 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Beeg_Yoshi
Date: 2025-06-27 03:58
I’ve recently had an issue when playing that I think is backpreassure. It feels like there is a balloon in my mouth when I play and it happens in all registers of the instrument. This has never happened to me before and it just started a couple of days ago and will not go away regardless of what I try. Does anyone know how to fix this?
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2025-06-27 15:20
Hi Beeg Yoshi. That's a new one to me, and it's hard to imagine or connect it with playing.
Have you changed something in your technique? Does the presence of the feeling alter your sound or how you play?
Do you notice the feeling at any other times besides when you play - talking, eating, resting, etc? Is anything else different going on with you, while playing or at other times?
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Author: kurth83
Date: 2025-06-30 09:10
Getting older is a pain, could be that.
The balloon description isn't really enough to know what you are describing.
I know I am limited to how hard I can blow on the clarinet (which limits my reed strength) as I get light headed and it doesn't go away immediately when I stop playing if I've overdone it. Scared me a lot when I first ran into it. Dysregulated intracranial pressure (or similar things) due to some injury is not a good thing.
All of life is like that, you have to balance what you can do with what you want to do. The balancing act gets trickier as you get older...
So in short, I modified the reed and mouthpiece to reduce backpressure needed while playing. My tonal volume went down a bit. Annoying.
Aging classical trumpet player learning clarinet as a second.
Post Edited (2025-06-30 09:11)
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Author: David Eichler
Date: 2025-06-30 23:20
One of Joe Allard's exercises was to play with your upper lip off the mouthpiece, so you are not preventing air from leaking out as you play. This is of course not an efficient way to play and you run out of air quickly, but you should still be able to get a good sound this way if your air and the rest of your embouchure are working correctly. This assumes your equipment is functioning correctly and you have a decent reed.
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Author: lydian
Date: 2025-07-01 00:36
A sudden increase in back pressure in a woodwind can be caused by a leak. Check the register key and some of the other keys on the upper joint. The way I check without any tools is to use your right hand to press hard on each upper pad, one at a time to see it if results in an improvement in the tone or resistance. If it does, you should replace that pad or pads. A technician can check them all by other, more accurate methods and fix any leaks.
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