We all know that foundations are extremely important when we want to play a wind instrument. Actually, foundations are important for most of the things we want to do in life. For Clarinet playing, it is important to get our foundations right so that we can have as little hindrances as possible when we move on to more advanced stuff.
- Body - includes breathing, blowing, posture, embouchure and body tension
- Add Mouthpiece - produces one note (should be a big and stable sound)
- Add Clarinet - open G note
- Add Fingers
- Add Tongue
This is extremely useful when you are teaching a person new to the Clarinet. You should always make sure they breathe correctly before they even try the Clarinet. This is because they do not have any perception of how it feels to blow a Clarinet. This allows their minds to be un-biased and take in the information which you present to them. They must understand that air is the most important thing to produce a good sound and not biting or other factors.
After they understand the basic breathing concepts, they SHOULD NOT be given the entire Clarinet. They should just be given the mouthpiece which is attached to the barrel. They should hold the barrel while you ensure that they do not cover or block the bottom of the barrel. At this point, they do not have a perception of how the Clarinet would feel like so they would listen to instructions and just try to attain a big sound even if it sounds totally awful. If they start off with the whole Clarinet, they might have a tendency to hold back because they want to achieve what they have heard before (Professional Players, your playing or just a plain nice sound). They should try to hold a note that is big and stable for as long as they can. Once they are able to do that, they will be able to progress much faster when they play on the entire Clarinet.
After they are able to achieve a decent sound on open G, you can start to impart the fingerings to them. A beginner should not play any notes that requires the register key for the initial stages of training as their embouchures are not developed enough. Going to the higher register too soon will result in biting as they will compensate by biting harder to pitch higher. They should just aim to get a big sound on the lower register. Good habits should also be imparted with them from this stage (e.g. fingers not too far away from the keys, correct finger positioning, no flat-fingers, etc...).
Once they clear the Fingers stage, tongueing can be taught. Make sure that they understand the concept of tongueing - it is a release and not an attack. Start by tongueing a single note (I would recomment open G or just the mouthpiece attached to the barrel). Ensure that they are not stopping the air or reducing the air when they are tongueing. Co-ordination between fingers and tongue can be trained after they understand the basic concepts of tongueing.
The reason why i recommend this is simple. If you just throw a Clarinet to a beginner, he may be able to play a song in a day if he is a fast learner. However, he will pick up many bad habits because of this. Each foundational concept should be isolated and taught while others have already been cleared. When you are doing a later stage, the Student must still perform 100% of the previous stages. For example, if you are teaching tongueing, there is a tendency for the Beginner to reduce or stop the air when he/she is tongueing. You should not move on unless he is able to blow air just like a long note while he is tongueing. By taking the learning process a step at a time, the Beginner will be able to grasp the concepts much easier and the possibility of having bad habits is greatly reduced. The Teacher must monitors each stage closely, setting a high standard for the passing criterias of each stage.
-William
