Thanks for this Dawn - will experiment a bit tomorrow. The one and one fingering is in tune for me at the moment, whereas the other one is a bit flat. My F# is also a bit flat but my teacher checked F and down this morning and everything else (amazingly!) is well in tune. Obviously need to practise my new notes a bit with my tuner!

I've had a quick look through my grade 5 book and couldn't see anything higher than an E. Just out of interest, at what grade will I need to start using my G? Neither F# or G are strong enough to play in pieces yet anyway, so I'm not in any rush but just wondered!

Hope your concert went well this morning!

I think F# and G are grade 8.
F is grade 7.

Apart from that I think that the way to go is slowly with lots of preparation and only using them in pieces once they are secure.

It did thanks A few small hicoughs across the whole concert but got positive feedback, particularly on my tone. Couple of places the timing went awry - sometimes my fault I think and sometimes not but we managed to keep it going and pull back together. Slight nerves and an unfamiliarity with the setting and the accoustics of the room did it for me. At home the piano sounds so loud. In the concert room this morning it was a good accoustic for my clari but the piano sounded quiet by comparrison I thought. I even played my piece on the piano (When the room was almost empty though)

Re the high notes - don't suspect you need them till around grade 7 or 8/8+ but I suspect Barry will know that better than I

Top G's and A's are generally only needed at Grade 7/8.

I've just got back from my University Symphony concert (Saint-Saens Organ Symphony, Carmen Suites and Theme from ET) and I'm shattered. It generally went well (much better than this afternoon's rehearsal) and my solos were okay Next stop Oliver tech rehearsal tomorrow and practicing for flute exam - it never ends!

Wow! Thanks for the replies everyone. I haven't taken an exam for 23 years and would have estimated that I was around grade 5 standard (hence playing through the pieces in the grade 5 book). I've spent the last few weeks really working on altissimo and am really pleased to have got these notes (albeit slightly flat on the F# and G!)

I don't intend to go anywhere near an A for the time being but t's lovely to know that I won't be limited by my playing range any more. I'm very happy with my sound too (and more importantly, so is my teacher), so I guess it's now a case of concentrating on improving my fluency and finger dexterity. I feel the urge to buy music (again!) If anyone wants to recommend anything which goes up to F (possibly F# and G) and isn't too technically demanding (bearing in mind my note range is probably in front of my playing skill, if that makes sense), then please do!

Yep G is very rare at grade 7, however the Weber on the current list A has one. You can get As in certain pieces in grade 8, but not in the scales, and I've never seen or heard of an example in the sight reading.

Apart from Sol's piano day (where I transposed 'I Dreamed a Dream' on clari for missypiano ), my clari activity today was band Christmas concert

I played a top G in my Grade 7, its at the end of "The Quick Brown Fox" by Graham Lyons, list B. It came out very well in the actual exam although in practice it had been tricky and often missed or flat.

Better find my Finzi concerto and 5 Bagatelles...

Are these worth me looking at, Barry? I played the Carol many moons ago for Grade 3 but understood that this was by far the easiest piece and that the others were much more difficult!

Sorry, meant the Bagatelles, not the concerto!

To give you a rough idea, the Prelude is about grade 6, Romance about the same (maybe a tad easier than the Prelude), the Forlana is grade 5ish and the Fughetta is a tricky grade 8.

OK - I'm going to listen to them, as I usually have an idea of what is definitely beyond me and what might be a possibility by doing this! Listened to the Victorian Kitchen Garden Suite earlier today and although I love it, I don't think I could do it justice yet - it is on my 'aiming for' list, though!

Mine too! I love I dreamed a dream. It's one of thos ethings I can almost play and sing on piano anmd bizarrely it goes better when I'm singing along too




They are lovely pieces Clarijo. If you fancy a trip over to my neck of the woods sometime (maybe in the new year though) you can have a look and a go at mine with me Performed Carol yesterday. Playing them in isolation is not too bad but getting the timing right with piano can be trick in places as some odd time signatures (in both the Finzi and the Kitchen garden but mainly the Finzi)

Thank you for the offer, Dawn - that would be lovely! I remember finding the timing awkward when I played the Carol with accompaniment for the first time in school and I must say that listening to the Victorian Kitchen Garden Suite this afternoon (with harp) I did think that that might be an issue here too!

It was certainly easier playing unaccompanied as I did for church on the kitchen garden... but Oldnotes and I are working on giving it an outing later in the year....


As for meeting, we'll arrange something after Headingley. (Are you going btw?) Jan 2nd one I mean.

