Intonation Basics for Young Clarinetists

Written by Clark W Fobes | Republished with Permission

Proper intonation for young students is a problem that is very often ignored in the hopes that “it will eventually get better”. I believe that good intonation can be learned and taught fairly early. Without getting into a long pedagogical discussion about acoustics and hearing I would like to delineate a few basic tips that I have found work well with young students.

Most young students tend to play flat. It is a function of learning to use muscles in an unfamiliar way. I don’t worry about flat pitch in the first few weeks or even months, but as muscles firm up and the student becomes familiar with playing and holding the clarinet he/she should be able to achieve good basic intonation.

Intonation is always a function of good tone production. The primary focus of this article will be the elements of clarinet tone; the mouthpiece, the embouchure, breath support, and physical support of the clarinet.

Of course, one cannot begin to attempt to teach a clarinetist if he/she does not have a good clarinet in good repair. I highly recommend the Buffet B-12 clarinet for beginners, but there are several other excellent brands including Vito and Yamaha.

Before considering the physiological elements of producing a good tone the student must have a good mouthpiece.

The mouthpiece and reed are the basic tone generating system of the clarinet and the fundamental variable for proper intonation other than the player. The mouthpiece should have a medium tip opening and students should not play a reed softer than a Van Doren #2. The mouthpiece should respond easily with a good focus. The CLARK W FOBES Debut mouthpiece is designed specifically in this manner. I recommend that students move up to a 2 1/2 or 3 strength reed as soon as possible.

After the mouthpiece, the embouchure is the next greatest variable in tone production . Correct embouchure is a tricky concept to teach and may take several weeks for a student to achieve. Here is the method I teach which produces a good embouchure for most students at the first lesson:

Assuming that you have already taught the fundamentals of the position of the mouthpiece in the mouth and the student can produce an “E” (first finger and thumb), ask him/her to remove the clarinet from their mouth. Have them look into a mirror and say “oo” and hold the shape of their lips.

Now ask them to say “ee” without moving their lips from the “oo” position. They will not be able to do it, but what you want them to do is hold the “oo” shape with a slight pulling in the corners. This also puts a nice dip in the chin just below the lower lip. The sound “oo” also places the oral cavity in a good position for proper air flow. “O” or “ah” opens the throat too much and causes a flattening of pitch.

For this reason I also teach the syllable “t-oo” for tonguing. Once the student can produce this shape without the clarinet, try again with the clarinet in the mouth. ALWAYS USE A MIRROR. I find that students are still very visually oriented at this point and their own model is best for visualization. Most students will be able to do this in the first lesson, but it is very important to keep hounding them on good embouchure every week.

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