Valdea D. Jennings

Dexterity Studies & Exercises for the Clarinet Valdea D. Jennings

The studies in this book are designed to facilitate the development of automaticity. The book contains a large number of short, repetitive memory exercises that are designed 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 these exercises 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 generates each specific sequence of sounds. The scale and chord studies cover the full range of the clarinet. 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.