Klarinet Archive - Posting 000770.txt from 2002/04

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] Embouchures in general
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 11:00:52 -0400

On Thu, 25 Apr 2002 09:44:55 -0500, Tom.Henson@-----.com said:

> There is actually another way that I learned.

Because there are lots of different ways of talking about embouchures,
as well as different approaches (as Tom's post shows), it might be worth
describing what an embouchure actually *does*, as an aid to
characterising differences of embouchure between one good player and
another.

I should emphasise straight away that the intention is descriptive
rather than prescriptive. So I'm certainly not putting forward any
theory of ideal embouchures here. (Indeed, as some of you may know, my
'theory' of the ideal embouchure is that it's the one that produces the
desired sound:-)

To begin with, I'm going to take the position that the essence of an
embouchure lies in the contact between the muscles of the lower lip and
the vibrating reed. Other muscles (such as those of the upper lip) are
also involved; but their influence on the embouchure occurs largely via
their effect on the contact between the lower lip and the reed.

This approach leaves aside the possibility that the upper lip may
directly damp vibrations of the mouthpiece itself (not the reed,
notice); but I'm going to assume, along with most other people, that
that effect is negligible.

Description of the contact between the muscles of the lower lip and the
vibrating reed can be conveniently if crudely divided into three parts;
there's an important refinement that I'll come to afterwards.

The three parts are:

(1) The position on the reed of the area of contact;

(2) The size of the area of contact; and

(3) The pressure exerted on the reed by the contact.

(1), (2) and (3) in combination affect both the equilibrium position of
the reed (the mean position that it vibrates around) and the nature of
the reed vibration.

In general, (1) is located roughly at the point at which the reed leaves
the mouthpiece facing. In this position, the lower lip does two things:

(A) it exerts pressure on the reed, moving its equilibrium
position further towards the mouthpiece, and

(B) it damps the vibration of the reed, thus changing the sound.

For (A), the amount of pressure required to put the reed in its
optimum equilibrium position depends a great deal on the sort
of reed-mouthpiece setup the player is using. It can vary from
very little, in the case of a long, close facing (like a German
style mouthpiece) to quite a lot (as in the open facings used in
the last century by some Italian players, for example. Different
schools of playing therefore require different amounts of
pressure. Obviously, the strength of the reed used is also a
determining factor.

The damping of the reed-vibration, (B), constitutes the most
crucial effect of the embouchure on the sound of the instrument,
and much of the complication of 'embouchure-talk' is an attempt
to characterise the physical characteristics of the embouchure
that the speaker considers essential in order to achieve the
damping required for a 'good' sound.

It is possible, for special effects, for (1) to be nearer the tip or
farther away from the tip, but the former usually 'chokes' the reed, and
the latter has little effect on the vibration.

(2), the size of the area of contact, is crucial, though. If it's too
large, then too many higher harmonics of the vibrating reed are damped
out. If it's too small, then a 'bright' reed may be too shrill. And
the required amount of damping is dependent on what note you're playing,
too.

Essentially, therefore, what's required is real time control of (2), so
that it can vary from moment to moment. Fortunately, the lower lip
consists of *muscle*, and therefore is capable of fast response around
an initial calibration. Choosing the degree of flexion of the muscles
of the lower lip initially to suit a particular reed, and then varying
it moment by moment according to what you're playing, is what enables us
to play effectively.

This point of view explains why a given reed may be 'too much trouble'
for a good player, even though the results obtained are satisfactory to
the listener.

The 'refinement' I mentioned above comes in here. The refinement is
that when we play, the lower lip also vibrates, and therefore the
optimal state of the bit of it in contact with the reed can't even be
captured by specifying the size and shape of the area of contact. The
vibrational qualities of things are always much more tricky to
characterise and reproduce than their mere geometries and masses.
That's why violins are difficult to copy -- and bows too, because they
vibrate when they're used. Even *how you hold a bow* makes a
difference!

The upshot is that the precise nature of your lower lip when you play is
crucial. Where you put it on the reed, how flexed it is, how much it
overlaps the part of the reed that's vibrating away from the mouthpiece,
all affect your sound from moment to moment, and therefore must be
capable of subtle change from moment to moment.

Now, obviously we haven't a hope in hell of controlling all of that
consciously. But we can learn how to have it under our (unconscious)
control by practising in the understanding that both flexibility and
feedback are required.

How did we learn our 'other' sort of speaking, which is much more
miraculous, I'd say? Answer, by both babbling and listening.

And -- you know why 'biting' is wrong? It's *not* because it involves
the exertion of pressure, or because it involves forces between lips
and teeth. Controlled and precisely modulated pressure is the name of
the game! Dogmas about 'zero pressure' can be as counterproductive for
some players as excessively hard reeds can be for others.

No, it's because 'biting', at its extreme, reduces the subtle
musculature of the lower lip to the status of a dead piece of meat
covering the teeth. Such a move puts beyond our grasp the flexibility
required to learn how to play the clarinet.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

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