Klarinet Archive - Posting 000112.txt from 2008/01

From: Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: legato, myths, creeds
Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2008 13:45:45 -0500

Not being a medical doctor, I couldn't comment in detail on the
particular muscular systems involved in the process, but it is clear
that the change in pressure is controllable by a conscious process
(otherwise we couldn't do it). Note there is a difference between
conscious control and well-trained behaviour. The fact that
something is a well-trained behaviour doesn't mean that is an
unconcscious behaviour.

Therefore, whichever muscles we happen to be controlling when we
change the air pressure, we ARE changing the air pressure by
consciously changing the force exerted by some muscles.

My understanding from doctor friends with whom I have spoken is that
the diaphragm is not consciously controllable. But I suppose, in
fact, it must be. If you think "breathe in" or "breathe out" you are
controlling your diaphragm muscle. Therefore by extension, if you
think "breathe out hard" you are making greater changes to the
diaphragm.

At the same time you can choose to squeeze your abdominal muscles or
relax them thereby adding or subtracting pressure to your lungs.

But whether you choose to keep one muscle pressure constant and vary
only the other one, or to vary both of them is a matter of choice. In
either case, however, you are consciously changing the air pressure
at the moment the notes change in order to obtain legato.

The fact that you can practice and make this procedure virtually
automatic, does not make it unconscious. It just makes you a good
player! :-)

--Jonathan

At 5:41 PM +0000 1/7/08, Tony Pay wrote:
>It's clear that the air pressure must change at the moment of transition
>from one moment to another. But because the change is mediated by the
>*resultant* of the two opposing forces on the bottom of the thoracic cavity
>-- those forces being the *upward* force of the abdominal/back/pelvic system
>and the *downward* force of the diaphragm -- it is possible to achieve that
>change whilst maintaining the upward part of the force constant, the only
>change being in the action of the diaphragm.
>
>Further, since the upward part (abdominal/back/pelvic system) is the only one
>of the two that enters our experience, the change (and, agreed, the
>*necessary* change) is *transparent to our awareness*. The legato seems to
>happen 'by magic', because the diaphragm learns to change its resistance
>appropriately, outside our conscious experience, according to which note on
>the instrument we happen to be playing.
>
>The difficulty with the word 'support' is that people use it in different
>ways -- which is why I say that considerable explanation is sometimes
>required to dispel confusion. The phenomenon that Margaret and I are talking
>about when we use the words 'constant support' is perhaps better described as
>'constant flexion of the blowing (abdominal/back/pelvic) system'.
>
>This technique makes it possible either to change the dynamic of one note, or
>to match the dynamics of two differently responsive notes in order to obtain
>legato, in a way that is experientially particularly simple. It also has
>other happy consequences for fine control, as I've described here and
>elsewhere.
>
>My own experience of explaining all this to highly able players is that after
>often *very* lengthy discussion, they finally tell me that they realise that
>this is what they have been doing all along. And I was certainly surprised
>when I realised for the first time exactly how it had been working in my own
>case.
>
>Tony
>--
>
> _________ Tony Pay
> |ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd
> | |ay Oxford OX2 6RE
> tel/fax 01865 553339
> mobile +44(0)7790 532980 tony.p@-----.org
>
>
>
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--
Jonathan Cohler
Artistic & General Director
International Woodwind Festival
http://iwwf.org/
cohler@-----.org

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