Over the course of my teaching career, I came to realize that as the generations passed, children knew fewer and fewer of the popular traditional songs usually handed down through history.
I had the idea of using theses songs to illustrate how, from lesson to lesson, the clarinet is learned. First the left hand plays up to Bb, then the right hand is added little by little to reach low Gand eventually all the way down to low E.
The songs are presented in order of increasing difficulty, as much for finger technique as for tonguing co-ordination. The rhythms, in binary/ternary combinations, gradually increase the difficulty. Accidentals are first written individually, and then incorporated into the key signature. Finally, towards the end, more complex fingerings provide further material for steady improvement. The articulations have been varied intentionally to keep students from becoming accustomed to systematically playing slurred!
The indicated tempi must be adapted to each person's capabilities.
This album is intended especially for beginning clarinettists du ring the first and second years, as a supplement to indispensable method work.
Jean-Marc Morisot (Translation: Jacqueline Rose)
