Week One: Some useful scale exercises and goal setting!

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Welcome to week one of level up your scale routine in two weeks! 

This week we are starting with a few really helpful exercises to help us focus on tone and airflow while we're working on improving our scales. These will be helpful to you no matter where you are in your clarinet journey. I hope you enjoy the video lesson and exercises - I can't wait to hear your recordings and read about your goals for the next two weeks!

How to participate: 

1. Watch the video
2. Follow the instructions for each assignment, either posting text in the forum below or sharing a video of your practicing. 
3. Cheer on your fellow community members in the comments! 

Week One:

Assignment One:

Try to practice and then record the exercises from the first video. I hope you'll feel you can share your recordings with the group - I'll be on hand to help with offering constructive feedback and lots of encouragement! 

1. Slow, easy scales in F, G and/or C major - try them using a strong "air" sound, listen for the connection between the notes.

2. Play your scales without actually playing the clarinet, really feeling your fingers on the instrument, try the "petting" motion as you descend. 

3. Play the three scales at your biggest forte dynamic! Focus on playing slowly with a great sound, and really feeling the connection with the instrument. Nothing will help your tone more than playing at a loud dynamic, so enjoy the full sound and let your clarinet resonate to its fullest! 

Assignment Two:

Describe in the forum your goals for the two weeks. What scale or scale pattern are you going to work on? And what does improvement look like for you: is it improving the fluidity of your sound across different registers? Is there a certain speed you'd like to get up to? Would you just like to feel a little more comfortable with a particularly challenging scale pattern?

Some scale suggestions based on tonebase clarinet levels:

1. 1 8ve major scales in F, G
2-3. 1 8ve major scales in keys with up to two flats and sharps
4-5. 2 8ve major scales in E, F, G, Ab, A; 1 octave chromatic on E
6. 2 8ve chromatic scale starting on E, major scales in 3rds in F, G, C
7. Chromatic scale from E to high C, 1 8ve major scales in keys with up to four flats and sharps
8. Three octave scale from low E, 8ve major scales in all keys
9. Scales in thirds in major keys up to four flats and sharps, minor harmonic scales in keys up to four flats and sharps, chromatic scales up to high G
10-12. Major and minor scales in thirds in all keys, major and minor scales in all keys, chromatic scales up to high A, whole tone scales

Update: someone has pointed out that the PDF is missing - I realized in the process of designing the Two Week Intensive while making the above list that the PDF would end up being 100 pages long if I included pages for every level so I thought I'd just post the list. 

If you are looking for some scale books as resources, there are a few good things you can download for free:

* Klosé Clarinet Method (major and minor scales, scales in 3rds etc. appear from page 123)

* Hoffmeister Clarinet Scales (I apologize - this is my scan and it's not a particularly good scan - I don't have the original book anymore but there is a LOT of stuff to work through and be inspired by here! The text is also in German, if anyone is having trouble finding what they want to find just let me know in the comments and I'll help you!)

* If you are in levels 1-3 and want to focus on below-the-break scales, try this handy PDF from Jarrod Butler, which has some challenging scales but everything is in the lower register!