 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: bombus
Date: 2010-12-04 03:08
Whenever I play an etude with fast, non-stop staccato sixteenth-notes, my lips start to give out in about 20 measures. I have no problem practicing for hours in general but I can't keep my lips from leaking and sputtering in these fast runs. Any help would be appreciated!
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2010-12-04 13:11
You're tensing your embouchure at the corners when you tongue continuous staccatos.
Try the exercise I've described several times, from the well known clinician Bob Lowrey. Play middle C and say LA LA LA with just the tip of your tongue, deliberately missing the reed. Gradually move the tip of your tongue toward the tip of the reed until it barely brushes. Keep your embouchure "normal," with no extra tension.
Practice this until you can maintain the "barely touching" position. Also practice moving your tongue tip away and then back, to make the process familiar. What should happen is that the sound is just barely interrupted, and the breath doesn’t change at all.
Once you get this process under control, start using it on scales. Always keep the breath and sound going, and let the tip of your tongue bounce gently off the reed tip.
In addition to learning fine muscle control in your tongue, work on keeping a relaxed, unmoving embouchure. It would help do do the exercise double-lip.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2010-12-05 04:24
Good advice from Ken as usual. I'm a double lip player and articulating slowly and lightly will greatly help. The trick is to articulate as lightly as you can. This is where your stress is coming from, hitting the reed too hard. When practicing don't push for speed, push for clean light tonguing. Allow yourself several weeks, because it takes time to get really good at this.
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