Klarinet Archive - Posting 000204.txt from 2003/08
From: Russell Harlow <lharlow@-----.net> Subj: Re: [kl] Mouthpiece patches, stiff upper lip Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 20:06:54 -0400
on 8/8/03 11:38 AM, Tom.Henson@-----.com
wrote:
> I have not had time to read every single message in this interesting thread,
> but thought I would add some comments from my own experience. This is long,
> but I hope worth the read.
>
> I have been in the process of converting to a double lip embouchure now for
> a couple of months. My main reason to try this change was to solve a biting
> problem that I had. Many people that have a biting problem do not really
> know they have one because they just get by using a harder reed.
>
> The reason why it may not be good to use a harder reed, is this can allow
> one to maintain an wrong embouchure for a longer period of time until it
> becomes a bad habit that is hard to break.
>
> The first step that I chose in converting to a double lip was to go to a
> softer reed. This was not a drastic change. I went from using a 3 3/4 to 4
> Gonzales FOF and Mozart reed to a 3 1/2. I also have a box of hand finished
> reeds from a person in Germany that are wonderful. The brand is one that you
> may not have heard of before. They are Foglietta. These reeds run a little
> softer than the Gonzales', but because each reed is hand balanced they seem
> to be a little more responsive.
>
> In using a softer reed, my biting became immediately apparent after about 15
> minutes when the reed would start to close up on me. I was actually putting
> so much pressure on the reed with my bottom lip that the tip would slowly
> bend itself until the reed became unresponsive. That's when I knew how bad a
> biting habit I had.
>
> The solution, as has been proposed by many proponents of double lip, is to
> use the upper lip over the teeth to some degree. I know that the degree that
> you put your lip over your upper teeth will vary from person to person. The
> very nature of using this method means that one will usually back off of the
> pressure on the bottom lip/teeth to avoid pain in the upper. This forces you
> to open your mouth a little more than you had before and thus relieve some
> of the lower lip pressure on the reed.
>
> At first, this made it harder to maintain a stable sound because the upper
> lip was not used to this and was not strong enough to take the lead in
> holding the mouthpiece stable.
>
> I think at this stage many people will give up and go back to the single
> lip. I kept working at it a little at a time, building up the amount of time
> I could play this way and strengthening the upper lip at the same time.
>
> Eventually, the upper lip does get strong enough to hold the mouthpiece
> solidly in place and your tone becomes uniform. At this point, the upper lip
> is doing most of the work and the reed just rests on the bottom lip. It was
> then that I realized that I had better control over the tone using the upper
> lip as the pressure point than the lower lip. In addition, I also noticed
> that the clarion register improved dramatically in the ease with which I
> could play large interval and jumps as long as my embouchure remained
> steady. Simply amazing I thought. I felt I had found the secret to unlocking
> playing in the clarion and altissimo register.
>
> The downside at this point was I then realized how unsmooth my fingers were.
> Now I became aware that I was using way too much motion and force in my
> fingers and had the dreaded popping, and the instability that came from this
> bad habit. I went back to basics and started playing scales very slowly,
> playing in front of a mirror and retraining my fingers to use only the
> barest of motion needed to play legato scales, evenly and smoothly. Not
> raising my fingers more than necessary to sound the note or hold the
> clarinet steady.
>
> Bingo, that's when I finally understood the comment that was made about
> "playing between the notes". I realized now that I had control over my tone,
> that the fingers were the next part of this puzzle. As I practiced my
> scales, I was able to learn to "play between the notes" and have made
> progress in developing a very smooth legato in just a couple of months. The
> goal here is to make the clarinet play the notes (do all the work), not your
> embouchure or your fingers. An example would be if you had two clarinetist
> in the same room. Turn around the clarinet from the upper joint downward and
> while that other person is blowing air through it, you manipulate the keys
> with your fingers. Notice how much better it sounds? Why does this work?
> Because the subconscious mind does not make a perceived connection between
> the blowing and the movement of the fingers. You have to disconnect the mind
> from the fingers to the point that you are not anticipating the movement of
> the fingers and thus changing your embouchure or airstream to compensate for
> this "perceived" movement. If you can combine the double lip with this new
> finger motion technique, you will be amazed at what it means to "play
> between the notes" and how simple it is.
>
> Now that I have realized this, I am now at the point that the corners of the
> mouth become important. It is absolutely possible to replace biting with the
> lower lip to biting with the upper lip. In order to counter this and thus
> complete the embouchure rebuild, you have to start working on the corners.
> It is my feeling that the corners of the embouchure is the most neglected
> part. Only when you are able to hold the mouthpiece firmly and solidly in
> place with just the corners of your mouth will you completely eliminate any
> possibility of biting for good. Then one can use the upper and lower lip
> pressure at will to control or change their tone production.
>
> I know that my experience is just that, but perhaps the process of what I
> have gone through will be helpful, if not the actual technique itself.
>
> There is a lot of material about playing with a double lip in the Klarinet
> archives. There are also many references to the article by Ralph Mclane
> published in 1950 in "The Clarinet" magazine. I used this as a guide in
> converting to a double lip and two things that Ralph said in this article
> that struck me. I paraphrase: Not using a double lip embouchure is simply
> taking short cuts in developing your technique (not a good thing); If you
> have any teeth marks on the top of your mouthpiece at all, then you are
> biting. I hope I have conveyed the intent of his two thoughts in my
> paraphrase. If not, please feel free to correct me as I do not have the
> article in front of me to give exact quotes.
>
> Tom Henson
>
I wanted to retain this entire thought (above) because it is so clear and
thoughtful. If one can experience and understand what Mr. Hensen is
speaking about you will understand a great deal and I hope everyone on this
list will take these paragraphs seriously. There are two ideas I would like
to pass on in relation to the above... Harold Wright said in relation to
double lip playing.."The sound has to 'be there'". in other words, a stable
mouth piece and a "balanced" reed will enable the sound to be clear and firm
(not flabby) even if you don't use much lip muscle. Then when you play with
a developed embouchure (not biting) the sound is "there", which will help to
eliminate bitting and allow the lip muscles and the supported air column to
be utilized to create tone color and shading. It is then that the wind and
use of the wind becomes the important force in tone production. Thank you,
Tom for your important experiences.
For those who do not have access to the Ralph Mclane, article go to:
"clarinetcentral.com" --click on "MULTI MEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE CLARINET"
to access a page where you can see the article of McLane and download a clip
of his playing and also a clip of Louis DeSantis who also played double lip.
Russell Harlow
>
>
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