Klarinet Archive - Posting 000785.txt from 2001/01

From: "Gene Nibbelin" <gnibbelin@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Hissing air.
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 02:24:27 -0500

Ian -

I resumed playing clarinet after a 40+ year hiatus and had the same problem
until a Klarinetter posted a very valuable article on embouchures 3 or 4
years ago. The main point of which was that the "smile" style of embouchure
was not correct and was the cause of many, many unnecessary problems.
During the discussion, someone made the point that the corners of the mouth
should be brought in to enclose the mouthpiece. Think of the draw-string on
a bag. The importance of strengthening the upper lip portion of the
embouchure was also discussed.

I am sure that there are many on the list who can give you a full
description of the problems of the "smile" and
the improvement that "draw-string" concept will bring to your playing.

Gene Nibbelin
-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Black [mailto:clarinet1@-----.uk]
Subject: [kl] Hissing air.

Help!

Having stopped playing clarinet when I left school, and just picked it up
again in the last year or so, I'm still a little out of practice, and the
embouchure is not what it was. But this evening, I noticed an involuntary
hissing of air out of the right of my mouth, in between mouthpiece and lip.
My sound starts off nice and clean, but after a few seconds this air leak
starts, and I can't do anything to stop it. It seems/feels like a classic
case of embouchure fatigue. I'd be the first to admit that my embouchure is
not as strong as it could be, and I'm certainly working on it, but I do not
remember any time in the last 2-3 months when I had such trouble with air
leaking.

So, the only thing I can think of which would affect my embouchure control
which has changed in the past couple of weeks is the dental work I had
completed yesterday morning. I had two crowns fitted on the upper right of
my mouth (not the front tooth, but the next 2 along). Has anyone else
experienced such trouble after dental work? Could it be something to do with
the anaesthetic (even though it's 36hours since the treatment)? Could it be
that my mouth is not quite used to the shape of the two new "teeth"? Since
these crowns have a more defined gap between them than the real teeth which
they replace I even thought that air was escaping through the gap and
forcing its way out. But I plugged the gap with cigarette paper and it made
no difference.

Thanks in advance

Ian

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