 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Micke Isotalo ★2017
Date: 2017-09-01 11:57
If I flex only my cheeks my pitch stays stable, but my problem that way is that the volume of air stored only in my puffed up cheeks is so small that my tone dies almost at once when I start inhaling - and long before I turn to normal exhaling (as you may realize, I don't quite have the resources of Dizzy Gillespie).
If I empty my mouth by also rising my tongue and the lower back of my mouth I get enough output air volume, but then also the pitch rises to the sky.
Any tips about how to handle this?
Should I counteract the rising of the pitch with an equivalent loosening of my embouchure?
Or do you have better recommendations, perhaps also about some suitable exercise to address this problem?
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2017-09-01 17:14
You can circular breathe on clarinet? Well done - I can only do that on oboe/cor due to the high breath resistance, but not on clarinet or sax as the resistance is much lower.
As there's very little air stored whilst taking a breath and therefore lower air pressure, that's the reason for the sharpness as you simply don't have the same level of support compared to normal breath pressure for normal playing. Chances are you may also be tightening up your embouchure at the same time, so a combination of low breath pressure and a tighter embouchure is going to cause a rise in pitch.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2017-09-02 08:47
Do you have this problem specifically on clarinet but not other instruments, or are you just beginning to learn circular breathing?
The problem of the air/tone "dying" too fast is often from people doing the transition/breath much slower than it should be. It's actually happening pretty fast. Can you guesstimate how long it takes you (from when you stop blowing to when you begin blowing again)?
The embouchure is usually a bit firmer during the breathing, but not tighter against the mouthpiece. It just takes a bit more force to hold it in place against the extra instability. This is why at the beginning people get really tired and their jaw muscles hurt when practicing it compared with regular playing.
To be honest those problems are very common when starting and I solved them by just practicing a little bit every day and gradually improving.
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Author: Micke Isotalo ★2017
Date: 2017-09-03 11:12
clarinbass: I play only regular clarinet and bass clarinet, but the problem with rising pitch is similar on both.
Typically the inhaling process is about 1 second for me.
Are you flexing only your cheeks but not rising your tongue or otherwise closing the inner/lower part of your mouth?
I've also noticed a tendency to stiffen the embouchure during inhaling, but that I've overcome.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2017-09-04 08:56
1 second sounds fine. I guess approximately 0.5 second to 1.5 seconds is ok.
I don't really remember exactly what I'm doing since it's automatic...
If your embouchure is stiffer when inhaling then that could make it sharper, just like pressing the reed more. Maybe you need too much force to control it now and that's causing it, or you need to be firmer with a bit more force to counter the embouchure becoming too loose or too tight.
I think I'm closing the throat with my tongue but not sure, I'll check. I know I can't tongue while inhaling so I assume my tongue is "busy". It does feel like I have to close the throat with my tongue to be able to inhale and push air out at the same time. I've heard some people claim they can tongue while inhaling but haven't actually heard anyone doing that.
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