It Starts with a Beautiful Sound: How to Build Clarinet Tone From the Ground Up

In terms of your teaching philosophy, what are some major points you strive to emphasis with your students?

When I get a new batch of students one thing I will always do is emphasize sound and tone production. Especially for the undergrads, I will reinforce the basic fundamentals of tone production which are crucial for anything else that we do on the clarinet. It all boils down to air support as a wind player.

Air Support is Like a Pyramid

I tell them that everything is like a pyramid. If you were to take the foundation out from a building the whole thing will crumble. If you want to play with a beautiful sound, or play fast staccato, or even have a huge contrast in dynamics, everything starts from the correct usage of air and air support.

Having said that, it takes awhile for, as young players trying to understand this concept, the body to assimilate. Of course, long tones and working on the embouchure are important, especially making sure the embouchure is correct and not standing in the way of anything so you can achieve a beautiful and effortless sound.

Long Tones Expanded

I like to spend quite a lot of time with long tones, intervals, and different dynamics with an importance of using your ear and not just going on automatic pilot, which can be easy to do. It takes quite a lot of concentration to listen to what’s coming out of the horn and making sure that the sound is always beautiful.

When the student starts to understand all of the acoustical underlyings of how the clarinet works, other things will start to unlock whether it is intuitively or not and the student is more intrigued to hear certain things. So when they play the fundamental note, they’ll be able to hear a twelfth above it, they start to get the sense of, “Oh that’s the beautiful sound I want to get!”

The students are individuals, sometimes they catch on pretty fast and sometimes it takes them a while, but they all get it eventually. I really do make sure they all go through this fundamental step where it’s really about mastering the basics on the clarinet.

Guy's Philosophy

So my philosophy is really an emphasis on a beautiful sound. Say you have wonderful technique and your phrasing is amazing, but if your sound is unbearable, that won’t come across because the first thing to hit the ear is the sound. Once all of that is established, we work on technique a lot, making sure that at the end of the day the clarinet is not an obstacle in our playing but something we can use as expression.

Once you feel that a student has established a strong enough foundation, whether they be undergraduate or graduate students, what’s the next thing you like to focus on?

I think there’s a time and a place for everything that we do on the clarinet and with various students it will always be different.

I try to have them go through different levels of playing the clarinet (sound, technique, etc) and they have the typical plethora of books that we will go through. They have to go through all of this to achieve the level I expect out of them, which is mastering the clarinet eventually. Every student is at a different level or pace, but they all go through it.

Identifying Your Strengths

Having said that, there’s a lot of room for personality. That has to do with what kind of repertoire complements a certain person. Of course, we all learn the Brahms and the Weber, but there are some niches I can see in my students and things that they are able to do quite naturally. Things like playing fast are more showpiece-type of stuff, and then some students are more suited for contemporary type of works.

Introducing Extended Techniques

After my students go through this rigorous approach I like to introduce extended techniques. Regardless of whether they are an undergraduate or graduate student, I think it’s never too early to start thinking about extended techniques. It used to be something so obscure that only a handful of clarinet players used to do, such as circular breathing or double staccato. It’s become so prevalent today that almost every student is experimenting with double staccato and achieving great results.

We tend to see the next generation of clarinet players become better than the older generation, and they catch up pretty fast. All the old techniques add on naturally, and it’s very cool to see how easy it is for them to add these types of things. Of course, there are now more pieces written with that in mind, so it’s exciting to see what’s coming next.

Have you been working with any extended techniques or things of that nature?

Oh yeah! I’ve been playing quite a lot of contemporary music. I’ve always experimented with the clarinet in trying to see what makes it tick.

It’s actually a very healthy way of learning to play with a beautiful sound because once you understand, “Why do I get all of these squeaks and squawks?!” It’s basically about the upper partials on the clarinet, and once you know how to operate within the norm of a beautiful sound, you’ll know how to get outside of the box and play those diads or multiphonics and morph around, composers love that, they love those kinds of effects.

For young clarinet players to do these types of wacky things and then go back and play Brahms is like changing hats and that’s what makes the clarinet so versatile and cool!

Could you tell us more about your latest CD?

Yeah, it’s a CD that will be released with the label Blue Griffin Records. It’s a CD I’m proud of because it’s almost all newly commissioned pieces, allow me to explain.

The title of the CD is Rhapsodies Around the World, because my idea was to give different composers from around the world a free reign of writing whatever they wanted as long as they’re inspired by Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsodie. I just wanted to see what happened, and it was pretty cool because I had composers from China, South Africa, Australia, France, and the US, and they were all basically writing rhapsodies for clarinet.

The different compositions are influenced in any kind of way by hearing Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsodie. On the CD, you’ll have the Debussy, of course, but you’ll also have all of the new commissions.

It’s interesting because you can really hear the individual voice of the particular composer, but in the same token you can hear how universal music is and how a lot of things go between different composers. Within these same lines, whether they came from Debussy or not, you can hear a lot of similar sonorities. It makes you think, “Wow it’s a very small world!” We think we are all very different of each other but we are not very different. I think it’s a really cool CD.

Sometimes composers do like to have some kind of direction. Of course, it’s always very easy to like being very free and doing whatever you want. The cool thing about this CD is that it did give them that kind of freedom they didn’t say, “Well we have to use the same type of harmonic language or sonorities.” I just told them to go wild and free and do whatever you want. I had them listen to the piece to see if it would influence them in any shape or form. It was interesting to see what they did. The Chinese composer we had came up with something very interesting because he used a lot of the same sonorities but it ended up coming out sounding like completely authentic Chinese music. It worked so well because you could still hear the echoing of Debussy in his composition; it was really fascinating. We also had another composer from Brazil and you can hear this Brazilian background here and there, yet you could still hear the impressionistic type of chords.