No I can't make it to Headingley, unfortunately but yes, it would be good to do something after Christmas. I'll PM you nearer the time.

Well today I have been trying "running scales" (thank you DawnF) and I have to say they are no doubt very good for one's development.
By the time I had finished playing my usual scales, running scales and a few pentatonic scales for seasoning I had no time left to play my pieces. I tell myself I can stop whenever I choose but its not true any more.... I'm hooked.

Wonder which one of us will crack the F# major running scale first ?????

Actually the basic scale's not so bad as I thought it'd be.....

It's not a bad scale : as long as you remember it has to be right hand clarion B, left hand C# to get to the D#

Well it won't be me....... I'm having enough trouble with the easy ones. Yes it's very easy to get lost on the way back down or to go to sleep and slip into a different scale. Fun though in a strange kind of way.

I know EXACTLY what you mean

Decided not to draw attention to this thread until this particular discussion has dropped off the page.
Some people don't need help in thinking up evil plans.

I've just done my grade 6 exam!

And as soon as I've got my lip back I shall be out in my 'music room' (ie freezing cold conservatory) attacking the Schumann Fantasy Pieces, the first movement of the Brahms E flat sonata, no. 5 of the Finzi Bagatelles, Lloyd Webber's Air and Variations, and no. 19 of the Bach 21 pieces.

I don't have a lesson now until 5th of January so I want to have done some homework before then

now, where's rachi's email address...



How do you think it went? Best of luck for the result jazzycat

I think it went pretty much OK thank you b-c!
I've posted more details in 'Have you done an exam this session' on the General Music Forum, if you're interested.

all-systems-go-for-grade-8 jazzycat

oooh, how exciting. Well done jazzycat I hope you get a brilliant result to propel you into G8.

Thank you very much clarimoo. I hate waiting for results but at least I have plenty to keep me occupied!
As I came back into the waiting room after the exam, my teacher said 'grade 8 next session then?' and I said 'no, that's too early, I won't have learned all my scales'.....

Will go and read - glad it went OK jazzycat!

Finished celebrating already?

Happy Birthday

Thanks! I'm doing a second night of celebrating tomorrow...

Happy Birthday Barry and well done, Jazzycat - glad it went well!

I have been playing Frensham Pond, the Mendelssohn and the Tarantella from the Grade 5 book (no plans to take the exam, just enjoying playing the pieces!)

I've also been trying to perfect my upper altissimo, with some success - I have now ventured up to the dizzy heights of a top A, believe it or not!! I'm actually still a bit stunned by my success with these notes, as it's not too long ago that I was desperately asking for help and advice and thought I would never get there. In my case, it's been a combination of changing to a softer reed and making some adjustment to the angle of my chin, which have made a huge difference to my notes in this range.

I'm also trying to get to grips with Swingin' Shepherd Blues from the Guest Spot Classic Blues book, which is proving to be a bit of a finger cruncher for me, so I'm playing at quite a slow tempo for now!

Well done clarijo! There is this theory (which I disagree with) that hard reeds are just generally 'better', especially for high notes, when actually the critical things are breathing and embouchure. Often, hard reeds make everything one big strain, and by switching down a strength, it makes things a lot more relaxed - it looks like this is what you've found clarijo.

Enjoy the altissimo register!

Hi Barry!

Yes, I think that has definitely been the case for me. I'm actually using a Vandoren Traditional 2, which six months ago I would have said would have been way too soft! I mentioned in another post a few weeks ago that I could see muscles in my neck straining when I played in front of a mirror, which is what prompted me to drop down a half strength. It's made a huge difference - my teacher commented on Saturday that whatever mouthpiece/reed set up I was using, I should stick with it as it's definitely working! Success at last and I actually can't believe how quickly I have moved up through these high notes!

Thank you Barry and clarijo. And well done with your altissimo notes, clarijo

Practising today.......
Scales (naturally) my random 20 then running scales in C major and F major for DawnF.......
Bartok's Rumanian Dances
Various Christmas music for band that's just starting at the top of the pile and going through it itill I got fed up of it)
Mendelssohn Sonata in Eb Major. I.e: work on the andante and sight reading through the rest to see where to work next. Think I will start at the beginning. (oh, and then after lunch I think I might just nip up Everest...)
I did do some practise on high notes but the highest I could get today was G . My A has completely vanished and I was wondering if I should try a harder reed but that has been answered by Clarijo and Barry-Clari so thank you, I will stick with my various 2.5s.

what fingering are you using for A clarijo???

