Klarinet Archive - Posting 000544.txt from 1997/02

From: "David C. Blumberg" <reedman@-----.COM>
Subj: Sax Warm air , Clarinet cool air
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 08:49:27 -0500

I agree. The clarinet should have cool air, and the sax warm air. That is a
big difference in the way that the 2 instruments are blown. A sax player
using cool air like a clarinet will likely have a shallow, pinched tone.
Donald Sinta teaches sax that way. I didn't study w/him, but I do have his
video.

At 07:00 PM 2/15/97 -0500, Virginia Scarfino wrote:
>Just catching up on mail from the last few days, and thought I'd make a
>couple of comments.
>
>One summer at a CAMMAC music camp, someone asked our clarinet coach (who
>was also a saxophonist), Paul Bendza, the difference between the clarinet
>and sax embouchures. He summarized it for us in very simple terms (i.e. a
>generality rather than finely detailed specifics!). He said to think of a
>sax embouchure being the size of a quarter, blowing warm air, and a
>clarinet embouchure being the size of a dime, blowing cool air.
>
>On breathing, my clarinet teacher used to help me with phrasing etc. in my
>pieces and encouraged me to breath at the logical points in the music, but
>used also say, if you need a breath, breathe! -but do it musically. By
>this he meant don't clip notes as you gasp for a breath, or if in a long
>series of many sixteenth notes, look for a spot or two where you can
>conveniently drop one or two in favor of grabbing a quick catch breath to
>help you make it to the end of the phrase.
>
>On breathing, my piano teacher (whom I started studying piano with, after
>many previous years of clarinet lessons), marvelled at how she didn't have
>to tell me to breathe when playing the piano. All music requires
>"breathing", regardless of whether or not it is being played on a wind
>instrument. Because of all my years playing a wind instrument, I guess I
>played the piano as if it were a wind instrument - and my teacher sure
>liked it! I'd do things like breathe in, in tempo, at the beginning of a
>piece, at the beginning of a phrase, etc. My teacher used to say how
>disconcerting it is for an audience to listen to music played in incredibly
>long phrases, longer than a natural breath - not breathing in the music is
>sort of like asking your audience to hold their breath too! All you have
>to do is go listen to some really wonderful string quartets performing
>live, and you'll see how important breathing is for them in their music.
>
>Ginny Scarfino
>Waterloo, Ontario
>scarfinv@-----.net
>
>
David C. Blumberg
reedman@-----.com
Principal Clarinet Riverside Symphonia
Adjunct Woodwind Instructor Univ. of Penn,. Bryn Mawr College
Foundation of Arts and Musical Excellence Summer Music Festival (FAME)

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org