<p>So I have to audition for an ensemble...I'm a freshman this fall, and my secondary instrument is clarinet for ensembles. They posted an audition piece online...for clarinet, it has a few really high pitches in it that my dad said you never really use and they're just testing us to see how close we can get (my dad plays clarinet, has for 40ish years, almost professionally like...).</p>
<p>If you know clarinet, please help! It has really high E, F, F#, G, G#, A...the ones that are starting with E at 3 ledger lines about the treble staff and up to A...do you actually use those in most college bands???</p>
<p>I’m an oboist, but maybe I can help answer your question…</p>
<p>I’ve played that high in college band all the time, sometimes along with the clarinets, so I’d say yes these fingerings are used a lot by clarinets a lot in college bands. And as far as ensemble auditions go, remember this is a college level audition and what was good enough for high school isn’t going to be good enough for most music schools, so I would work hard to learn those notes. When in doubt about auditions “leave no stone unturned in your preparation” -I heard this at a masterclass, and it is a good idea.</p>
<p>iluvpiano, I did check with our resident clarinetist who says she commonly played these notes in her honor ensembles in high school. She said a second or third clarinet part might not play them as often. Hope that helps.</p>
<p>iluvpiano: You have good advice already. College ensembles usually do play music which is considerably more difficult than high school ensembles (not only do you have an average of 4 years more experience on the instrument by college time, but only the best from high school tend to continue playing in college–think of taking the best 10% of your high school band and then think of how far they progressed on their instrument in the four years between 7th grade and 11th grade and imagine that much progress between 11th grade and junior year of college, but double it because most people are majoring in music so are practicing much more than double what they did in 7th grade . . .).</p>
<p>You are correct in that audition selections are sometimes deliberately chosen to be more difficult than the actual repertoire played in order to make it easier to distinguish between different levels of players. I think you are probably guaranteed a spot in a band somewhere because it is a degree requirement for you, but if you don’t want to be last chair 3rd clarinet in the worst band at the college, and would prefer to play challenging satisfying music with good musicians with the best conductor in a top-notch ensemble (and most musicians would greatly prefer that to having to endure the squeaks, out-of-tune notes, ugly tone, and abysmal musicianship in the lowest ensemble), then get practicing! Good luck.</p>
<p>I know nothing about clarinet, but I can’t imagine any notes that wouldn’t be used. It seems silly to me that any instrument would have some “unused notes”. I know that with trumpet, it is somewhat of a status symbol for a player to be able to play notes that are higher than the normal range, and in jazz and marching band playing music “up an octave” is a big deal. </p>
<p>At my son’s college, they have three different levels of wind ensembles. The highest two require auditions and they only have one ensemble at each of those levels. Then at the bottom level they have multiple ensembles with no audition requirments.</p>
<p>I suspect that if the ensembles are playing repertoire at any level that it will require someone on the clarinet to be able to hit those notes,especially if playing a first clarinet part. In high school, I can’t remember music on the clarinet that went much above high D, but we also were playing wind ensemble repertoire that probably had been ‘dumbed down’ so to speak (good thing, while I did have to try and hit those notes as part of my work in lessons and such, I never could do it consistently). Those notes may not be that common, but they also put that on auditions to stretch the people auditioning I would guess:)</p>