 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Exiawolf
Date: 2015-07-02 08:58
Greetings I'm looking for a little outside perspective on a problem I'm having. I understand that the amount of mouthpiece that needs to be in the mouth depends on the length of the facing, and I'm having trouble meeting that requirement. I can not for the life of me put in enough mouthpiece. What would you do to help me in my case or what direction mouthpiece wise would you send me?
(The amount I currently take in is not too small, it's just not enough for long or even medium long facings by Vandorens standards)
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Author: locke9342
Date: 2015-07-02 11:02
take mouthpiece till you squeak then back off a bit, or take a sheet of paper and slide it between the reed and the mouthpiece and see were it ends thats were you should take up to
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Author: AAAClarinet
Date: 2015-07-02 11:10
I'm not saying this would be right for you, but if I had this issue I would hold the clarinet closer to my body and put my bottom lip lower on the mouthpiece and my upper more close to the tip.
AAAClarinet
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-07-02 13:07
Both those suggestions are 'spot on.'
To elaborate on the first: you continually play an open "G," starting as close to the tip as possible; keep playing open "G" as you take in more and more mouthpiece. At some point you will get this horrible, uncontrolled "SQUAWK." That point it at or beyond where the reed and mouthpiece come together. It is there that the reed can no longer be controlled, hence the godawful sound. You just back slightly toward the tip again, and THAT is your ideal spot for that mouthpiece.
The only reason I speak of the "squawk" test rather than the paper thingy, is that there is nothing arbitrary about it. You experience the proper point by feel and sound instead of then having to try to figure out where the point is in your mouth that you just saw with the paper.
Now, you can play with less mouthpiece successfully but it's not using the particular facing to its advantage (might as well be using a shorter facing).
The second bit of advice (having the upper teeth further back on the mouthpiece than the lower teeth) is THE STANDARD posture for your embouchure. You NEVER want upper and lower teeth in opposition like a clamp.
....................Paul Aviles
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2015-07-02 22:01
Here's what I think I know.
You may be falling ever so short of optimal position on your current mouthpiece, and feel that you might fall even shorter on, say, Vandoren facings of all but short length--though you desire to at least have the choice to play such longer faced mouthpieces? Right?
The above posters well covered where you should situate yourself on the mouthpiece--something you may have already known--it's just not something you can comfortable do, right?
Why? It's hard to treat problems without specific symptoms. Are we dealing with issues likely to be gag reflex related, or maybe some other mouth (teeth/bite/lip/oral) based obstacles?
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Author: kdk
Date: 2015-07-03 02:21
Exiawolf wrote:
> I understand that the amount of mouthpiece
> that needs to be in the mouth depends on the length of the
> facing, and I'm having trouble meeting that requirement. I can
> not for the life of me put in enough mouthpiece.
Just for minute, go back and explain (a) how you know you aren't taking in enough mouthpiece and (b) why, if actually not enough, you can't put more in.
Sometimes people get into trouble when they go after a solution to the wrong problem.
Karl
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Author: TomS
Date: 2015-07-03 08:30
One of Mitchell Lurie's golden nuggets in his master classes was "TMM" or take more mouthpiece. He claimed that most players didn't take enough MP in ...
Tom
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