Finger Dexterity Challenge - Week Three!

Unless you've decided to work through a different section of the 417 studies (in case you've already learned the ones in C major), this week we're going to be working on Studies 9-12.

 

 

  You should have received from me a downloadable PDF of all of Book 1, but if you didn't receive that (maybe you didn't sign up originally) just post below and I'll send it to you!

Objectives for the Week (no surprise here but the objectives remain the same for every week of this challenge!)

1. Watch the lesson above.

2. Practice your four studies using your metronome and maybe using a timer to work through drilled repetitions (set your timer for 5 minutes and do as many repetitions you can, then sit for 30 seconds in silence)

3. Upload a video to your favourite platform (i.e., YouTube or Vimeo) and post it here by Sunday to share your progress

4. Cheer on your fellow clarinetists as they learn their studies! 

5. If you're starting to find these really challenging - there's good news - we move to the A minor section next week and things will get a bit easier again!

16 replies

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    • Marcelo_Rosa
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    This is my work on week 3 exercises. 

      • Head of Clarinet
      • Heather
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       hey Marcelo some amazing tonguing in that first study!! :) and really great sound in the second, very beautiful - you sound just fantastic in that low register. I already gave some specific constructive feedback for your week two studies (which could also be applied here). So thus my focus on what you are doing well (which is a lot!)

    • Patricia
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    https://youtube.com/shorts/PnH1NTp7s9c?si=slUHEJvDdNkh0G6B

    Here is the study 10.

    As I had planned last week, Itook time this week watching the videos of Kimbetly Cole Luevano on fingers and embouchure. They are amazing ! And so useful ! Now it will take some time to digest them and apply in my practice. But I can already feel some changes. I noticed that my mouthpiece was not enough in my mouth, and that the basis orientation of my hands was not so good.

    As I watched my video, I think that my right fingers are not round enough. Isn’t it ? And probably, they go to far away from the clarinet... Do you gave some other remarks ?

      • Patricia
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       have (not gave)

      • Head of Clarinet
      • Heather
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       Wow, Patricia! I went back and compared this with the hand position in your video from last week and you're right, I can already see a difference here. I'm so glad you enjoyed Kimberley's courses! 

      One thing you could experiment with is for example memorising one bar of one of the studies and then practicing it without blowing into the clarinet, just your fingers - it's not so much about looking at your fingers (although you can do that too) but also just kind of really focusing on feeling where they are. The idea is to build quite a natural relationship with the instrument where it just feels really good and "right" in your hands... 

    • nora78walz
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi everyone, I've been following the challenge for a while, but I've only just managed to make videos and upload them to YouTube. It's really encouraging to see you all practicing.

     

    here are my videos for this week

     

    https://youtube.com/shorts/K7ldAj4Ahv0?si=9r4UXW07mM2pjsjq
     

    https://youtube.com/shorts/Oe8lT-yeVW4?si=ST9aLw95NNe9MAe9
     

    https://youtube.com/shorts/La_5UV3MSwM?si=p9jVmNGtHLYGawlK
     

    https://youtube.com/shorts/uuFT02BHhq0?si=xk1AlLroZTJVZ7eR

      • Head of Clarinet
      • Heather
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       Hi Nora! It's so wonderful that you joined us :) These videos sound great. I don't know if you have been practicing with a metronome this week, I actually really liked in your first example you have these really musical little accelerando moments where you speed up, it sounds great! (but metronome practice is also important with these studies, which I should say to everyone allll the time)

      Also great to have someone playing German system here! I can't really help you with that but I imagine that these studies give slightly different challenges to you than to us French system players. 

      • nora78walz
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       

      Hi Heather, thanks for the valuable feedback. I'll use the metronome more consistently, I promise. It's often too tempting to just start. I'd like to explore the French system to learn more about the different challenges.

    • Patricia
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi Nora, nice to see someone new in this challenge !

    • nancy
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    Here's my week three. I can see my fingers need to be closer and I'm bobbing up and down too much. Always so much room for improvement. :)

      • Head of Clarinet
      • Heather
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       I think the bobbing is definitely improved though, and I can't really get over how great your sound is right now (for everyone else that's partly because Nancy has been on a strict diet of long tones for a few months now!). And bonus points for the metronome on. 

      I wonder if the thing I suggested to Patricia, practicing the fingering a bit separately from the clarinet and kind of half-memorized might be something to try - disconnecting the various parts to put them back together again? 

      • nancy
      • 4 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       I'm so excited you like my sound. I was going to do the finger practice but not sure what you mean by practicing the fingering separately from the clarinet. Do you mean just thinking it or do you mean fingering the clarinet without air? Or none of the above.

    • nancy
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    I will give that a try. A more seamless natural relationship would be awesome. Honestly I was surprised the video looked more natural than I felt while playing.

      • Head of Clarinet
      • Heather
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       Well that's already good - I'm thinking about other ways to make the relationship more organic over here... 

    • Luke
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    Okay here's study 10! I know this is a dexterity challenge and I keep playing these slowly but I'd rather do that than not play them at all. The arpeggios and harmonic progression in this one are so pretty and I tried to make it sound lyrical and melodic. I think I can do more work on the dynamic range for sure. 

    The color notes in here are so good! To my brain, this is the structure implied: C6, C11, D9, G9; C6, A7, Dm6, G7; C. (The F# in the cadence! What!)

      • Head of Clarinet
      • Heather
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       Slow and steady wins the race. But I couldn't resist trying your chord sequence... :) It really works! 

       

      If anyone else wants to play with them I think you can follow this link to try (there are probably better tools than this but it was what I found in this chord sequence "emergency"): https://www.musicca.com/chord-player?id=d90bb1a

       

      Definitely more fun than a metronome.... 

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