Klarinet Archive - Posting 000806.txt from 2000/11

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Article: Breathing and Support
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2000 21:28:45 -0500

On Sat, 25 Nov 2000 21:21:58 EST, Knaphet@-----.com said:

> As I play and "imagine" a crescendo, I find that works well when I am
> in the right frame of mind, and the sound changes without distorting.
> Assuming the basic abdominal support is there, I recognize now a trap
> that some players (me included) fall into, when we try to create a
> crescendo simply by tightening abdominal muscles. If we don't also
> let the diaphragm release, the color of the sound changes, but the
> sound doesn't necessarily get louder, at least not much louder.

This surprises me, because I don't really see why the 'colour' of the
sound would change as you tighten your abdominal muscles, or when you
relax your diaphragm, and I'm wondering whether you change other things
too, when you do that.

> Keith Underwood talked about a device that measures how loud a sound
> is in decibels, and how his experiments are surprising in the sense
> that often players can't increase volume when told to. In some cases,
> when asked to play louder, some would blow with all their might and
> the sound they produce would be SOFTER instead. I am guessing that
> his experiments are tied in to the discussion of how we use the
> abdominals and diaphragm in tandem.

I don't know, because I don't know of Keith Underwood or his
experiments. Could you fill us all in on both him and his experiments?

> My point (and I welcome correction) is that it seems that because we
> can't get sensory feedback from the diaphragm, it is tricky to use in
> conjunction with the abdomen and all some players can think of to do
> to play loud is bear down on the airstream with the abdomen. They may
> think they are playing a musical crescendo, more by the way their body
> feels in a state of tension than by the resulting sound.

Of course, if you don't judge the volume of the sound you produce by the
volume of the sound you produce, you're in trouble. I'm not meaning to
be flippant in saying this, but clearly we can't go further without
following that principle.

I don't think that that's got anything to do with the 'opposition'
system we're talking about, which is designed to facilitate playing the
instrument effectively. We can't deny fundamental concepts just in
order to make things easier for someone who doesn't know that 'louder'
means 'louder'. That has to be dealt with independently, or not at all.
And you'd have to say that the instructions to 'make yourself fat', and
then blow the instrument and listen to yourself, aren't particularly
complex.

I have to say I've not encountered the problem you imply.

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

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