Hi Adrian,

Thank you so much for all these great lessons. I'm new here and have just finished the clarinet fundamentals lessons and practicing honeysuckle rose.

A little background about me – I was classically trained in high school but quit before going to music college due to suffering bad stage fright. 20 years on, I started playing again and have formed a jazz duo with my boyfriend who sings and plays uke... even thought I've never played jazz before.

I'm great at reading music (that pretty much came back straight away) but I'm really struggling with getting a sound from the clarinet that I like.

Here's a video of me playing 😐 https://www.loom.com/share/48a8f08f75794c01ba6451ae0845866e.

Feels a bit vulnerable putting this up here but I really want to get better so here goes!

I have a few questions for you / things I'm struggling with:

* Air sound – a lot of air sound coming through when I play – how can I improve this? I do feel like sometimes I can't relax so am forcing air through but if I relax my mouth the sound is poorer. If I try to tighten up my embouchure, the sound is better but I squeak a lot.

* When I listen to you playing honeysuckle rose, on the longer notes like the low bs, you have this beautiful sound that comes through as the note fades which I have never seemed to master. Can you point me in the direction of how I can start working towards improving this sound?

* you might notice that I'm wearing an arm brace on my left arm. This is because, when we first started playing in our band together (busking), I was still overcoming a lot of fear of playing in front of people and because very tense when playing and actually ended up with tennis elbow!!! Part of signing up to your course is so that I can slow down and practice at my own pace and learn to play more relaxed and calm. However, I'm still having troubles with my elbow. Have you ever heard of this happening to clarinet players before?

* I know it's hard to see from the video but any other direction you have about how I can start to improve? I've been playing now on and off for about 1.5 years (after a 20 year break) and I'm feeling frustrated with my progress around sound

PS. Thanks for the alternative fingering for d#! In all my years I never knew about this fingering and it's making my life so much easier.

Thank you!