Klarinet Archive - Posting 000433.txt from 1999/11

From: EbKlarinet@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Re: beginners' intonation/voicing
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 15:40:14 -0500

Hi all!!

Georgette C. said:
>>>>>>>>>>this girl will be grossly out of tune. Her playing is a half step
pitch under. I have tried having her adjust her embouchure, experimented by
changing
barrels, even had her play on my clarinet. We still arrived at the same
result. Next week we will experiment with a harder reed and different
mouthpiece. Does anyone know how to solve this problem?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Lots of people responded with suggestions about equipment, embouchure, and
etc, and only one person (David Blumberg) mentioned voicing (he didn't use
that term--he mentioned using the inner smile and faster air.)

So here's my question: are David and I the only people on the list who teach
voicing as a fundamental part of clarinet tone production? By voicing, I
refer to the shaping of the air column by the position of the tongue---high
back tongue(inner smile) which speeds up the air and focuses it.

When I saw Georgette's post, I immediately thought 'voicing'. I use voicing
first with my beginners, using the tuner as David suggested, for visual
feedback--an indicator of whether or not the tongue is high enough/air is
fast enough. I only address embouchure after they have a good grasp of
voicing, and I find that this works better than trying to have them do
embouchure first.

I often get students from other teachers who were not able to help them, and
in almost every case, I find that they have no concept of voicing. This one
element is what turns these kids around. I learned this from Tom Ridenour,
btw. He has articles at his website on the subject, at <A
HREF@-----.

I would be very interested to get a survey of members of this list who do a
substantial amount of teaching. Here's the form ( put an 'X' next to those
which apply):
____teach embouchure

____teach voicing

____teach both

____other(you may elaborate, if you like)

These questions refer to the tone production part of playing/teaching. You
can send your responses to me or the list.

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

Elise Curran
ENTJ

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