Dexterity Studies & Exercises For the Clarinet

The studies in this book are designed to facilitate the development of automaticity, that is, the ability to perform movements and sequences of movements that are executed independently of volition and accomplished unconsciously through force of habit. The exercises in this book are designed to facilitate automaticity through mindful practice. Herein, mindful practice refers to the use of kinesthesia, (the sense that detects bodily position and movement of muscles in this, case the fingers), to facilitate the development of muscle memory. To this end, the book contains a large number of short, repetitive memory exercises that are designed to be played at a speed SLOW enough to allow the student to focus attention on the movements that produce each sequence of notes not on the notes themselves. These exercises are referred to as Kinesthetic Memory Exercises. The primary goal of kinesthetic practice is the memorization of the motion that produces each sequence of notes by establishing and strengthening the connection between the sound of the sequence and the motion, that is, the specific series of finger movements that generates each specific sequence of sounds. The studies in this book are not a substitute for basic scale and chord studies. Basic scale and chord studies (e.g., Klose, Stark etc.) are a necessary prerequisite, since the ability to hear (i.e., correctly recognize) the precise sound of each sequence is a necessary precondition for reproducing it accurately during kinesthetic practice.