Klarinet Archive - Posting 000274.txt from 2002/04

From: Peter Stoll <peterstoll2000@-----.ca>
Subj: [kl] breathing bags/slaptongue question
Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 10:57:36 -0400

Hi everyone,

I don't know if anyone else uses the breathing bag
concept of famed tubist Arnold Jacobs but I'm finding
it makes a big difference in sound production. The
basic idea is to practice moving larger amounts of air
without hyperventilating. The great thing is that
while
you can buy a medical-sized bag from places like The
Woodwind, it's actually free to put together if you so

want: get a plastic shopping bag and a handful of
those
big McDonald's straws (at last something good for you
comes from the arches!) and then closing the empty
bag around the straws fill it up from your lungs and
then breathe that mass of air back in, then re-fill
the bag etc.

After about 4 exhalations put the bag down and pick up

your horn and play say an F major scale and notice the
difference. Boy do I notice one! Much fuller and
bigger
sound and also a more centered altissimo. The only
catch is that the change tends to drop off after about
a minute or so, but with noticing what physically was
affected it becomes possible to start to make the
change more permanent. I'd love to hear of any other
experiences using this and trying to make the
improvement last.

I took a lesson myself with a jazz bari sax player the
other week, and to show me breathing he picked up a
snare drum stick, put one end into his abdomen below
his ribcage, then told me to push in. I did but he
said "harder" so I did. "No, harder!" so I basically
jammed the stick in with wide eyes, definitely not a
typical teaching technique! Well, when he inhaled did
that stick come shooting out his gut. Muscle like
steel down there. And when he exhaled no collapse, no
"toothpaste tube" breathing here! (Reference to Tom
Ridenour's great clarinet basics book).

I was there to try and improve my slaptongue. I can
get a pretty good wham on staccato, but it's still not
that real "slap bass" kind of ‘pow'! Any success
stories in learning or teaching this? I'm trying to
pull my tongue away fromthe entire length of the reed
but the pop just isn't coming.

TIA,

=====
Peter Stoll

University of Toronto
Toronto Philharmonia
Continuum Contemporary Music
ERGO ensemble

Music, Movies, Sports, Games! http://entertainment.yahoo.ca

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