You seem ahead of me here.... I haven't really been practising them. Too many performances lately to practise too many extras and my pieces currently only go to G. Told my teacher I wanted to work on my altissimo register and the alternatives - he said I only really needed up to G and we worked out what G fingering worked best for me. i want to try the upper 5 notes though as it'll give me more confidence and flexibility if i come across them in a piece. i know this having neglected them for around the last 20 years!!!


Playing up to top G though now with more confidence and ability.

I mean to add 5 mins or so on these into my practise schedule.

Must go check out the suggestions Barry gave on my other thread. Just too much on at the moment.....

So far only some chord things (to warm up my fingers), warming up exercises for a singer, and accompanying an exam (so three pieces).

And the rest of the day is very different - organ next, then Christmassy music later at orchestra!

Dawn, no way am I ahead of you, on reading the sort of thing you have been tackling!!

I would still describe myself as of around grade 5 or at a push, possibly 6 standard. I think I have just made some very sudden and unexpected progress with my high notes and things have kind of fallen into place there. All my fingering is taken from one of the charts in the front of one of the older style Guest Spot books, which actually go right up to C

The fingering they give for A is overblown E, which is what I was trying last night. I hasten to add, that I am only playing around to see what I can get at the moment and I wouldn't expect to play anything above an F in a piece for the time being. I suspect that pieces which require anything above this would be beyond me at the moment anyway, in terms of the skill, finger dexterity etc required. My teacher checked my F# and G for tuning on Saturday and both were slightly flat, so still some work needed there, anyway!

Today I have been practising mainly the wrong notes.

Today has been interesting for me as I was taking a Performance Assessment using half of my Clarinet ATCL programme that I hope to take in the summer. The day started with my brakes failing and crashing my car (which I may have written off), so final rehearsal with accompanist was unable to go ahead. Had to get accompanist to drive me the 12 miles to the exam, which took 1hr 15 and so arrived at the time of my exam, so had to go in with no warm up etc.

Fortunately the examiner was lovely and due to the stress of the day I wasn't nervous. He wrote some lovely comments about tone and dynamics and just mentioned that occasionally my accompanist and I weren't quite together (but I knew that may be a problem as we'd only had 2 rehearsals). He was positive about me taking the diploma and liked my programme choice - just need to sort my car now

Poor you and poor car!

Glad to hear that your performance went well though! Well done!

Oh my goodness. what a horrendous start. I hope you weren't hurt. Well done you for going ahead with your assessment. You are invincible

Glad the assessment went well, sorry to hear about your car Hope you're OK...

Goodness me, that's an eventful day! While having something go terribly wrong is a good distraction from the nerves, I hope you don't get that in future. Glad the assessment went well after that!

Not been playing today (after all, it's only just gone 9am and I am, ahem, at work). Last night was lesson, and it was mostly Bach Sonata in F major (BWV 1031) which I have decided I totally love

And, Corelli Op 5 No 7 Sonata in G minor. First time I'd even looked at it so not very good at all from me, teacher played it through with usual brilliance.

What's fun is that I have backing track harpsichord / harpsichord + viola da gamba for these. So not only are they good to play, but I get to play them with other 'people' like 'real music'

Thanks for everyone's good wishes. I've heard today that thankfully my car isn't a write-off but will take 10 days to fix (after when I hoped to fo home for Christmas ). Today I've not practiced much except for the odd passage in Oliver - final show tonight! I've done so much playing lately, I've got a blister on my thumb!

Altissimo, scales, more altissimo... but now my A keeps hiding and then reappearing when I'm lieast expecting it!!

I've also been trying to change pitch with embouchure etc and even had a go at a glissando - E to F (clarion) fine; B to C a twelfth up and not so fine... Very frustrating - it's nearly there but I can't quite get the hang of the jaw dropping thing...

Never mind - don't need it but it's Friday and I just felt like messing about a bit, just for fun!

One to try to start with is clarion G to the C above. Try it bit by bit, starting with B to C...

Hi Barry!

I didn't mean clarion - that's me being dense! I think it's chalmeau (sp?) - in other words, bottom line E to first space F,so B to C fingering but without the register key! Ended up trying this because my attempts at B to C were unsuccessful but I will persevere!

Ah OK, that makes sense. Have fun!

I've been playing some christmas carols on flute and some beginners pieces for treble recorder.

Today - all the tricky bits for tomorrow's concert : pastime, sleigh ride and Christmas festival all had areas i wanted to work at/ refamiliarise myself with....


Also, Running scales in F and C (coming together now)

F# major scale and attempted running scale

Ab major scale trying to add 3rd octave.

Then some finger exercises from Kloze (p52 if anyone wants to look)_--