Author: OmarHo
Date: 2007-09-01 20:52
I've had this sore throat problem, and have come down the same road. One factor that could make your throat sore is your reed strength. If my reeds are too hard or just being broken in, I tend to tense up my throat to compensate for the additional resistance.
Secondly, your throat does need some "tension" to some extent in order to produce a good tone. Your throat cannot be too relaxed, as if you're yawning, but when you play, your throat should be just like how it is when you don't play your clarinet, except of course the only difference is that you have air in your oral cavity.
An exercise that I do sometimes is to relax my throat so much that I purposely make myself go flat. This probably works best in the upper clarion, like say a clarion G above the staff. You should go at least a quarter to a half tone flat.
Also, I think you're on the right track for using your abdominals more. Your throat has a pretty minimal role. For example, if you were to play a PP passage, then your abdominals will help that passage speak. However, instead of using my abdominals to do the job, I could easily tighten my throat (which could be what you're doing) and do this to, but it'll ache. So you may be getting the "roles" mixed up.
Another thing is that, make sure that you're tongue does the focusing of the air stream, not your throat.
I hope that helps!
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