second octave or third octave) and I'll just record myself playing the high notes. (I'm sorta on the busy side today...an I don't wanna look through sites today but I do have time to record me playing the high notes ^_^ since I am gonna practice today anyways...)

so if you need to hear the high notes, PM me. My substitute private teacher (whose way better then my private teacher...this one will be teaching me for six months > biggrin ) told me that before I play a high note, I should hear it in my head, so I tried that and my highhh F came out clearly. So it's best to hear the high notes before playing.

hope that helps
-miyoko

Thanks everyone! I got a new ligature and my notes are a lot clearer. This is the strange thing though: I'm the only one that realizes these ghost tones are there before I tell my "audience" (i.e. band director, friend, parent, etc.). People don't notice and then once I tell them "Don't you even hear my horrible tone?!?!?!?! There's a slight ghost tone before each note!" Then I play a note for them and then they go "Oh yeah...I hear that" but look really puzzled. Hmmmmmmm.....

I've only been playing for a year and moved along quickly, so maybe these higher level pieces need experience of playing. I mean clarinet has become a lot easier over the year I've played....so I'll probably get it before auditions.

BTW Miyoko Clarinetti, thanks for all of your GREAT advice. Seriously, you're better than my band director....but then again I can play all the band instruments better than him so...yeah great band program we have whee . Anyways, I'm ALWAYS relaxed before concerts and auditions. This is my logic behind concerts:



This is my logic behind auditions:




Thanks for all of your advice! (and when I say my bd thinks my embouchure is too tight, my notes came out sharp. But with this new ligature biggrin I'm not sharp anymore!!!!)

Me and my section leader ran into an issue about this with my instructor up at band camp. We were both auditioning for the PSYO and the piece had plenty of articulated 16th notes at 120bpm. Instead of using the syllabel tut for the staccatos, he told us using tit or teet would let us articulate faster with more control. It works well, but you need to practice it the same as you would with double tounging.

well....you could tighten your embouchure, or try a different reed. also try to use more air, and make sure that its warm, and that your sitting up tall