Check out Guy Yehuda's latest CD Rhapsodies Around the World!

About Guy Yehuda

Clarinetist Guy Yehuda is recognized as one of the most outstanding and unique talents on the international concert stage today. Hailed by composer John Corigliano as “One of the most awe-inspiring clarinetists today”, Mr. Yehuda was the top prizewinner of several international competitions such as the 2003 Heida Hermanns International Woodwind Competition, and the 2004 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition (Gold Medalist as a member of Trio di Colore.) Since his North American Concerto debut with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra and conductor Peter Oundjian, Mr. Yehuda has toured extensively in Europe, North America, and Israel. As principal clarinetist, Mr. Yehuda has performed with the Lucerne Contemporary Festival Orchestra, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, among others, as well as guest clarinetist with the Israel Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Yehuda performed on European and American tours under the batons of top conductors including Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, Yuri Temirkanov, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Sir Andrew Davis, Kurt Sanderling, Roberto Abbado, Cliff Colnot, Fabio Mechetti, Peter Oundjian, and Daniel Barenboim. Currently, Mr. Yehuda is the Principal Clarinetist of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra. He performed and collaborated with the world’s top composers and performers such as Pierre Boulez, Steve Reich, John Corigliano, George Benjamin, Menahem Pressler from the Beaux-Arts Trio, and the Borromeo, Dali, Cypress, and Harrington String Quartets to name a few. An avid contemporary musician, Mr. Yehuda frequently premieres new clarinet concerti and solo works written for him by renowned composers such as Haim Permont, Gary Smart and Jim Stephenson to name a few. As a musician in high demand, he has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at festivals such as Spoleto (USA), Verbier, Lucerne (Switzerland), Vianden (Luxembourg), Ottawa ChamberFest, Parry Sound, Domain Forget (Canada),Woodwind Festival-Shenzhen (China), and the Israeli Chamber Music Festivals of Kfar Blum and Haifa.

Mr. Yehuda is sought-after as a recitalist throughout North America and Europe. He has performed as a soloist in prestigious halls and venues such as Carnegie Hall, Domain Forget, (Canada), Chicago Symphony Hall, Palacio Fuz and Casa di Musica in Portugal, Mann auditorium in Tel Aviv and Dame Myra Hess Chamber Series to name a few. He is a particularly active chamber musician and tours extensively with the award winning chamber music group: Trio di Colore (with Yuval Gotlibovich-Viola and Jimmy Briere-Piano) of which he is the founding member. Mr. Yehuda has appeared numerous times as a guest artist on CBC Canadian Radio, Radio-Canada, NPR, WFMT Chicago, KUHF Houston, DRS Swiss Radio, Portugal National Radio, and Israel’s Classical radio station, as well as TV appearances on Israel’s Channel 2 and Chicago’s Channel 25. Mr. Yehuda has recorded with Hal Leonard productions, IU New Music Ensemble, and a number of live recordings for the CBC. Yehuda’s discography recordings won many acclaims and rave reviews. His notable recordings consist of music for solo and trio music by French composer Jean Francaix on the XII-21 Canadian Label, several CD recordings of contemporary music with Albany records and recent releases of numerous recordings under the Blue Griffin Records label: The Brahms and Reger Sonatas, Rhapsodies Around the World and the most recent release, Forgotten Romantics.

Mr. Yehuda is an active clinician and has given master classes throughout the U.S, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Israel. He is a Selmer-Paris and Vandoren international performing artist and serves as an artist instrumental adviser for both companies. With Selmer-Paris, he has developed the new Privilege II clarinet and worked on the Selmer Recital prototype. Yehuda also worked in the past with the D’Addario-Reeds company on the development of the new Classic Reserve reeds. He has frequently been invited to judge national and international competitions, as well as to appear as a soloist at ICA ClarinetFest conferences in the U.S and abroad and the Oklahoma clarinet symposium. Mr. Yehuda has been the artistic director of the Florida Clarinet Extravaganza, and the Cummer Family foundation Chamber Series in Florida, and was the co-director of the Clarinetopia Seminar and director of the Michigan Clarinet Extravaganza. Currently he is the Artistic Director of the Henri Selmer International Summer Academy in Michigan. He served for many years as faculty resident at the acclaimed Orford summer festival in Quebec, Canada. He is the clarinet faculty resident at the Vianden Summer Festival in Europe, Aria International Music Festival in Massachusetts and Fresno Summer Orchestra Academy in California. Mr. Yehuda held visiting faculty positions at Indiana University and the University of Virginia, and has been the Clarinet Professor at the University of North Florida. Currently he is the Associate Professor and Artist Teacher of Clarinet at Michigan State University College of Music. Mr. Yehuda is also a published composer and winner of the prestigious America-Israel composition award, having worked individually with Pierre Boulez, P.Q. Phan, Alexander Rappoport, Yinaam Leef, Haim Permont, and Sergiu Natra.Mr. Yehuda studied with distinguished clarinetists James Campbell, Avrahm Galper, Eli Eban, Yitzhak Katzap and Yigal Cohen, and worked with Charles Neidich, Larry Combs, Howard Klug, and Alfred Prinz. He received his Doctorate and Master’s Degrees from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, as well as a Performer Certificate, the highest honor awarded to a performer at this venerable institution. Prior to that Mr. Yehuda received his Artist Diploma and Bachelor’s degree from the Glenn Gould Professional Music School at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.