Klarinet Archive - Posting 000510.txt from 1996/07

From: Teri Herel <EnsHerel@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Double Lip Discussion
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 1996 13:59:06 -0400

Hello, everyone! I'm responding a bit late, I know, but as I just went
through over three weeks of Klarinet mail this one jumped out and demanded my
two cents!

I strongly disagree that there is no difference in the (well developed, of
course) double lip sound as compared to a single lip sound. I've been to
jobs where I'd be warming up, minding my own business amidst a section of
single-lippers when my head will just about swivel off my neck when I hear
that distincitive sound of a double lip player warming up. I hunt him down
and sure enough, he is one. I can hear the difference like night and day.

As you can guess, I am a converted double lip player (switched about five
years ago) and much prefer the sound. I made the decision by listening,
listening, and listening to a whole slew of clarinetists and choosing the
tones I liked best.

(As for "four months" of scar tissue, how about more like four years! I am
finding that it is only in this past year that I have finally started to have
some endurance and a quality of tone (possible only with an upper lip of
iron!) that I have been working for.)

Teri Herel

In a message dated 96-07-12 18:24:51 EDT, bill.fogle@-----.COM (Fogle,
Bill) writes:

<< Don wrote about double-lip and single-lip playing:

>The bottom line was that, with single lip, I was hearing a lot of
vibrations
>through the upper teeth via bone conduction to my ears internally. With
>double lip, I heard mostly via the ear externally, i. e., as others would
>hear me.

That's the main difference. Sound-wise, there is no difference. There
*is* a difference in control/physical manipulation. Sometimes the
difference is bad, like tonguing in the upper reg., sometimes
it's good, like an increased ability to "open up."

>So - Bill - I wonder if your views of double vs. single are colored by
what
>*you* think you sound like, as opposed to what other people hear when you
>play.

Probably. My decision is a "physical" one. Double-lip is
a kind of habit. I'm stuck. I'd have to retrain to play single-lip. I do
like the "manipulation" aspects (see above) of double-lipping, though.

>By the way, I certainly think I could
>be just as "piercing" with double as with single!.

Yeah, you're right. But you'd have to work harder to do it : )
----Bill Fogle.

>>