Klarinet Archive - Posting 000774.txt from 2002/04

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Embouchures in general
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 13:00:32 -0400

On Fri, 26 Apr 2002 12:43:34 -0400, karlkrelove@-----.net said:

> When I practice I am, since I'm playing alone, able to hear - the
> feedback I assume you're referring to - and react to everything that
> comes out of the clarinet. When I am playing in a small ensemble, I
> can hear most of what I'm doing enough to be able to react and adjust.
> Playing principal in an orchestra, I get less aural feedback though
> still quite a bit, playing second even less, and so I must rely
> increasingly on tactile/kinetic feedback to achieve any level of
> control over tone or anything else. Playing in a band brings the
> lowest level of aural feedback and requires me to try to react almost
> exclusively on the basis of "feel." Am I alone in finding that my
> tactile (auto-kinetic?) sensitivity in ensemble situations is often
> completely unreliable? Sometimes what I'm doing "feels" fine until my
> part is suddenly exposed and a quick adjustment of my pitch or tone
> becomes necessary.

I think this is more or less true for everyone. What's required when
your part is exposed is anyway often different from what's required when
it isn't. When you're playing with others, unless you're the solo and
they're accompanying (and perhaps even then), you try to hear what
you're playing as a part of everything else. That might not require the
sound that you'd make if you were by yourself.

It's also true that if feedback is withdrawn for a long time, our
calibrations tend to 'drift'. Thus people who have an accident and lose
their hearing may progressively lose control of their speech. And it's
often said by violinists that playing in an orchestra, particularly a
second-rate one, causes their intonation to suffer.

But I don't think our fundamental address to the instrument -- our
'baseline' embouchure, you might call it -- drifts unless we really
don't touch the instrument for a very long time. Like the bicycle you
never forget how to ride.

> I don't "feel" rhythm in my fingers nearly so accurately when I can't
> also hear the result. As a consequence passages that I can play
> perfectly competently when I can hear them can become befuddling and
> hard to control when I can't hear them through the din around me.

I tend to find I gain confidence with some cloud-cover!

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

... Can I stop typing in taglines now please?

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