Klarinet Archive - Posting 000127.txt from 2009/01

From: "Kevin Fay" <kevin.fay.home@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Help Needed For Adult Beginner
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:31:11 -0500

Gary Van Cott posted:

>> sit on the edge of your chair
>
> I heard this quite often when I was growing up. As an adult it doesn't
> seem like a good idea. My back needs more support when I am playing

I think that this is done by teachers who care more about how their pupils
*look* than how they sound. Karl's observation that "[t]he issue is whether
you're slouching or not" is correct I think.

I'm not sure that slouching per se is a bad thing, however. If you ever
watched the Tonight Show, you might have seen a trumpet player named Johnny
Audino - he'd be the lead guy playing the high stuff. His abdominal
compression *looked* like slouching, but couldn't be with the paint he was
peeling!

I went to a master class with some "brass hole" friends of mine some years
ago given by Bobby Shew, a particularly athletic trumpet player here in the
U.S. His "wedge" technique to get maximum air movement most certainly did
*not* involve sitting ramrod straight - indeed, at the moment of most
exertion (hitting a double A or something extreme) he looked like he was
"slouching."

We clarinet players are lucky that we don't have to worry (as much) about
the pressurization or speed of air as our brass brethren. IMHO, insisting
on the "marching while seated" tension is almost as bad as the worst slouch
posture, as both inhibit the volume of air taken in. The strained posture
also introduces tension, which is generally bad.

I do my best seated with my back against the chair's back, ankles crossed.
(This also helps in resting the bell when playing double lip). The angle of
the pelvis is much more imp't than the angle of the shoulders for air
volume, IMHO.

YMMV, of course.

kjf

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