Klarinet Archive - Posting 000054.txt from 2004/06

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: RE: [kl] glissando help
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2004 09:39:49 -0400

On 3 Jun, "Josh Gardner" <jtgardner@-----.com> wrote:

> Tony Pay wrote:
>
> <I don't know that this explanation is correct. I think it more likely
> that it isn't the airspeed, but rather the resonance of the altered cavity
> behind the reed that influences the pitch.>
>
> But the tongue position does have an impact on the actual airspeed with all
> other thing being equal, correct?

Sorry Josh, I missed this post (and I see that you also suggested the
'whistle' idea previously, which I just posted about without mentioning your
contribution). The answer is, yes, it does have an effect. But I prefer to
think of the mouth-of-the-player/tube-of-the-clarinet system as two static
spaces, excited on both sides by the pressure waves generated by the beating
reed. Air does of course travel through the system, but that happens much
slower.

It's like the spring of a pendulum clock. It's natural to think of the
swinging pendulum driving the escapement, and the much slower-moving spring
topping up the friction losses -- though of course it's equally correct to
say that the spring actually drives the entire system. (After all, if you
don't wind it up, it stops!)

I like to say that the reed is driven by a *pressure difference* between the
inside of the mouth and the inside of the mouthpiece. Then I easily arrive
at the mental picture of a three-part vibrating system, which I think is
musically productive, as well as explaining things like glissando rather
nicely.

Did you read my old post about the hippopotami?-)

http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/1998/12/000764.txt

(I see the ASCII picture is screwed up by the archive font system -- as
indeed is my signature. What's the reason for precisely how that happens?)

> <The difficulty is that if you can already do a glissando, it's easy to
> think that you aren't doing anything inside your mouth, and that helpful
> suggestions about the embouchure are crucial. That's because your tongue
> movements just aren't accessible to you, consciously.>
>
> I agree that tongue positions are difficult to be aware of. With the
> exercise that I suggested, awareness is created by consciously altering the
> position to manipulate the pitch. Once you are aware of these movements,
> they can be used at will for effect. I don't like using suggestions about
> the embouchure because the actual physical interface (lips and jaw) do not
> need to move in order to manipulate the pitch.

Yup.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd tony.p@-----.org
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... (A)bort (F)ail (C)reate a holographic image in plasma memory?

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