Klarinet Archive - Posting 000022.txt from 1995/09

From: Tom Ascher <U15310@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: E & F# above the staff
Date: Sat, 2 Sep 1995 17:42:46 -0400

Wow, the information from Jonathan Cohler, Alan Stanek and others who really
KNOW the clarinet and have experience teaching are incredibly helpful for
those of us just mucking along. Especially when we are local "beneficiaries"
of well-meaning teachers who share with us such rote wisdom "as keeping
the embouchure constant no matter what the note!!!"

Coming home last night after re-reading my own and others comments on how
to deal with high notes, I rediscovered another important principal, which
I think is consistent with other advice given: supporting the breath from
the stomach (or diaghram as some like to say).

For me, if I think in terms of starting the note from my lower abdomen and
using the stomach muscles to initiate and hold each note (rather than the
tongue, or jaw, ) seems to work wonders for smooth dynamics and a legato
flow. I don't mean this in contradiction to anything else that has been
said, but in conjunction.

The importance of the abdomen for breath control is so obvious and so basic
whether we are singers, or wind players, its easy to forget!