A Guide to Teaching Beginner Clarinet

Dr. Levana Cohen is a Vandoren Artist-Clinician. The goal for the Vandoren Artist-Clinician program is to enhance the quality of the music experience through education and the assistance of Vandoren. These highly trained professional educators and performers will engage your students through educational and fun sessions. The clinics they conduct cover a broad spectrum of topics and, based on your input, can be customized to fit the needs of your students. Contact us today to arrange your free Vandoren clinic.

Set Up & Instrument Assembly

• Make sure the bridge key is lined up between the upper and lower joints - the pads in the upper joint will seal properly as a result.
  
• The reed should be positioned so it “smiles” at you- the ligature should be placed just below the smile.
  
• The clarinet should be held at a 45 degree angle away from the body- this insures that the reed will vibrate freely.
  

Posture and Breath Support

• The student should sit or stand with a proper posture and then should bring the instrument to the body.
  
• Student should learn how to inhale a full-body breath filling up their lungs from the diaphragm up NOT from the chest up. Students can use a “finger-breath” (as described below) to demonstrate what a full body breath feels like.
• Practice breathing through your clarinet barrel or breathing through a circle in your fist.
• Students should learn how to exhale a steady air stream that does not slow down when the body starts to run out of air.

Embouchure

Sound Production, Tone Quality, and Intonation

• Blow more air into the instrument
• Make sure you a taking in enough mouthpiece (to remind yourself, place a piece of electrical tape on the mouthpiece and slide your upper teeth up to the tape mark)
• Don't bite so hard (Try using a "double lip" embouchure by tucking your lip over your teeth. If it hurts your upper lip to play then you are biting too hard. Revert back to single lip embouchure when you have the correct amount of pressure)
• Experiment with the angle of your instrument (If you are holding the instrument too close to your body, then you will cut off the vibration of the reed. The same hold true if you are holding it too far from your body).
• Play with a good embouchure
• Don't use a heavy tongue when tonguing or starting the sound
• Allow the throat to be in its natural relaxed position (inhale through the barrel of your instrument to see how this feels)
• Play with a hard enough or soft enough reed. You can learn how to find the right clarinet reed strength in this article.

Articulation

Tongue like you speak:

1. Speak Tee, Tee, Tee into the instrument
2. Blow Tee, Tee, Tee (with no sound)
3. Play Tee, Tee, Tee

Have the student play legato tonguing in slow motion (especially good for students who don't like their tongue to touch the reed)

1. Have the student try resting their tongue on the reed gently, while the reed is still vibrating.The player can play through the syllable "Th" to achieve this.
2. Next, the player will sustain a sound and rest their tongue on the reed while the reed is still vibrating and will work to articulate this way several times in a row in one breath. The player can say "Thhhhee", "Thhhhee", "Thhhhee" to achieve this.

Reeds

Generally, students should play starting on nothing less than 2.5 strength reed. If a student uses too soft of a reed, the intonation will be flat, especially in the throat tones.

About Dr. Levana Cohen

Seattle born clarinetist, Levana Cohen is an avid performer and music educator. Her performances have taken her to some of the most prestigious concert halls including, Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose hall, the Koussevitzky Music Shed and Ozawa hall of Tanglewood, Benaroya Hall, Symphony Space, The DiMenna Center, Flushing Town Hall and the 92ndY sharing the stage and performing with such artists as Frank Morelli, William Purvis, Steven Taylor, Shlomo Mintz and the Emerson String Quartet to name a few. Levana's life as a NY based freelance musician has made her into an extremely versatile musician performing and teaching in a multitude of different genres. In performance, these genres include the ballet, pit orchestra, opera, chamber music (both in the concert hall and for house parties), studio musician (recording for TV and radio), and the occasional concerto. Currently, Levana perform as the Principal Clarinetist for the Astoria Symphony Orchestra and appears at universities nation-wide leading masterclasses, clinics and performing recitals and concertos.

As a committed and devoted music educator, Dr. Cohen enjoys teaching students of all ages. At this time, she teaches Clarinet and Woodwind Methods at LIU Post, is the Clarinet Instructor at Suffolk County Community College, and operates her own private teaching studio in Port Washington NY. Apart from helping her students find their true, unique voice on their instrument, one of her highest priorities at the college level is to prepare her students for successful careers in music. Dr. Cohen also enjoys her work as a clinician with the Vandoren Regional Artist program, Woodwind Specialist and coach with the Metropolitan Youth Orchestras of New York, as a chamber music coach for Stony Brook University, and as director of the Port Washington Clarinet Choir.

Levana holds both a Master of Music degree and a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University under the tutelage of Daniel Gilbert. She performs on Buffet Tosca clarinets and uses Vandoren mouthpiece, ligature and reed products.