Klarinet Archive - Posting 000754.txt from 1998/12

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Gas flow rate in clarinet
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1998 21:52:28 -0500

On Sun, 20 Dec 1998 12:19:43 -0800, Gary@-----.com said:

> Tony Pay wrote:
>
> > For example, I find that calling a student's attention to the fact
> > that we can play using a slower flow rate during certain parts of a
> > phrase, without compromising the musical result, often results in
> > their being able to realise their ability to play that phrase in one
> > breath. This can sometimes solve a musical problem for them.
>
> Please help me understand how this can work. I do not understand how,
> with a given setup and on any specific note, that the amount of air
> put through the horn can be altered without the volume of the sound
> changing proportionately.

Well, the precise details vary from circumstance to circumstance. But
to undermine for you the notion that the volume of sound is proportional
to the airflow, consider that what makes the sound is the vibration of
the reed/clarinet-aircolumn system -- and, really, the
clarinet-aircolumn only, since it's vibrations of *that* that 'leak' out
into the environment.

So *any* method of getting the clarinet-aircolumn to vibrate generates a
sound. The same is true of brass instruments, where it's the vibration
not of a reed, but of the player's lips, that sets the
brass-instrument-aircolumn vibrating. And in this case, a motivated
and persistent horn player can, by dint of practice, set his/her lips
vibrating by actually *sucking*, have this vibration transmitted to the
horn-aircolumn, and thus still produce a recognisable horn sound. It
can be quite loud, too!

Now, this is a slightly disreputable example, and anyway, we can't do
it on a clarinet. But the key to understanding how airflow can be
changed without altering dynamic (though usually the sound quality
changes at least a little bit, which is why I said, 'certain parts of a
phrase', above) is to see that how the reed vibrates is controlled by
other variables than airflow. The embouchure is certainly one such
variable; and though this is a controversial assertion, I assert that
mouth shape, that is, tongue position, is another such variable.

Another way of saying all this is to point out that the clarinet is
*already full of air, waiting to vibrate*. We don't need to put more
air there. Air *does* pass through the instrument, but you can think of
that as incidental -- the purpose is rather to generate a pressure
difference between the air inside the mouth and the air inside the
clarinet, so that the reed will vibrate.

This is a metaphor that can be helpful to some students -- it makes the
clarinet-aircolumn rather like a cello string, and the vibrating reed
like the bow. Then, it's natural to 'let' the system vibrate, rather
than trying to squirt air down it, which is what some of them are doing
excessively.

Of course, to some other students, you want to use the opposite sort of
metaphor: "the sound travels like a beautiful smooth tube, starting from
deep inside you, and passing through the mouthpiece/reed join and out
into the audience!" This can help a player who is over-restricting air
flow -- at the embouchure, for example.

Of course, such metaphors are always 'lies' of one sort or another,
because they are incomplete descriptions. But the point of them is to
lead a player to a successful experience with the instrument, and so to
begin a process in which eventually what they 'actually' do becomes
subconscious.

I could go into more detail about how embouchure and tongue position can
alter airflow in different registers and dynamics, but in a way it's
better for you to discover some of that to start with by playing about
yourself. Your mouthpiece and reed (and mouth) are very likely
different from mine, and different setups respond to slightly different
techniques.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

"'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own."

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