 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: eac
Date: 2013-09-25 19:52
I have heard or read the terms "lip up" or "lip down" but finally realized that I don't really understand they mean. Could some one enlighten me? Thanks!
Liz Leckey
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2013-09-25 20:01
I believe this is short hand and refers to the use of increased or decreased embouchure tension to bend the pitch of a note slightly. Of course that's a very crude approach since voicing with the oral cavity etc is actually equally or more effective and has less delirious effect on tone quality.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2013-09-25 20:19
You can slightly raise or lower the pitch of a note by reducing or increasing the pressure you apply against the reed with your embouchure. You can also sometimes accomplish this by changing the shape inside your mouth. The effect may be enough to bring your note into agreement with another instrument when a pitch discrepancy is small The degree to which you can move your pitch varies with different notes on the clarinet - e.g. you can do very little with long B(4) and C(5), but you can move B5 and C6 quite a lot without losing control (a good thing because many Boehm-type clarinets are sharp on those notes).
Karl
Post Edited (2013-09-25 20:20)
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-09-26 02:15
Liz -
You can make a limited change in pitch with your embouchure muscles alone. The process is fairly simple -- just squeezing more or less. The problem with doing it to raise the pitch is that you quickly get tired and tend to clamp your jaw up, producing the dreaded "biting." Also, if you drop your jaw to loosen your embouchure (and lower the pitch), it spoils the tone.
You can make a very large change down and then back up by moving the middle part of your tongue. That's what you do in, for example, the opening to Rhapsody in Blue. Every jazz player learns to do this.
Charles Neidich can play C6 ![[C6]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/c6.gif) and bend it down a full octave to C5. I heard him do it live. He also "voices" his oral cavity to move seamlessly from one register to the next, particularly between the clarion and the altissimo. See http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=20&i=757&t=757.
The best exercise I've found for mid-tongue control is Shooshie's Mouthpiece Exercise http://www.bobrk.com/saxfaq/2.6.html. It's for sax, but works fine for clarinet. Give that a try and then come back and ask more questions.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Alexis
Date: 2013-09-27 12:45
Hi Ken,
Are you certain Neidich did that with just the C fingering?
I'm not a physicist, but it seems the lowest pitch (undertone) of the c fingering is a 2nd line g, and to split this note to anything less than an octave seems physically impossible. Of course f is the fundamental, but with the register key this becomes a g.
My experience is that the note cracks at top of stave g (octave above the fundamental), but I can do the glissando to the c if I change the fingering to g when I get there and then E when I get there from the g.
Anyone else try this?
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Author: MartyMagnini
Date: 2013-09-27 19:43
I'll have to try - When I play the Rhapsody in Blue solo, once I get to the "D" in the staff, I can remove all fingers and gliss up to the C smoothly, but I don't know if I've ever tried starting on the C and glissing down. Something to try for my next practice session - I'll let you know.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-09-27 20:26
More on bending pitches down:
First, learn to move your soft palate. Stand in front of a mirror and shine a flashlight into your mouth. Then yawn and watch your soft palate and uvula move up. Then snore and watch them move down. Then learn to move them up or down voluntarily, without yawning or snoring.
Keep the back of your tongue high and the tip low. Play clarion high C (second ledger line above the staff). Then arch up your soft palate and make as much room as possible in your mouth by lowering the middle part of your tongue. You can drop your jaw a little, but not too much. You can also push forward a little with the back of your tongue. Think of the air going toward the roof of your mouth (the hard palate) instead of into the mouthpiece, so that you move the pitch down. Yawn (with your mouth closed) if you have to.
Don't worry about squeaks or horrible sounds. It's all part of the learning process. If you can't make ugly sounds, you can't make the beautiful ones just next-door.
It helps to use a fairly open mouthpiece with a soft reed.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2013-09-28 02:41
I tried it. High C comes down nicely to the G above the staff....F#,F and e are getting into multiphonics and then it goes directly down to a throat G. The C may be in there but I don't hear it as very accessible.
Freelance woodwind performer
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