Klarinet Archive - Posting 000520.txt from 2003/12

From: Tony@-----.demon.co.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Undertone
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 04:46:38 -0500

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 18:45:19 -0800, vsofan@-----.ca said:

> Tony Pay wrote:
>
> > Overdamping occurs when the 'footprint' of the lip on the reed is too
> > large, too flabby, too near the tip -- or any combination of these three.
>
> Tony, by "footprint of the lip" do you simply mean the amount of lip, or
> its placement or both?

It just means, 'that part of the reed in contact with the lip'.

Since we lack a dedicated word ('lip-print', perhaps?-), I used 'footprint'
in order to invoke an analogy: we use 'footprint' (as in, "footprint of a
person's foot") to mean 'that part of the ground in contact with their foot'.

Then, as your quote indicates, I went on to consider the various possible
characteristics of that 'footprint' on the reed -- how large, where and -- an
extra dimension -- how 'wobbly'.

There's also the amount of force exerted by the one on the other, of course;
but my intention wasn't really to make an analysis of what's required for
what we might call 'normal' playing. I just wanted to call attention to the
various things about an embouchure that can have an effect on how the
instrument behaves. Then people can experiment with those possibilities in
order to find out what sort of address to the instrument generates subtones,
or undertones, and what sort of address to the instrument *doesn't* generate
subtones, or undertones.

It's important in my view to see that an embouchure is only 'right' or
'wrong' relative to what you want to achieve. (So what makes an embouchure
that generates just the subtone 'wrong', is just the fact that mostly we
don't want subtones.)

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

... So... Nice weather we've been having...

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