Klarinet Archive - Posting 000474.txt from 2000/05

From: BEresman@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Re: The perfect Clarinet embouchure
Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 11:38:55 -0400

Tom wrote:
>
>The perfect Clarinet embouchure:
>A. Uses both lips (top and bottom)
>B. exerts minimal (in my opinion close to non existent) pressure on the
reed.
>C. Has more reed in the mouth than many people would think
>D. and isn't much different from a good sax embouchure (I wimp out and use

>the top teeth on Sax)
>
>OK This is double lip: I will make this totally bold statement: If there
is a
>teacher out there.......
>Next student that walks in your door that has never played the clarinet,
>Start them on double lip in a week they will SOUND better then students
>playing six months to a year. They will never learn how to bite. Their
>throats will open to a better sounding position. Double lip is so much
easier
>than single lip to learn, that I am amazed that more people don't play
that
>way!
>
>Tom Puwalski (the artist formerly known as Sarge)
>PS I had a 2 HR Brahms Sonata rehearsal this morning, A bar Mitzvah with
my
>klezmer Band in the afternoon (4hrs) and a 2 HR concert with a Ragtime
band
>this evening. And Both my lips feel fine!

When i went back to private lessons after a 15 year hiatus i went to
Carmine Campione who was at the time in the Cincinnnati Symphony. He
changed my embouchure entirely and started me on a double-lip embouchure.
He maintains that it is harder to form a double-lip embouchure wrong and so
it is a useful tool for teaching correct embouchure. Many of his students
go then to a single-lip embouchure, maintaining every other aspect of the
double-lip. I have stayed with double-lip, and have had no trouble with
endurance. Granted, playing while standing for long periods becomes more
interesting, but i don't usually have that concern. I even use double-lip
on the Eb clarinet--though i have to rest the bell on the case on my lap if
i play for long.

Brent Eresman
YSI Precision Temperature

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org