 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2004-05-04 12:44
I've recently been playing on a wonderful mouthpiece that has a much more closed tip opening than the one I'm used to. I've noticed some changes that I've had to make to my embouchure to get the more closed mouthpiece to play well, but what wondering what others' experiences where in this regard?
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2004-05-04 13:53
What, in particular, is it that you are doing to make the closed-tip mouthpiece play better? What were you playing before? What reeds are you using?
Susan
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Author: John Scorgie
Date: 2004-05-05 07:57
When transitioning to a closer lay mouthpiece, you are almost certainly going to need to use stronger reeds, possibly much stronger reeds.
Several of the classic close lay mpces had rather short lays, some being less than 5/8", so that medium or medium hard reeds worked well with them. However, most of the modern close lay mpces have lays which are both close and long, and therefore require hard reeds.
While a close / long lay mouthpiece will play (sort of) with a soft or medium reed, for optimum results you will need a strong reed.
For example, when I play a medium mpce such as a Vandoren 5RV, I prefer a Vandoren 3 1/2 or 4 reed. But when I initially tried my Vandoren M15, with a lay which is both fairly close and very long, Vandoren 4s were too light and made the mpce play stuffy. The M15 did not play optimally until I tried the strongest reeds in the drawer -- some old Vandoren #5s.
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2004-05-05 08:34
I'm aware that stronger reeds need to be used on more closed facings, and vice versa. I was just asking what general embouchure changes players make (if any) when playing different facings. The particular mouthpiece and reeds that I use is irrelevant.
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Author: graham
Date: 2004-05-05 11:58
I use three different mouthpieces on my pair, depending on mood and circumstance. The widest is 1.25mm tip opening with a medium length lay, then there is the short lay 1.05mm one, and the medium lay 1.05mm one. The latter two feel as different from each other as they both feel from the first.
For what it's worth, I do not find that I consciously change embouchure between them, but it is not easy to tell whether one is doing so automatically or inadvertently. It sometimes seems that the 1.25mm creates a quicker onset of fatigue, but that is not always the case. I almost never use it with chamber music, so I do not know if I could happily keep up the 4/5 or more hours of pretty continuous playing that is possible with the right quality reed on the two 1.05mm mouthpieces which sometimes happens with chamber sessions.
Reed strength matching is not the only reed issue. I find that different brands of reed play and feel better or worse on these mouthpieces, and I try to aim for the same feel embouchure wise by selecting a brand of reed that fits what I want for the particular mouthpiece. This helps make the feel as similar as possible between them.
Whether I am right to aim for as little apparent difference as possible, rather than to seek to make a difference when playing on the different mouthpieces, I do not know, but am inclined to think that I am right, since good technique should automatically conform to the playing conditions, rather than having to change to adapt to those conditions.
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