Klarinet Archive - Posting 000442.txt from 2010/08
From: Jennifer Jones <helen.jennifer@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Spit leakage on mouthpiece
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:20:21 -0400
On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 10:45 PM, Jennifer Jones
<helen.jennifer@-----.com> wrote:
> To be thorough, I could test these thoughts by checking whether I can
> get liquid bubbling out the sides of the mouthpiece.
[snip]
So, I can get liquid bubbling out the side of my mouthpiece. I use a
limper tongue; moving saliva onto it (no phlegm). I also have trouble
keeping my bottom lip from chapping when I do that. To solve that, my
lips turn a bit inside out and I use the mucosal (wet) portion on the
reed, rather than the dry outer part of my lip. Long term that
doesn't help me with the chapping as much as keeping the mouth dry.
I can easily see how the tongue could get extra wet and saliva collect
when one gets tired.
I only play soprano clarinet and this as a hobby that comes in stints;
I am on a rather intense stint now. Sometimes I may play as much as 3
or 4 hours in a day. Other times, I may go without playing for months
or even a couple years at one point. I did try playing alto saxophone
a couple weeks and tenor saxophone for a year in band in high school,
but I often sounded like a dying goose and had a hard time keeping my
embouchure loose enough to play the low notes. I don't think that
qualifies as being a multi-instrumentalist.
Now that I've thought about it a bit, I think there was a person in
band in high school who would get spit bubbling from the sides of the
mouthpiece, though by that time, kids don't make a big deal of it
publicly and in my case, because I was just trying to keep my own
affairs in order. That person played fine and went on to become
section leader. I'd say that person's playing was more consistent
than mine; I tend to have a roller coaster sort of quality. Sometimes
I am really good and other times not so. This person could play at a
good volume with good tone and articulation. She was heard well.
That was high school. Later, orchestra instructor in college
complained that she couldn't hear me most of the time. Though I must
have been good enough for the Hebrides solo, because I was assigned to
it. My favorite piece that we played was Brahms Variations on a Theme
by Haydn. Nice because it isn't so much the baseball sort of playing;
the clarinets have some good long parts more like concert band than
many orchestral pieces with the seventy bar rests, ten notes with a
dreadful interval between the throat and altissimo followed by another
couple hundred rests. My difficulty was probably partly due to not
having much orchestral experience.
The thing that happens to me when I get tired is the corners of my
mouth do not stay closed and I get air leakage. It is funny because
it did not happen until after I got lessons, when I saw my teacher
doing that. This was in high school; it was also when I became
section leader and started playing more (I felt I needed to get
lessons to be an effective section leader). All my previous
instruction was group lessons in public school. A lesson I draw from
this is not to get lessons unless one has enough money or knows how to
take care of people. On the other hand, I did learn a lot despite
picking up a bad habit. I wouldn't have worked on Mozart's clarinet
concerto and probably never would have worked as extensively with the
Baermann books that mom had from when she was a kid. The air leakage
may also have developed anyway, because I was playing more.
My favorite piece in the Baermann books is the Tarantella in the first
book. The extended scales in the second book are cool too.
-Jennifer
Rachel Roessel wrote on Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 12:36 PM:
I've noticed that during when I play (especially later on into a rehearsal), I
have spit that leaks on the outside of my mouthpiece where the reed connects. I
know this happens on my Bb/A (Vandoren 5RV 13 mpc w/ Optimum ligature); I
haven't taken the time to pay attention to see if this happens on the others
(eefer/bass/alto sax).
---------------------------------------------
Hebrides:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3MiETaBSnc
http://imslp.org/wiki/The_Hebrides,_Op.26_%28Mendelssohn,_Felix%29
var. theme by haydn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB_5-LfF5y0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSxp9XV2G8U&feature=related
http://imslp.org/wiki/Variations_on_a_Theme_by_Haydn,_Op.56_%28Brahms,_Johannes%29
I liked watching this conductor; seems to have good technique, like
mine in college:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FMimjWngwk&feature=related
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