Klarinet Archive - Posting 000578.txt from 2004/03

From: "Dallas SCUBA" <forest_aten@------.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Teaching clarinet embouchure to Asian students
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 09:10:15 -0500


>
> hi Audrey, and everyone reading this,
>
> I'm not a linguist, neither am i just
> chinese-speaking, as i suppose i speak my mandarin
> (chinese) and english equally well, or equally
> badly.... depending on how u look at it...
>
> But.. i guess i have to add my two cents' worth to
> this msg as i'm probably one of the few chinese who
> subscribe to this clarinet list?
>
> so, answer to a)
>
> is that there are many words, or rather, many chinese
> characters which require the mouth to be firm around
> the corners. In fact, off hand, i can already very
> quickly think of one.. which is.. my chinese name! My
> chinese name is Chen Shu Wen, and i've typed my
> chinese name in han yu pin yin (meaning: in an english
> pronunciation manner) in order to let u guys get a
> feel of wat speaking chinese or rather, mandarin, is
> like, the 'shu' requires u to firm the mouth? doesn't
> it? in order to hear the 'h' or 'sh' sound.
>
> How about zhen xin?
>
> zhen xin means true heart, directly translated into
> English, but it actually more or less means (the verb)
> of loving whole heartedly and truly. The 'zhen'
> requires u to firm the mouth too, doesn't it?
>
> actually, i'm not 100% sure myself.. afterall, this is
> wat i tink.. i may not be right. sorry if i got it
> wrong, but seriously, i feel that most of the
> chinese/mandarin which i speak does require me to firm
> my lips.. pretty tightly..
>
> anyway,for b)
>
> actually, i have quite a lot of very
> chinese-speaking juniors, who speak mandarin tons more
> often than English.. and as far as i can see, they are
> playing their clarinets as well, if not, better, than
> their English/Malay/Indian speaking clarinetists.
>
> So, my conclusion: it ain't got nothing to do with the
> language you're speaking, but it's more of the way
> you're taught and how you discipline yourself to firm
> your lips on your beloved clarinet, of course, if
> one's thinking of just quickly getting it over and
> done with, surely the sounds produced sound yucky and
> un-firmy? And, i tink the most important thing is how
> u're taught.. after all, it seems like the teacher is
> the one who impacts the greatest...... nono.. not that
> u're a bad teacher or anything.. but maybe .. the
> student just doesn't understand due to lack of
> intelligence? or that he/she simply cannot picture the
> embouchure? sometimes, drawing it out (i.e. on a
> piece of paper) doesn't hurt.. and describing in a
> 'book-for-dummy-like' way to the kid probably is a lot
> better than assuming that he/she understands wat u
> say?
>
> as for Ronald Robinson's or issit Evelyn? 's little
> paragraph below:
>
> "I've also had problems with embouchure in a student
> wearing braces. He
> can't get firm enough in the corners of his mouth.
> The throat tones
> expecially are bad sound."
>
> wat i wanna say is that: i have a great senior who has
> been wearing braces ever since he played his clarinet,
> and this wearing of braces has nothing watsoever to do
> with his embouchure; he plays as well as any of the
> other seniors... maybe the braces does'n't matter to
> him becoz he has a super muscular mouth? i dunno.. but
> the wearing of braces sure did nothing much to make
> him any different from any of our clarinet-playing
> seniors.
>
> maybe this student of urs is just trying to use the
> braces as an excuse not to play the clarinet well..
> just maybe..?
>
> Best regards,
>
> Tan Shuwen Candice
>
> swissclarinetist@------.com
>
> a clarinetist from Singapore... the tiny red dot...
>
>

Tan Shuwen Candice,

I have had many Asian students pass through my studio over the years and
I've not experienced this "loose" embouchure issue. As a matter of fact,
most of the Asian students I've taught have had perfectly formed embouchures
and have had great success playing clarinet.

I might add that my Asian students, in general, practice on a more regular
basis and more effectively. I attribute this to the fact that (in our
community at least) these students have a strong family support group. I
very often have a father or a mother sit through an entire lesson with the
younger kids and I hear from parents often even as the kids get older.
Having the encouraging/supportive home environment is a big plus. This is
true no matter what cultural/ethnic/whatever/wherever/whenever a student
arrives in my studio.

Forest Aten