Klarinet Archive - Posting 000222.txt from 1995/08

From: "Nancy G. Mathison" <76175.776@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Overbite as it relates to embouchure
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995 04:34:33 -0400

Jeff,

Having a slight overbite has never seemed like a problem. When I first started
playing the clarinet in the fourth grade I had a wonderful private teacher who
told me to "point my chin" as a means of developing a proper embouchure. This
seems easier to do with the lower jaw thrust forward, though doing so was not
conscious on my part for many years. In college I noticed that my sound was
becoming brighter and used the double lip emboucher in order to find an
alignment that produced a better tone. As I began to teach and work toward
solving my own students' embouchure problems I became more analytical of my
playing. It was then that I saw that my lower jaw is a bit short, and that I
thrust it forward to compensate.
My overbite appears to be similar to your student's - about one eigth of an
inch.

Nancy Mathison