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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:
  • Bb clarinet
    • Dyad Multiphonics for Bb part 2: a Second Look at Philip Rehfeldt’s Chart
  • Bass clarinet
  • Eb clarinet
• A selection of contrabass clarinet multiphonics.
• Spectral (overblown) multiphonics:
  • Bb and Bass clarinets
  • Contrabass clarinet
• Underblown multiphonics:
  • Bb clarinet 
  • Bass clarinet
  • Eb clarinet
• Pitch bending multiphonics
• Fuzzy Octave Multiphonics for Bb clarinet
• Buzzing, noisy and distorted multiphonics for Bb Clarinet
• Quiet Multiphonic Trills:
  •  Bass clarinet
• 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