I have a pupil who is currently working towards her grade 8 clarinet. It's been put off due to her doing her grade 8 piano this session. She's extremely musical, gets involved with many of the arts centre groups run by the music service and has very good technique. However, her previous teacher and myself (I'm doing materntiy cover work) both think she needs to now focus on improving her tone. I remember having to work on this myself for a long time when I was learning but can't remember how my teacher approached it. Does anyone have any tips or pieces/studies that they could suggest to help work at this? Thanks

Can you give me an idea of what sort of tone she has at the moment Clare? It'll help me give you a better answer.

The main things to look at are breathing and embouchure. Long tones will work absolute wonders. And a consistent airstream. Check to see your pupil isn't 'throating' as opposed to tonguing. That can do some unwanted things to tone.

The one thing I found when trying to improve my tone was the quality of the mouthpiece. I was coming on really well, my teacher says, but there was this constant hissing in the low register. After trying for hours to get it right, I tried my teacher's mouthpiece on my instrument and found my tone was amazing!

Check your pupils mouthpiece, and after that use techniques like tone ups and long slow music, don't make your pupil play long notes on their own because that will deter them from practicing, tell them to get some books with long slow pieces which they should want to make sound beautiful.

Hope this helps

I'm not really sure how to describe it.... it's not particularly "bad" but it lacks depth or warmth. We're working on the Schumann Fantasy Pieces and I just feel that she's not achieving the sound that she we're perhaps both wanting from it - the same as when she was working on some Brahms last year. We talk about giving time to let the sound grow but although she's trying, I think it's her tone that is holding her back. It's a shame to see this frustrating her as she's such a good player! She's never tried any alternative mouthpieces with her usual teacher either - something that I hope to encourage while I'm teaching her.

I see - perhaps it's a little one-dimensional then.

A different mouthpiece may help, yes, but there are also other things you can try Clare.

Some long tone practice is invaluable. It is true that slow, beautiful pieces will also help, but to get an idea of exactly what individual notes are doing (or not!), you can't go far wrong with long tones.

Talk to your pupil about what sort of sound they're after. If they are, as you suggest, after something with more warmth, checking the breathing and airstream will help. Some people will say aim for a coldish airstream, some a warmish airstream - I'd say the best way to describe it is to think about it being not unlike breathing on a mirror to mist it up, but perhaps not quite as warm.

Certainly Clare, it's a lot easier to demonstrate than describe!

Check the airstream. Get your pupil to breathe on their hand the way they breathe down a clarinet, and tell them to describe what it feels like. You may well discover a lot from that.

Reeds that are too hard, and (particularly) too soft won't help either. Do they use one favourite reed over and over again? Guide them away from that practice if possible.

Do also make sure they're not biting, or squeezing the reed with their bottom lip to within an inch of its life - this won't help at all.

All the best Clare!

Thanks for all the advice and tips
It's actually reminded me of something my own clarinet teacher did with me when we were trying to improve my tone. One week she told me that the way I was holding the mouthpiece in my mouth was completely wrong and that I shouldn't be using my teeth to hold it in place or have my teeth anywhere near it. I was shocked and spent the whole week trying to play without putting my top front teeth on it. It was of course very difficult but the difference in sound was very noticeable. The next week she said "Ok I was lying, you can put your teeth on it but now you know what sound you're aiming for and how much you can rely on the muscles around your mouth to contribute to that". Maybe not the best method but it certainly helped in the longrun!

That was why my tone improved massively when I had braces. I spent ages working out how to play without my teeth touching the mouthpiece as it hurt too much.

The mouthpiece and reed suggestion is worthy of following up. I used to be able to get a nice tone out of the stock mouthpiece that came with my clarinet, but only by using very hard reeds. Whilst my tone was acceptable Barry's 1D description summed it up nicely. Changing to a more open mouthpiece and a softer reed opened up a whole new palate of tone colours.

Get her to experiment with making ugly sounds! Might sound daft but I found that by distorting the tone deliberately I could then add in some of the differences in a more acceptable way.

Is she holding the instrument at an extreme angle? I've seen players holding it v close (almost vertically) and coming out with a thin sound, or almost at an oboe angle (no offense to oboists!) and the sound being very vibrant and a little too edgy.

Just thoughts - I may add to them if I get bored this afternoon.