 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: davimett
Date: 2011-02-01 17:11
I am currently a sophomore in college. During my freshman year, when I first started taking lessons, my clarinet teacher fixed my embouchure. He made me pull down my chin and bring the corners of my mouth in towards the mouthpiece.
When I first start to play, either at the beginning of a practice session or a lesson, my embouchure looks great. However, very soon afterward, it begins to shake and collapse. I've been working on this for two years, and it doesn't seem like my endurance is increasing. Both my teacher and I are very frustrated. Before I came to college, I never had any endurance problems.
About a year ago, I switched to doing all of my long-tone warm-ups double-lipped to try and increase endurance, but this has not worked.
Any suggestions or advice?
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Author: sonicbang
Date: 2011-02-01 17:50
Although I can't say anything helpful, (practise, practise practise) what I know is it took me much longer then 2years to fix my embochure. I feel with you.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2011-02-01 18:18
davimett wrote:
> ...my clarinet teacher fixed
> my embouchure. He made me pull down my chin and bring the
> corners of my mouth in towards the mouthpiece.
>
It's pretty hopeless to try to discover a problem over the Internet that a teacher standing up close and listening can't find, but here are a couple of ideas.
I assume your teacher finds your reeds to be responsive and not too resistant. If he hasn't tried your reeds on your mouthpiece, ask him to try a typical one and see what he thinks of the resistance.
It may be that you're just overdoing one or the other of these opposing muscular applications. You're pulling the chin down, which pulls the jaw open. Then you're pulling the lips in to close the gap, at least partly in opposition to the open jaw. My long distance guess is that one motion is fighting hard against the other. Your jaw muscles are stronger than the ones you use to close your lips, so your lips may be on the losing end of the battle.
I can't argue with the concept you've described - it's basically the way I was taught and still play (although I play double-lipped). I don't spend much energy on pulling my chin down, although it's certainly more open than when I'm at rest. Maybe you need to experiment on your own with differing degrees of exertion in the jaw and in the closure of your lips inward (around) the mouthpiece. Try opening your jaw but not as far - not pulling down as hard. Try drawing the corners in but not pressing them as hard against the mouthpiece.
If you've experimented already with double-lip and were able to play with good control that way (even if your endurance was no better - there are often different endurance issues when you play double-lip), you might try using it as a model for how to form your lips, then try to duplicate the embouchure without actually tucking the lip under your teeth. You may find you aren't working quite as hard but accomplishing the same result.
Good luck.
Karl
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Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2011-02-01 20:42
How did you play before your teacher had you change your embouchure?
Perhaps some of my own experiences will give you some things to think about. Back in the 60s when I started, the standard advice was pointed chin, bottom lip over the bottom teeth, and corners pulled back, almost into a smile. There wasn't the large variety of thick-blank reeds that we have now. Instead, most reeds were made from thin blanks. There were a few exceptions, such as Morres, but they were hard to get. My teachers were constantly telling me that my sound was too bright. Later on, I started using harder and better reeds (standard Vandorens and Mitchell Luries), got a better clarinet, changed mouthpieces, and matured. My tone lost some of its brightness, but it was still there.
Even though teachers back then complained about the thin, bright tone qualities of their students, the reeds, the "smile" embouchures, and possibly the barrels and mouthpieces were major contributing factors.
I recall my college band director (a trumpet player) saying to the clarinets one day in the mid 70s, "Now clarinets, I don't want this to sound like sunrise on a chicken farm!"
I recall a conversation with my college clarinet teacher about 35 years ago. I had read in a book about the so-called hard-cushion (similar to what I was doing) and soft-cushion embouchures. He, like many others of his time, was a hard-cushion man. He briefly discussed the other school of thought, but dismissed it. This "hard-cushion" gave a nice pure sound, but looking back now, it didn't have a lot of depth. Because the corners were pulled back so tightly, many performers leaked air like crazy. I still remember a faculty recital I attended. I was sitting in the balcony, but the loud leaking air ruined everything.
Many years ago, the differences between the clarinet and saxophone embouchures were considered to be major. You mentioned your teacher telling you to "bring the corners of my mouth in towards the mouthpiece." This is fairly standard advice today, but in the past, clarinet teachers did not say this; instead, it was considered to be saxophone embouchure advice.
Nowadays, there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between clarinet and classical saxophone embouchures. The old "smile" embouchure is no longer widely taught, and there is a greater variety of reeds, mouthpieces, and barrels. As far as I'm concerned, these are all changes for the better. These trends have contributed to a less bright and more mellow clarinet sound.
I think kdk has some good suggestions. Do some experimenting with your lips and jaw and find what works for you. Also, make sure that your reeds are balanced.
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2011-02-02 01:29
Can you take a picture maybe using your cell phone or have someone take it while you are playing and then post it on this site. Take a side view and a front view if you can.
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