Klarinet Archive - Posting 000753.txt from 2001/11

From: "denis blion" <denis.blion@-----.fr>
Subj: Re: [kl] I need help with a student...
Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 19:02:45 -0500

Are you sure this jaw moving is the very problem of your student? Students I
knew who did this often had one (or more) of these problems :

-1- To damp the reed whith the lower lip and therefore have to open the
mouth to make a sound.
-2- To blow a lot of air at each time the tongue is working.
-3- To blow a lot of air at each time a finger is working (rare...).
...(other?)

Your student seam not to be in case 1, probably in case 2 and 3.
What about his blowing ?
Perhaps his blowing was'nt supervised carefully enought at his beginning. I
find it very important (when the lower lip has a good position) to blow
regularly, without any shock, before learning strong attacks (is it the
correct word), staccato, or even fingers skillfulness.
Doesn't he need to learn a good blowing (in french we say "to blow
stretched") and only when a continous flow of air comes into the instrument
to make very progressively the fingers, then the tongue work?
It means to go back to the beginning...

PS: I'd like to bore you with more details and experiences, but it's
difficult for me to write them in english. Excuse me, I'm a frenchie...

----- Original Message -----
From: "Benjamin Maas" <benmaas@-----.com>
Subject: [kl] I need help with a student...

> I have this student that has been giving me endless frustration. I do not
> know how to approach this problem...
>
> The problem is this: Whenever he plays his instrument, his jaw moves and
he
> bites too hard on the mouthpiece. It happens when he plays legato as well
> as when he is tonguing. The thing that is hard about this is that he
> doesn't realize that he is doing this.
>
> To get around the biting thing, the only luck I've had is having him try
> playing double-lip. It works for awhile, but it also kills his embouchure
> for the rest of the lesson. Either that or if I let him go back to
> single-lip, he starts to bite again.
>
> The jaw movement really gets me, though. Sometimes it almost seems like
his
> jaw is connected to his fingers. If he moves his finger, the jaw moves
> too--usually in perfect time. Because of this, his sound is really
> suffering.
>
> Does anybody out there have ideas that I can give him on how to solve this
> problem?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> --Ben
>
> Benjamin Maas
> Freelance Clarinetist and Recording Engineer
> Los Angeles, CA
> benmaas@-----.com
> http://www.fifthcircle.com
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>

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