 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2006-09-10 14:23
what does it mean? My band director has refered to this and i read it in a comment on youtube. is this what will make my sound less edgy and how do i do it? i thought all air was warm?
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Author: BobD
Date: 2006-09-10 15:10
Don't recall reading it here but , to me, it would mean what you get after the clarinet is warmed up.
Bob Draznik
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2006-09-10 15:31
i know what you mean bob - but i dont think that is what he means. its the way in which you put air thru the horn (i think)
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Author: Danny Boy
Date: 2006-09-10 15:33
Blow on your hand with your lips placed as if you are whistling...
Now do the same thing again with your mouth open and forming 'ah', similar to yawning.
The first, the air should feel cold, the second it should feel warm. This is often often used illustrate the 'type' of air you 'should' be using on the clarinet.
I'm sure you'll get many better definitions than that!
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2006-09-10 15:51
thanks danny boy... YES - i understand now! This is what the director means.
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2006-09-10 18:28
Perhaps thinking of warm air when inhaling helps take in lots of air quickly. (open throat) Many times people on the flute are too tight with high notes.....if they "open up"(warm air) the tone is more relaxed. Some people even advocate practicing humming while playing as an exercise on flute to improve tone on a bad tone day.
I would think your teacher was referring to your clarinet tone quality being "pinched" or "thin". This falls into the area of "voicing" the note. The syllables ah to ee are used as you would if you were singing the notes from low to high. Ah I would suggest is hot and ee is cold. Clarinet is not the same as the voice though. The throat tones are not to be approached with a too open feeling. Voicing will affect tone, pitch and flexibility. Slurring intervals and even starting notes is affected. You should of course ask your teacher what he meant specifically. There is no shortage of miscommunication when it comes to music terminology. Keep it simple unlike what I have put forth here. All the best. ps. strident tone might not be a voicing problem. ie The reed is many times a cause. If the reed strength is unsuitable for high register the player must bite and contort the embouchure.
Freelance woodwind performer
Post Edited (2006-09-11 13:01)
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2006-09-11 10:49
To paraphrase ROBERT MARCELLUS:
Cold air GOOD, hot air BAD.
What you want to do on a woodwind instrument is project the sound OUT. This is achieved by moving the air quickly, cold, out through the horn.
This produces a WARM sound. Some teachers just repeat what they were told wihtout really having a basis for application.
...........Paul Aviles
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Author: BobD
Date: 2006-09-11 12:46
I don't buy any of these as they sound like you should blow harder(faster). Maybe Marcellus had something else in mind but couldn't explain it properly.
Whistling and saying "ah" involve air speed ....same as turning on a fan cools you off.
Bob Draznik
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2006-09-11 15:24
Hi,
I'm with Bob D.
IMHO, I think the cool air versus the warm air you feel on your hand is just that your palm feels cooler with a fast air stream because there is more "cooling" effect. It's all about velocity (like standing in front of a fan on the high setting versus the low setting).
Now, if you can measure the temperature of an air stream from whistling versus the mouth open technique with the air moving at the same velocity, and find a difference in temperature, the theory might have some merit.
I think the use of warm and cold has nothing to do with the temperature but instead is an attempt to describe the speed of the air that is desired. Cold = a fast airstream like you'd get while whistling; Warm = a slow airstream like achieved with a yawning exhaling. Just a metaphor.
HRL
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2006-09-11 16:00
Allclarinets,
Help me to better understand how temperature can "filter" your sound. It is well known scientifically that temperture effects pitch but "Warm air DOES NOT filter your sound thus making it a little wider, a little "flatter"(not in pitch)" is new to me. I'm anxious to know the scientific basis for this concept.
Thanks in advance.
HRL
Post Edited (2006-09-11 16:05)
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2006-09-11 16:45
OK, once more with feeling.
Cool air is not a metaphor. If you use the "open throat" technique (saying "AH"), than the air that moves out into your horn is out of necessity moving SLOWER. Think of it this way, the same amount of air is being moving out of your body, it is just that making a smaller channel for that air to leave makes that amount of air move faster. [ever bleed air brakes on a bus? Ice actually forms on the valve, not because the air is "cold" but because the speed of the air makes it cold - Bob Marcellus used to refer to a valve on an airplane engine - same thing]
Now is anyone really going to say that slower moving air projects better???
CAVEAT: I realize that there are different National schools of thought such as across the pond where Booseys roam the earth. However, if you want to know how the Bonade/Marcellus types view the achievement of a "warm sound," I'm pretty close.
................Paul Aviles
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2006-09-11 17:40
Hot air is achieved by opening your mouth wide. It is independent of the throat opening. You just can't open your mouth like this when playing the clarinet. The mouthpiece is not that big. Try to get warm air without opening your mouth wide. It just doesn't work. If you "open up" by enlarging the whole oral cavity(including dropping the jaw) you will be flat. Right from the beginning students sometimes drop their jaw when trying to articulate "tah". I would suggest "ah" in the back and firm and small at the front(closest the mouthpiece and reed). Sorry if I appear pedantic or just wrong.
Freelance woodwind performer
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2006-09-11 18:22
Paul Aviles wrote:
> Cool air is not a metaphor.
Certainly it's a metaphor. If you keep the air pressure & embouchure the same there's a finite amount of air that gets through the mouthpiece/reed combo. Changing the throat opening won't do a thing since it doesn't change the pressure or embouchure ... except ...
changing the throat opening and tongue position changes the resonances so the clarinet makes a different sound. "Hot & cold" are probably very useful metaphors (they've been used for quite some time and seem to work well in most cases).
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2006-09-11 23:04
Changing the configuration of the throat changes the "diameter of the pipe." A smaller chamber makes the air move faster and hence...........
John Yeh used to say "open throat" is "closed throat," because if you're honest about it, what is happening is that you are sticking your tongue down your throat to achieve this "open throat" position.
I guess global warming is a metaphor as well.
.............Paul Aviles
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Author: cigleris
Date: 2006-09-11 23:17
It's warm air quite simply. Any professional brass or wind player will tell you that. Pitch is dependent on embouchure, sound really on the space he or she makes with the mouth. Speed of air can determine louds and softs, but it's generally agreed that the diaphram has alot to do with this.
Peter Cigleris
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2006-09-12 00:06
Paul Aviles wrote:
> Changing the configuration of the throat changes the "diameter
> of the pipe." A smaller chamber makes the air move faster and
> hence...........
Hence???
The air HAS GOTTA go through blasted reed/mouthpiece combo. If it goes through FASTER then you've raised the pressure BEHIND the mouthpiece and caused a larger pressure drop to increase velocity. Unless you increase the flow through the mouthpiece the velocity in the throat is meaningless (and pretty darn slow - we actually don't blow that much air into a clarinet to make it work).
It's a metaphor. You can believe what you want, and the results will (hopefully) be what you want, but the laws of physics still stand.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2006-09-12 02:05
Play saying EEEEE.
Now play saying AH.
If it doesn't sound different to you, than you are looking squarely down the barrel of a metaphor.
..............Paul Aviles
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Author: diz
Date: 2006-09-12 03:59
Unfortunaely band directors are often trumpet players or, worse, drummers. Ask him/her/it exactly what he/she/it means. If it's a metaphore (god help us) then practical english is so much more effective (though less flavoursome).
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
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