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You’ve been listening to the beautiful clarinet solo
from the 1st Act of Sleeping Beauty, of Tchaikovsky.
And...
For me this is kind of fun,
to be up here on stage to play this solo,
because during my 28 year tenure here
I’m usually down there in the pit playing this,
so it’s kind of fun to be up on stage
to play this lovely solo
also where the Royal Danish Ballet
is every night dancing.
I’m going to start by...
... making three points about this solo.
Very, very important,
the first point I’m gonna talk about
is articulation,
the portamento and the shorter articulation.
Later in the solo
I’m gonna talk about the use of rubato...
... and the use of non-rubato.
That’s an interesting discussion
about rubato and playing in time,
and how that affects the structure of the solo.
That’s the second point.
And then I’m gonna end with a little...
... tips on how to practice
that 32nd notes passage at the end,
the little cadenza, that descending passage.
But let’s start with...
... with the articulation now.
As we discussed in the fundamentals of clarinet playing,
the long articulation,
I’m gonna call this a portamento articulation,
it starts with these two 8th notes,
and we want to play these 8th notes...
We want to tell a story, basically.
So, what do we have to do to tell a story?
Well, just as I said in our...
... in our introduction, fundamentals of playing,
always air first.
So: lead with your air, release with your tongue.