Klarinet Archive - Posting 000189.txt from 1994/02

From: Cary Karp <nrm-karp@-----.SE>
Subj: Re: Vibrato (what about sax?)
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 1994 17:01:32 -0500

On Tue, 15 Feb 1994, Jay Heiser wrote:

> What's the literature say about sax vibrato?
>
> I'd be really surprised to learn that anything but lip vibrato
> was in common use for the saxophone.

I'm not sure that the literature says much of anything, but I never heard
of anything other than lip vibrato on the saxophone. There is at least
one classically trained saxophonist on the list -- what's the story from
that side of the fence?

> Sax & clarinet are not the same, but what specific differences
> account for difft vibrato generation mechanisms? Style or
> technology?

Style, mostly. Although, as someone has already pointed out, classical
clarinet mouthpiece design is less conducive to lip vibrato than it
easily could be. Jazz clarinet mouthpieces, and most saxophone
mouthpieces display the requisite characteristics for easier (whatever
that means) production of lip vibrato.