Klarinet Archive - Posting 000833.txt from 2000/11

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: Re: [kl] Article: Breathing and Support
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 10:45:41 -0500

<><> Knaphet@-----.com wrote:
This is true...but what does thinking of "blowing through" make the
muscles do?

Hopefully it has an unconscious effect that helps you to move air
out of your lungs and through the horn (rather than locking air pressure
up inside your lungs). The basic issue is that you can't feel your
diaphragm, and therefore you may need to find some other way to relax
your diaphragm at appropriate moments.
Also, it is possible to constrict your throat to the point where
you can't move as much air out of your lungs as your lungs are prepared
to deliver. Visualizing that you are 'blowing through' is one way to
combat this.
Finally, I suppose that visualizing 'blowing through' may help some
people to loosen up on their embouchure if they're a little bit too
tight.

Are you familiar with the fact that 'loudness' is another term for
the amplitude of air pressure fluctuations (cycles) inside the horn, not
for the volume of air moving through the horn, and therefore the manner
in which your reed opens and closes (air valve) has an effect on
loudness as well as on tone and pitch? As an extreme example, if the
reed never closes completely, the air pressure inside the horn doesn't
drop to zero and therefeore the amplitude of air pressure fluctuation
inside the horn cannot be maximum.

Cheers,
Bill

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