Klarinet Archive - Posting 000558.txt from 2001/11

From: "Don Yungkurth" <clarinet@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: Fun with Double Lip
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 09:40:22 -0500

Mitchell Halpern, <dotcalm@-----.com>, said:

>Hello clarinet fans:
>Just another observation and question from one of the "corps of returning
>clarinetists". I have noticed that I generate a noticeably smoother and
>sweeter sound if I play double lip. It seems to help "open" my oral cavity.
>That's the good news. The bad news is that as I play double lip, my upper
>lip starts to slip off the mouthpiece with associated strange results
>(Nothing like going from double lip to single lip in the middle of a
>passage; talk about special effects ;-).

>At any rate, I was wondering if this is a unique experience, and if not,
>what to do about it. It has dawned on me that applying a regular 'ole tooth
>guard to the top of the mouthpiece would help in providing some additional
>friction to help keep the mouthpiece in place.

>Any suggestions would be appreciated.

As to your observation that, "I generate a noticeably smoother and sweeter
sound if I play double lip" - are you sure? I felt quite certain that my
tone was significantly different with single and double lip, with double the
better of the two. My teacher could hear no difference. He added a rubber
patch to my mouthpiece, which minimized internal conduction of vibrations
from the mouthpiece through my upper teeth, and I could no longer hear a
difference between single and double lip. I suggest you have someone else
listen to you playing both ways to find out for sure whether there is a
difference.

>From discussions of this previously on "Klarinet", I would guess that a
relatively small percentage of people judge their own sound to be different
with single and double lip embouchures. This may, however, simply reflect
the relatively small number of people attempting to use double lip.

Don Yungkurth (clarinet@-----.net)

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