Yehuda Gilad Masterclass

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to attend a masterclass run by Yehuda Gilad as part of the Clarinet-Fest. Below are my notes on the event.

The first player performed the beginning of the Copland Clarinet Concerto through the cadenza. Once she finished playing Mr. Gilad spoke about how every time he listens to a player he hears something. He's not always sure what it is, but it's something beautiful and unique. He likened it to a diamond.

He then told a story of how when he was young, he had a job working at a dairy farm. He said that in the old days they had to milk all the cows by hand, but that it was very good exercise for his fingers. He also, as one of the new guys, had the job of scooping manure.

He joked how it was not that different from his job now. He said it is the teacher's job to scoop away the manure (bad emboucher, slow fingers, etc.) so that their students diamonds can become uncovered. He then said how once it is uncovered, it is the students decision whether they will go and cover it back up, or continue to refine it.

Mr. Gilad suggested putting herself further into the piece as a way to calm her nerves. He said to evoke a memory, landscape, emotion, etc. to give the piece a meaning and purpose. He said to "imitate singing. NEVER imitate playing." He pointed out that as we train our ears to listen for good sound, good intonation, etc. we in turn train our ears to run our air support.

Mr. Gilad compared our air streams to the hose in his backyard. He can turn it on high or he can turn it on low, but the pressure of the water remains consistent and unchanged no matter where he aims the hose. He said our air streams need to be just as consistant.

To illustrate the air stream, Mr. Gilad had the student blow through a coffee straw, sometimes articulating with the passage, sometimes just blowing. He called it "laser beam air." He said there should always be a point to the air. He put his hand at the end of the straw and felt the point of air and tried to get the student to create that same point without the help of the straw. It also showed the student how it should feel if he was supporting properly.

He then gave the student an exercise. He called it the Reference Point Exercise.

Reference Point Exercise

For this exercise you must first choose a scale. The example in the graphic is C major. Start on the lowest C, your reference tone for this scale, and hold it until you feel you are playing with your richest, fullest tone. Then proceed to play the rest of the scale up and down slurred. When you land back on the lowest C, hold it again, waiting for your best tone. This exercise should also be done in reverse, using the high C as a reference tone. Repeat the exercise cycling through mezzoforte, forte, and piano. You are going for perfect legato; a completely fluid scale without small accents, crescendi, or diminuendi. 

Later on a girl played the cadenzas from the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto. Mr. Gilad said that we should never play cadenzas faster than we can sing them in our minds. "Patience is beautiful."  For the areas of fast tonguing he offered a different way of looking at articulation. He said while many of us think of tonguing as the tongue pressing forward into the reed, it's actually the tongue reflexing to the reed. If we think of the motion as pulling our tongue back and letting it reflex at the reed, we are able to articulate easier and better. To illustrate this he had the girl play a passage of fast tonguing while walking backwards. It produced impressive results and helped to emphasize that the tongue is moving backwards, not forwards. 

He also adressed intervals. He said he likes to think of big intervals like the following graphic. The black note is the one before the leap and the black line is the note after the leap. 

He said that the blue shape should be the shape of the inside of our mouths when we are making big leaps. He also said that when we face intervals larger than a 4th we need to put weight on the note before the leap. He said it's like a trampoline. The more you sink in, the higher you go. 

He went on to ask the student what it took to play the clarinet. The student replied, "You have to blow." Mr. Gilad took the clarinet and blew very hard, but no sound came out. He looked at the student confused, asking what else he had to do. The student made suggestions, but none were what Gilad was looking for. He said he liked to call it the "Duh Rule." "Blow and don't restrict. That's it!" He proceeded to have the student blow air through the clarinet without making the reed sound. You could easily ear the air moving, but no notes. It took a very loose jaw and lip to do this, but it helped to loosed the biting and improved the sound a lot when the student tried it. 

Mr. Gilad then outlined the things he thought were important to be a great musician and clarinet player. He put them into three sections. 

Section 1

Articulation

Intonation

Rhythm

Section 2

Balance
Blend

Style

Section 3

Conviction

Communication 

Consistency (discipline) 

Initiative 

The class was incredible and very inspiring. I know I missed a lot in my notes, but I hope this gives some insight into his methods and approach to the clarinet. If you ever have the chance to take a lesson or see a masterclass, definitely take it!