Klarinet Archive - Posting 000673.txt from 2001/03

From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] The spirit is willing but the lip is weak!
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 22:44:06 -0500

on 3/26/01 4:22 PM, Rhea Jacobs wrote:

>A re-beginner is seeking advice from all you experienced teachers!
>
>I've recently begun playing the clarinet again after a long (37 year)
>hiatus, and have been in a position to practice regularly since the
>first of the year. (Let's just say that our local instrument repair
>technician has a LONG backlog!)
>
>I definitely expected things to go slowly as far as getting my chops
>back, but I'm finding, to my great frustration, that my lip tires after
>45 minutes (or an hour at most), and that I have to quit and rest for a
>day. I tried double sessions with half-day rests, but I blew the lip out
>to the point where my teacher sent me home and said to rest it for a few
>days and not to try to rush it.
>
Several things come to mind. First, make sure you're getting a
comfortable combination of air and embouchure to make the sound. If your
embouchure is too tight/tense, you may fatigue earlier that you would if
you had a better balance of air and lip.

Play until you notice the first faint signs of fatigue. Then take a 15-30
minute break (or longer) and return for another session. Stop before your
lip hurts.

>This is frustrating to me, not because I'm trying to get back several
>years of serious study in a few months, but because I feel like I'm worn
>out as soon as I'm warmed up. I'd really like to find some way to
>strengthen the lip so that I can practice for a couple hours at a time.
>
If you have 45 minutes (or an hour) to practice, and you use it all
"warming up", there's a mis-balance of your practice time there.
Apportion your practice - warm up (long tones, scales, etc - basic
playing stuff) for part of the time, and play your studies and repertoire
for part of the time. My undergrad teacher had a book entitled "How to
Learn the Piano in 30 Minutes a Day" (or some such - it was a long time
ago, and memory is the first thing to go!!) which advocated "10 minutes
of scales, 10 minutes of Hanon", etc. - I forget the exact division of
the various categories, but I'm sure you get the idea. Last but not
least, practice effectively. If you do good practice for 45 minutes, and
trust that it will mostly "stick" until tomorrow, you will make progress.
Use those 45 minutes to bulldoze your way through everything, and you
won't get too far, and you'll be frustrated.

>What I think is contributing to the problem is reeds. I'm stuck between
>3's, which are a bit too soft, and 3 1/2's, which are still a bit stiff.
>I have been starting off with the 3 1/2's and then moving down after
>I've been through my scale warmup or when I feel fatigue, whichever
>comes first.
>
I've found that too-soft reeds are almost as fatiguing to play in their
own way as too-hard reeds. I'd suggest trying different brands until you
find one that's comfortable. Then, start a reed routine. When you have a
couple of reeds that play (don't wait for them to die!) start to break in
a few new ones. I like to start with a reed that is a *little* more
resistant right out of the box than I'd eventually like. Play them a few
minutes each in every practice session until they feel broken in. Then
you can have the "Reed Olympics" and save the best ones, and pitch the
oldest/softest ones. If you get this on some sort of schedule, you always
have reeds that will work. Well, maybe not *ALWAYS*!! ;-) A good book
on this subject is Larry Guy's "Selecting and Adjusting Single Reeds",
which you can find at Gary Van Cott's web site on Sneezy.

>Any suggestions from those of you who are experienced players and
>teachers would be greatly welcome. My teacher is fine, but she has very
>few adult students, and I doubt she's had to deal with this before.

Yes, most of us teachers don't have very many students who can't seem to
practice as long as they want to!! ;-)

HTH

David

David Niethamer
Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

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