 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: GilliganGirl
Date: 2003-07-29 21:28
Recently, I've been having some trouble with breath control and air support, espically in slow pieces, the higher register and the lowest register. I've never had this problem before. I'm auditioning for the youth symphony in a month and I'm a little nervous about this breathing thing. Please Help!!
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Author: BobD
Date: 2003-07-29 21:42
IMHO aerobic exercises can do a lot for clarinet players.....increase your lung capacity and fitness.......
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Author: hans
Date: 2003-07-30 00:09
Hi Bekkah,
I'm not sure if I understand the problem, but here are the breathing basics as I understand them and hopefully it will help:
In normal breathing, air is expelled immediately after inhaling but in playing clarinet we inhale and then hold or suspend the breath to get control. At this point we set the diaphragm and abdominal muscles so that they control the pressure when we exhale. When you exhale, your abdominal muscles should be as firm as they would be if you were expecting a blow to that area. Then the breath can be exhaled in a fine stream or great force, and everything in between. If the abdominal muscles don't support the diaphragm, tone and pitch suffer while if too much pressure is applied, the throat tightens to reduce the air flow and this wastes energy and produces poor tone too.
Too much breath pressure produces a choked tone and the low notes will tend to be flat.
If you have trouble managing your air while playing; e.g., running out of breath in long passages, there are some strategies that can help. If you want to email me we can pursue the subject further.
Best wishes,
Hans
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2003-07-30 00:19
Make sure your embouchre isn't too tight on the high notes. For some reason, this is what I imagine would happen if you lack the breath support - you'd pinch just to make the note sound. Make sure you have a firm enough embouchre in the low notes. This way you can hopefully keep your exhaling at the same level and don't end up getting too flat.
I guess you could practice long tones to help develop breath support. Or overtones if you need to make sure that it's ok. When doing overtones I would probably start with a low note (low A first), hit the register key to bump it to an E, then lift your finger to sound the C#. But in one long breath and trying to remain even and get a smooth break from note to note.
I imagine this might help.
alexi
US Army Japan Band
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