It takes anywhere between 2 and 10 hours to create each blog post.
If you found this blog useful, and if you’d like to see more,
you can support me on Patreon for less than the cost of a coffee
Dear composers – when I started this blog I had just finished my PhD, and had lots of free time to work on the blog and answer your questions, as I was just starting to find my way in freelance new music playing. Now, unfortunately, it’s getting difficult. I receive many e-mails from composers with scores and questions every week, and while answering them is a great pleasure for me, I no longer have the time to keep up with them. If you don’t get a response to your e-mail, please understand, it’s better if I spend the time working on new posts (or, you know, practising ;). I’m very sorry about this, but I wish you all much luck and fun with your clarinet writing!
Table of Contents
The Basics:
- …on clarinet articulation
- …on writing air sounds for clarinets
- …on soprano clarinet glissandi
- …on singing and playing
- …on writing Bb clarinet harmonics
- A complete tremolo/moving passages chart (including quarter tones) for Bb/Eb/A clarinets – And for bass clarinet!
On multiphonics:
- Close interval dyad multiphonics:
- A selection of contrabass clarinet multiphonics.
- Spectral (overblown) multiphonics:
- Underblown multiphonics:
- Pitch bending multiphonics
- Fuzzy Octave Multiphonics for Bb clarinet
- Buzzing, noisy and distorted multiphonics for Bb Clarinet
- Quiet Multiphonic Trills:
- Multiphonics, one note at a time – a guest post for The Sampler
- 27 Easy Bb Clarinet Multiphonics
- 20 Easy Bass Clarinet Multiphonics
- Emergent Multiphonics for Bb Clarinet: Part 1 and Part 2
- 9 Multiphonics that Overblow from the Second Harmonic
-
“Ultra-Underblow Mutiphonics”: Part 2 of the recategorisation of Philip Rehfeldt’s chart
Special Techniques:
- Bass clarinet preparations.
- All the possibilities for creating beautiful transitions, trills and multiphonics using only the register key.
- Double trills for Bb clarinet
- Bass clarinet techniques without the mouthpiece
- On only using the lower joint of the Bb or Eb clarinet.
- On only using the top joint for Bb and Bass clarinet.
- Low note colour fingerings on the contrabass clarinet.
- On reed tapping articulation
- Just using the contrabass clarinet mouthpiece and neck.
- Bass Clarinet Keyclicks
- Shakuhatchi-style playing on Bb clarinet
- Plastic tube scordatura
Specifically for Clarinetists:
- How to improve your double tongue.
- How to slap tongue
- Altissimo quarter tone studies for bass clarinet.
On Repertoire:
…on a historical approach to the sound of the clarinet
Other Popular Posts:
- Communicative movement in contemporary chamber music: hand werk in the rehearsal of new works by Thierry Tidrow and Georgia Koumará (an article for Divergence Press).
- On using the iPad in performance
- Advice for young composers
- How to apply for a (Composition) Competition
- Risk-taking in contemporary composition
- 10 Female Composers You Should Know (and their clarinet pieces)
- 9 Gateway Pieces to Contemporary Music for Pop Lovers