Klarinet Archive - Posting 000525.txt from 2002/02

From: "Curt R Brown" <crb1701@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] starting beginners
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 14:19:24 -0500

Desiree,

I'm not a super-clarinetist by any means, only a middle-aged average person playing in a community band. But here are some things that may help.

Concerning the puffing, something that could help is the sucking straw example. Ask the child to pretend he or she is sucking a drink through a straw. Then ask them to drink through the straw and puff their cheeks. It's almost impossible! Feel the form they have for drawing in air, and now reverse the air flow, keeping the cheeks as they are. That should help some.

Concerning teeth on the reed, I suppose you mean the lower teeth. This is tough and it took me some time to learn it. Something my teacher did was place a finger on my lower lip and ask me to push her fingertip as far away as possible from my lower set of teeth using my lower lip. Applying that to the mouthpiece is tough but eventually I got it.

Hope this helps.

Curt Brown
--

On Mon, 25 Feb 2002 20:43:25
M BRINK wrote:
>do not send send any messages
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <DezB64@-----.com>
>To: <klarinet@-----.org>
>Sent: Monday, February 25, 2002 12:10 AM
>Subject: [kl] starting beginners
>
>
>> Dear List,
>>
>> I am an elementary band director in NY. My main instrument is flute with
>> clarinet and sax as my minors. Every year I start 20-30 clarinetists.
>The
>> great majority have no problem with embouchure but for the few that do I
>am
>> concerned. I was wondering how many of you would correct common problems?
>> Some of the problems I see are; puffing, teeth on reed, double lip, etc.
>>
>> I was also wondering how many of you teach the the break as well as the
>upper
>> register?
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Desiree Behr
>>
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