Klarinet Archive - Posting 000205.txt from 2003/09

From: "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] embouchure
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2003 18:42:16 -0400

Noel, I think the best information you can take away from this web page is
that there are lots of different ways to control a clarinet's tone and
response at the point where the mouth and the mouthpiece connect. I have
seen all of these approaches described elsewhere, some of them in earlier
Klarinet postings. The embouchure styles Edmund Lee describes (it seems to
be his web site) by no means represent an exhaustive list, however. There
are a nearly infinite number of variations that combine, extend and modify
the ones he writes about. I don't, for example, really recognize any of them
as exactly what I do when I play (for whatever that's worth!). What Mr. Lee
*does* say is that there are (or have been) eminent players who have used
some form of each of these approaches.

Moreover, each of them requires (as Mr. Lee to some degree acknowledges)
somewhat different mouthpiece/reed combinations. There is some danger in
following descriptions and drawings like these without having the
opportunity to work with a teacher who can guide you to the best equipment
for the approach.

Unlike some of the other list members who've reacted to the page as if it
were completely nonsensical, I will say I think there is a grain of truth in
its content, but it is too limited in its range, too simplistic in its
distinctions (and certainly its national attributions) and, in my opinion,
too shallow in its analysis of the musculature that is involved to be
genuinely useful as a diagnostic or self-teaching guide. It should serve to
give you an idea of how different approaches can produce good musical
results when used by gifted players. But beyond that as a tutorial, I think
it's usefulness is almost nil.

Karl Krelove

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Noel Taylor [mailto:r.n.taylor@-----.uk]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 5:48 AM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] embouchure
>
>
> I've been reading many of the very expert descriptions about the
> position of
> the lips and the tongue in recent weeks - hoping to rebuild my
> embouchure a
> little and improve other areas of technique - and it's left me a little
> confused. Some, for instance, have advocated tonguing from tongue tip to
> read tip whilst others have provided slightly conflicting descriptions. In
> my own case, using the double lip technique, my tongue just
> doesn't seem to
> fit into a position where it can play exactly tip to tip with any
> comfort or
> assurance. Today I found this web page -
>
>
> http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Palace/5825/embouchure.htm
>
>
> and, to me, it seems to make very clear why I am getting those conflicting
> messages, and provides extremely clear advice that I can follow if I wish.
> My assumption is that the conflicting information in the posts stems from
> the undocumented differences in technique - described in terms of French,
> American or German technique in this article - used by the person posting.
> At the risk of renewing a subject that comes up on the list as
> regularly as
> the tide I wonder if list members might comment on any flaws or
> otherwise -
> in this article. If I follow the advice in the article it would
> appear that
> my own tongue position is more or less standard for the double lip
> technique, and yet following posts to the list I have been trying - if the
> article is accurate - to adjust my tongue position as if I was using a
> single lip embouchure.
>
>
> Noel Taylor
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
>

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