Klarinet Archive - Posting 001284.txt from 1998/10

From: "Dee D. Hays" <deehays@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Big clarinet
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 13:59:19 -0500

-----Original Message-----
From: Pat Flannery <pjfnefro@-----.edu>
Date: Thursday, October 29, 1998 12:36 PM
Subject: Re: [kl] Big clarinet

> ...I'm so glad to see someone else on this list extole the benefits of
>double-lip. I've been told all my life (well, at least the portion devoted
>to clarinet) that "real" clarinetists "outgrow" a double-lip embouchere. I
>use double-lip on soprano and bass and have since day one. Single-lip just
>never felt comfortable and just didn't give me the results I was looking
>for.

Whoever told you that certainly never bothered to check on the history of
double lip. There have been fine professional clarinettists who use the
double lip embouchure by choice. And of course in the early history of the
clarinet when it was played reed UP, you had to use a double lip (I have
never been able to figure out how they tongued notes though).

While I am not personally comfortable with double lip on a regular basis, I
use it occasionally in practice just to check and make sure that I am not
getting into the bad habits of biting or pinching or conversely a "lazy"
embouchure. The single lip makes it easy to compensate for a number of bad
habits. The double lip shows up one's flaws immediately.

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