Klarinet Archive - Posting 000326.txt from 1996/10

From: B HUDSON <XDPW41A@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Embouchure position in clarinet play
Date: Sat, 12 Oct 1996 18:15:59 -0400

A note from the amateur world. Could it
be that the very fine difference between
what we can control and what we think we
can control provides the answer to this
conundrum. My teacher, Mike Cyzewski,
straight out of the Bonade tradition as
a Gigliotti student, always straightens
out my problems in etudes that reach
into the altissimo register by by noting
little involuntary tightenings in the
throat, tongue or embouchure. The time
honored system of turning the mouthpiece
around with the student blowing and the
teacher fingering the passage seems to
end the discussion for me (but much more
practical is practicing in front of the
mirror watching for any extra movements
as the passages in question are played).
But our bodies are obviously a network
of subtle ongoing muscular adjustments.
Could it be that in terms of Jonathan's
technical argument the body simply
compensates, involuntarily, to a very
slight degree, but enough to invoke
Joanthan's argument. However,
experience tells us that on a much
grosser level, when we humans don't seek
to control those movements they become
the obstacles to the sound and
articulations we are searching for.
Although sufficiently sensitive and
inventive instruments might registers
changes in embouchure associated with
changes in registers, my experience is
that every time the sound is distorted
in a passage that reaches into the
altissimo register, some movement of my
throat and/or tongue and/or embouchure
is associated with it. And when I watch
carefully in the mirror and the movement
disappears, voila-- the sound and attack
I was looking for.

Bruce Hudson, xdpw41a@-----.com