Ruben Greenberg

Melodic Finger Twisters

Many mechanical exercises have been written in order to help clarinetists manage to play awkward passages: Klosé, Kroepsch, Jeanjean... Useful as these exercises are, actually practising them on a regular basis can be laborious and not much fun: something you have to force yourself to do. I have attempted, in this book, to provide the player with tricky passages while inserting them in tunes, dance rhythms, etc. and giving them a bit of melodic substance. My goal was to enable the player to have a little fun while doing something that can be challenging and enjoyable rather than sheer drudgery. Also, when we're enjoying ourselves, we relax more and this facilitates the playing of difficult passages.
I've added some tips on technique are sometimes based on mechanical considerations of getting from one note to another. At other times, my advice is on psychological aspects of playing tricky passages. I hope that these little pieces will be of benefit to the player and that he or she also derives some musical enjoyment from practising them.

Ruben Greenberg, Paris, France