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Re: fuller vs. louder

Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-03-06 21:30

Sylvain -

This isn't simple or easy, but it's what you asked for.

Singers learn to make a "messa di voce." This more than a crescendo and decrescendo. In addition to getting louder, the sound becomes bigger, more resonant and more colorful. Singers do this by bringing out formants, which are strong upper partials associated with vowel sounds rather than pitch. The singer starts the note softly and "closed in," opens it like a flower, shows it to the audience and then closes it back up. See http://www.scena.org/lsm/sm4-4/sm4-4MessaDiVoce.html

See also "The Acoustics of the Singing Voice," a 1977 article from the Scientific American, at http://www.zainea.com/voices.htm.

This isn't easy on clarinet, and you can't add as much "operatic" resonance to your sound as singers do. However, I've found some techniques and exercises that help.

WIND

You can put *much* more air through the clarinet than you do now. I wrote a long posting on the subject at http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=43807&t=43777. I've changed my mind about some of the things I said there, but I stand behind the message. You might also go to some inspiring materials on the great Chicago Symphony tuba player, Arnold Jacobs. See http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=59103&t=58998.

EMBOUCHURE

One of Leon Russianoff's favorite phrases was "Do we need a chonk?" By that he meant "put more mouthpiece in your mouth." This lets you put more wind through the instrument. Push up with your thumb and take what feels like a *lot* more mouthpiece. Your embouchure will tire quickly. You'll need to do serious work on long tones to build up your strength.

Also, move the point of your chin as far down as possible. This pulls the area between the point and your lower lip flat and pulls your lower lip out so only about half the red part is over your teeth. With less damping by your lower lip, the reed vibrates more strongly.

WIND + VOICING

Next comes the swab-in-the-bell exercise. Ball up a cloth swab or a handkerchief and stuff it up the bell, blocking it completely. Then finger third-line B (all down + register key), make a relaxed embouchure and blow like the wind. You'll get a dreadful third-space Eb (approximately). Work on it, dropping your jaw and blowing harder and harder until you get an almost normal tone and pitch.

Then raise the back of your tongue, which will produce the higher overtones. Ab and C should be easy, and the Eb above is not hard. Use these to play bugle calls.

Then pull out the swab. You'll suddenly be playing twice as loud as before. Opening up that much without using the swab first isn't easy, but it can be learned and will give you the power you need.

PING -- Fostering the Overtones and Formants

The next step is to make the overtones and formants louder. You do this by raising your soft palate and the back of your tongue. Shape your tongue like a ski-jump, high in back, low in front, and raise your uvula as high as possible.

There are few sensory nerves in your soft palate and the back of your tongue, so it's difficult to know what's happening. Look in a mirror and learn what this feels like. Practice raising and lowering your uvula and the back of your tongue. Using this tongue and palate position is not easy, since they automatically go back to their familiar positions when you start playing. It's a matter of practice.

The correct tongue and palate position make it easy to find and foster the overtone and formant resonances. They will be extremely bright and raucous. The clarinet will shriek. Musicians have many ways of describing this. Opera singers (for example, Rosa Ponselle and Enrico Caruso) call it "squillo" ("ring" or "blast" in Italian).

Once you can get the squillo really squealing, bring it under control. Practice increasing and decreasing it. It should never be less than a "ping" -- like a golden thread running through the tone. For orchestral solos, it can be practically all you hear. You won't be able to tell how this is working up close, but people across the room (or in the next room) will not hear a squeal. Instead, they will suddenly have you in their lap rather than somewhere "out there."

This is a lot to do, and you can't learn it all at once. It can easily take a month to get comfortable and do what you want, when you want. Feel free to ask questions, and keep us informed of your progress.

Ken Shaw

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fuller vs. louder new

Sylvain

2006-03-04 04:07