Klarinet Archive - Posting 000362.txt from 2002/04

From: Peter Stoll <peterstoll2000@-----.ca>
Subj: [kl] breathing bags/slaptongue
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2002 05:31:38 -0400

Hi everyone,

(man it's hard to type with a 12-pound tabby cat
leaning on your arm!)...does anyone else recommend
breathing bags a la Arnold Jacobs (great Chicago
Sym.tubist) to develop students' awareness of the
breathing mechanism? I tried one again myself and was
amazed at the temporary change in air and sound: much
fuller and a more centered altissimo. Try it! I get
students to grab a plastic shopping bag and a handful
of straws, squeeze the air out and then blow in and
out through the straws pinching the bag around them to
make a seal. The idea I believe is that this allows
increased air movement without over-oxygenating the
blood and thus hyperventilation.

I wonder: is this change more the changed O2 content
of the air or the breathing mechanism? I'd love to
hear of any success stories finding ways of making
this effect more permanent.

2nd issue: any success stories with slaptongue? I've
heard the occasional high school student who naturally
gets a great slap (but usually can't produce any more
gentle articulation ;) ) but while I can get a strong
whack out of a standard accented staccato, the "full
Monty" pop/slap just isn't coming. Any ideas that have
worked for you?

I took a lesson from a jazz bari sax player with an
amazing pizzicato-bass slaptongue. To show how he
dealt with low notes on the sax family so well, he
took up a snare drum stick, put one end into his gut
below his ribcage, and then told me to push. "No
harder!" "No even harder!" My eyes were wide as I
jammed the thing in (don't try this at next week's
lesson kids!) but when he exhaled, out shot the
drumstick and STAYED there, no "toothpaste tube"
breathing (a la Tom Ridenour's great book), total
muscle flexion the entire breathing cycle. What an
impression that made!

Just some thoughts from "the end of term"... Hope all
are well,

=====
Peter Stoll

University of Toronto
Toronto Philharmonia
Continuum Contemporary Music
ERGO ensemble

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

---------------------------------------------------------------------