Klarinet Archive - Posting 000029.txt from 1998/04

From: Rich & Tani Miller <musicians@-----.net>
Subj: Re: Brass VS. Woodwinds
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 13:34:51 -0500

Here's my two cents on this subject. I took three years of oboe lessons in
college. While I think I developed very good technique, tone quality, intonation
(oboe is a whole other ballpark in this area!!), etc. I was never able to develop
much endurance on oboe. Consequently, I've rarely performed on oboe. My
embouchure for oboe was almost opposite of my clarinet embouchure, although there
are different schools of thought on oboe embouchures. Three years of oboe
lessons was not enough to compensate for 14 years of playing the clarinet. I had
the same problem with saxophone which I was able to correct by playing on a Larry
Teal mouthpiece--it allowed me to use a more clarinet-like embouchure. Flute
embouchures never seemed to have an effect at all. However, playing other
instruments never hurt my clarinet embouchure. The Arnold Jacob breathing
techniques that I learned from my oboe teacher actually helped my clarinet
performance and my singing.

I don't think that you can stereotype "doublers" as being either good performers
or poor performers. Both exist. In the same breath, there are advantages and
disadvantages of playing more than one instrument. A good musician is going to
apply quality musicianship skills to whatever instrument he or she plays. It's
all a matter of awareness.

Roger Garrett wrote:

> Absolutely......it was temporary....but it did take at least an hour for
> me to be able to play clarinet/bass clarinet again. What is funny is that
> I consider myself a pretty flexible doubler.......clarinets/saxophones/a
> fairly pitiful oboe/and some easy brass. I have played second trumpet
> parts in duets in church before........or the third part to the Bugler's
> Holiday by Anderson, but the switch back and forth is still fairly
> debilitating.
>
> Roger Garrett
> IWU
>
> On Tue, 31 Mar 1998, Bill Hausmann wrote:
>
> > At 06:35 PM 3/31/98 -0600, Roger Garrett wrote:
> > The vibration of the lips for
> > >extended periods of time really negatively affected my ability to sense
> > >the area around the mouthpiece and to use the upper lip effectively.
> > >
> > This effect was temporary, I'm sure. Switching directly from trombone to
> > clarinet would be nearly impossible, but after a bit of rest...
> >
> >
> >
> > Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
> > 451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
> > Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
> > ICQ UIN 4862265
> >
> > If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.
> >