Klarinet Archive - Posting 001290.txt from 1998/10

From: Note Staff Unlimited <notestaff@-----.ch>
Subj: [kl] double lip embouchure
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 03:23:22 -0500

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klarinet@-----.org schrieb:

> Patticlar@-----.com wrote:
>
> >Don Carroll and I both use double lip on bass. That makes it impossible to
> >pinch. If one uses double lip, however, one must also use both a peg and a
> >bass clarinet neck strap for stability.
>
> 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.
>

I'd like to chirp in here about the double lip embouchure. I use it myself and
can't imagine how I ever got along without it! Over the years, I've graduated
from a "closet case" to being completely open about it. About one quarter of my
clarinet and saxohone pupils use it too. I have even had single lip pupils use
it for a while to cure biting and pinching.

I only discovered it the summer vacation before my last year of study. In the
fall, I came back enthousiastically and reported it to my prof.
(Kloecker/Klöcker). He was *horrified* to say the least! "What ever you do,
*don't* use double lip", he exclaimed, "I wouldn't know how to teach you!" I
complied until the day after my Abschlußprüfung.

After graduating, I had some lessons with Karl Schlechta (solo clar.,
Südwestfunk Radio Orch.) and, to this day, I think he doesn't know - or didn't
let on...

With time, I heard about other double-lip players: Harald Wright, Kalman Bloch,
Richard Stolzman, John Mohler... I began to come out of my closet. And Harald
Wright is one of my favorites to this day.

I know we "French-embouchure" players have more difficulties with stability but,
for me, the flexibility and tone quality more than make up for it. Putting the
teeth directly onto the mouthpiece while playing is about like scraping your
fingernail along a blackboard: excruciating! Single-lip players tend to put pads
on their mpces to obtain the same effect. Why not do it the natural way?

These were just a few thrown-together thoughts about this. Are there any more of
you "closet cases" out there???

David
David Glenn
notestaff@-----.ch

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