 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Meri
Date: 2000-06-28 20:10
We've heard of clarinetists like Richard Stolzman who use the double lip embouchure. A recent experience made me think every clarinetist should learn to use it. [Mark, note that I've spelled 'embouchure' correctly throughout this posting!]
Getting ready to practice my lesson last Saturday afternoon, I discovered playing with the usual single lip embouchure was extremely painful. The problem was that there was a swelling on the lower lip, caused from who-knows-what, although my guess is from my dentist's carelessness.
Before deciding to forget about this practice session playing-wise, I began to experiment with the double-lip embouchure. Aside from the odd feeling on the upper lip associated with using this embouchure, playing was much less painful. At least for the next 15 minutes or so, at that point when I recognized my upper lip was getting tired.
Perhaps I am fortunate that I was not having this problem just before a lesson or performance. It salvaged part of my practice session, and now is being incorporated within it. Being able to use it when you cannot use the single-lip embouchure may save your practice session, audition, lesson, performance or exam.
Meri
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Author: Todd H.
Date: 2000-06-28 23:03
I think that you are very right about the double lip embouchure. It really seems like a natural way to play, or maybe just not so tense. I keep switching back and forth between single and double lip, mostly because it is easier for me to do better tongueing with double lip. The thing about playing this way that is sometimes annoying to me is that it is hard to keep still enough, and the mouthpiece isn't really anchored; maybe it would be a little easier to keep secure if the mouthpiece were more tapered or thinner.
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Author: Karel Vahala
Date: 2000-06-29 02:40
I tried the double-lip embouchure at a time when I was having a problem "chewing up" my mouthpiece and obviously biting down excessively. It took me quite a few weeks to develop enough strength in the lips, but now it is automatic that I do not anchor on the teeth, feel comfortable, and can continue pretty well as long as I wish. Since it does not permit the "sin" of clamping on the reed, surely it is the better embouchure to teach from the start? (Spoken as as a beginner who in retrospect wishes he had started with it first)
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2000-06-29 17:02
Yes IMHO, like Todd I use both, in a nearly automatic fashion, have to think to recognise which , guess its dependent upon the music. I do use a mp cushion on all horns which makes it relatively painless. No doubt our best players use only one!! Don
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Author: cwisbeena
Date: 2000-06-30 03:55
Double-lip embouchure, it seems for me so far anyway, has been one of the most useful techniques I've ever tried, for various reasons. My current teacher introduced me to it to try and remedy a problem I seemed to have with biting excessively - the idea of incorporating double-lip was that biting would be painful and this would deter my habit before it got any more established. I don't know how well this actually worked, but at the very least it made me more aware of how much i was biting, and anyway i'd like to think i sound better than i did before?? Then, just recently, i had my wisdom teeth pulled and was trying to get back into good playing shape and fast - so I tried double-lip every once in a while, because my teacher also mentioned how this strengthens the upper lip muscles. With moderation, it really did seem to help. One last reason I practice with it is for the reason mentioned earlier about the instability - I tend to slam fingers down a little too audibly and all, but when I'm playing with double-lip, I simply can't or the clarinet doesn't stay in place! I also think my sound is more open with double-lip, but I simply can't convince myself that it's worth leaving my comfort zone and using ALL of the time - for now, it seems to have helped me with practicing, anyway!! - christina
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2000-06-30 07:21
Somewhere I read in this BBS Benny Goodman and Robert Marcellus first leaned single lip(some people say 'rip'),swithed to double lip, and finally to single lip.
Why did they finaly swithed back to single lip? I do not know.
As to rolling-in of lower lip, some people recommend a little rolling-in,nearly the lip itself is supporting the reed, enabling the mouth's soft inner part is exposed to the reed vibration. I agree to this opinion.
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Author: Allen Cole
Date: 2000-06-30 07:42
Benny Goodman took up double lip playing while studying with Reginald Kell. He found it difficult to use in jazz applications, though, and single lip won out in the end.
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Author: earl thomas
Date: 2000-07-01 01:14
Goodman used double lip when he lost his teeth. He studied with my teacher, the late Augustin Duques to make the switch. I don't think Marcellus used double-lip very long, or very often. Mr. Duques did not encourage me or many of his pupils to adapt the double-lip embouchure. I used it for a few weeks during a symphony season and the pain just forbade continuance. I think one can place one of those nice rubber cushions atop the mouthpiece, hence muffling some bone-conduction, and find that single-lip is just fine.
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Author: Rene
Date: 2000-07-03 05:37
I just met a beginner (three years of practice), who could not pitch correctly above a', though he heard that he was flat. He was taught double lip and apperently did not develop enough strength in three years. After I told him about single lip approach (a wrong name by the way), he could immediately pitch correctly.
I myself find me biting too hard especially after some playing, which I try to counteract, once I get aware of it. I got too much pain in the upper lip, when I tried double lip to stick with it.
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Author: DLE (formerely Dave Lee Ennis)
Date: 2000-07-04 09:20
Meri Wrote:
[Mark, note that I've spelled 'embouchure' correctly
throughout this posting!]
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To Meri:
Dear, dear, was that an insult to Mark? Or, did you spell it wrong before or something, well I'm lost anyway.
As for the double lip problem - what if you have irregularly shaped teeth and HAVE TO bite the clarinet, and CAN'T use the double lip embouchure, what does one do then?
(P.S, my front teeth are pushed inward - and don't say "Get Braces" 'cause I can't)
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2000-07-05 19:26
DLE (formerely Dave Lee Ennis) wrote:
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* * * What if you have irregularly shaped teeth and HAVE TO bite the clarinet, and CAN'T use the double lip embouchure, what does one do then?
(P.S, my front teeth are pushed inward - and don't say "Get Braces" 'cause I can't)
DLE -
I chipped a front tooth on a soda bottle 30 years ago and adjusted pretty well. Then I got mugged and had to get a bridge for the 4 front upper teeth. The dentist made the new teeth fairly sharp, but I soon had him round the edges off. My upper canines develop a sharp point every 3-4 years, which I have the dentist round off. Thus through a couple of drastic changes, I've kept playing double lip.
A sympathetic dentist can do wonders. Try to find one who plays clarinet, or at least a wind instrument. It should be possible to get at least a plastic "night guard" type mouthpiece that fills in the uneven areas.
Good luck.
Ken Shaw
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Author: DLE
Date: 2000-07-07 11:21
Thanks alot - I never thought of finding a dentist that plays clarinet. Thanks for inspiring me.
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