The thing I pride myself in most on bass clarinet, is having a clear, centred tone.

Here is my list of fundamental tips:

  • Tension: Finding that sweet spot between biting/gripping too hard on the mouthpiece, and having an unfocused/sloppy embouchure. Also make sure you are not tensing and rising your shoulders - try to keep your physical body relaxed and soft.

  • Air Speed: Fast air speed will give you a clear, vibrant sound. Slow air speed will make you sound a bit ‘fluffy’ and flat.

  • Tongue Position: Remembering that tongue position varies A LOT on bass clarinet (depending on what register you’re playing in). Make sure the tongue isn’t getting in the way. Think lower tongue position for lower notes, and higher tongue position for higher notes as a general rule.

  • Corners Of Your Mouth and Throat Shape: Remembering to pinch in the corners of your mouth, whilst keeping your throat open. Vocalising ‘oohhhh’ gives you the correct embouchure shape for bass clarinet (it’s more open than when you play Bb clarinet).

  • Posture: This may seem really obvious - but making sure you’re seated up nice and straight, giving your diaphragm the optimum space to work = higher quality of air flow.

  • Reeds: An old warped reed won’t give you a clear tone. I’d also recommend starting softer and working up to more resistant reeds to build and develop tone.

  • Voicing: Being able to voice the note you’re aiming for can help you find the centre of the sound (this is also incredibly helpful when we get onto intonation in chapter 7!).

To play well - you should have a warm-up routine to follow at the start of your practice. Click here for warm-up advice.

Below I will present to you some of my favourite warm-ups. After completing all the content in this course, try to create your own warm-up routine.

 
 

1) Breathing Warm-Up.

This is a simple breathing warm-up that you can do every day. It’s based on yoga breathing techniques that improve your breathing control.

Follow this video through and give it a go!

 
 

2) Long Tones

Long tones are SO simple and effective. These should be part of your daily warm-up!

  • Set your metronome to 60 bpm. If you want an extra challenge you can even slow this down.

  • Aim to breathe every two measures (bars) - following the commas.

  • Aim to find the centre of each note.

  • Go up as high as you like - perhaps aim to practice this up to altissimo by the end of the course.

 
 

3) Use Dynamics to Improve Air Supply & Tone



Adding in dynamics to your long tones is a great exercise.

I have created some diagrams to follow as warm-ups These are an example of a graphic score, something that is used in contemporary music quite often.

What to do:

  • Pick one note (any note)

  • Follow through the arrows from Left to Right.

  • The arrow height represents your volume. Eg. you’re starting at your quietest, getting a little bit louder, then getting quieter again. With each arrow you are getting slightly louder - until the end where you reach your loudest.

  • Do this on long held notes - breath only when necessary.

  • If you do this properly - you are using your diaphragm to control your air and dynamic level.

Watch out for:

  • Don’t get too loud too soon.