 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Copland
Date: 2008-03-09 13:16
Hello again!
I was browsing a popular online auction site and saw a device that is supposed to largely silence the mouthpiece when played alone. It also said that doing mouthpiece exercises is highly beneficial.
Now, I know that there is a large amount of product hype and sales pitching going on, but I was just wondering if there is any truth to that idea.
Is it beneficial to do exercises with just the mouthpiece and reed and ligature? If so, what are they and how do they help?
Thanks a bunch!
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Author: DougR
Date: 2008-03-09 13:52
I'll just post a quick, meagerly informed and NON-definitive reply until someone better schooled comes along. I've just been introduced to the mouthpiece-alone idea, and I'm still learning about it. The device you mention is useful to avoid damaging your hearing while you're doing the exercises, since a mouthpiece played alone is LOUD, and I usually only do a couple of minutes of the exercises because my ears start to ring. The exercises (you might google the phrase '"Joe Allard" +mouthpiece exercises', which is something I've intended to do: Joe's name is usually synonymous with 'mouthpiece exercise' theory). The exercises as I understand them are meant to bring into the player's consciousness all the throat and oral-cavity adjustments needed to produce overtones on the saxophone (which in turn are useful in producing altissimo and in tone improvement in general).
I'm not so clear on the applicability of mouthpiece exercises to the clarinet (haven't covered that yet), but I'm sure someone on the board knows.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2008-03-09 14:47
They get $75 (plus shipping from England) for a closed plastic tube with a small hole drilled in the end. Go to a hardware store and get a cork that fits the bottom socket of a barrel and drill a hole through it. Cost: under $1.
I do embouchure strengthening exercises with a mouthpiece (with a dead reed) and barrel, and also with a plastic soda straw snipped into 4 pieces, cost : zero, and breath building with a couple of hollow plastic coffee stirrers, cost: zero.
Stuff a cotton swab or handkerchief up up the bell, finger middle B and you've got a perfect method to practice oral cavity adjustments, cost: zero. This is similar to the Allard exercise that DougR mentions. See http://www.joeallard.org/interviews/radnofsky.html. It's easier on sax -- Sigurd Rascher used to demonstrate a dozen overtones on a keyless sax body, using just embouchure and vocal cavity changes.
Ken Shaw
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Author: alanporter
Date: 2008-03-09 15:54
Ken
I have just tried your idea with a champagne bottle cork in my barrel with a large bore hypodermic needle stuck through it. It works perfectly. Thanks for your tip.
Alan
ps. by the way, I'm a doctor not a junkie, in case you wondered about the needle !
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2008-03-09 17:13
I never heard of a "mouthpiece" exercise and I studied with Joe Allard for a year as well as a great many other very fine teachers as a student. I've been teaching myself for some time and this is a first for me. I guess it can be beneficial but why not just use the whole clarinet?
www.peabody.jhu.edu/457
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2008-03-09 17:23
My best (and cheapest) embouchure and lung trainer is the good old party balloon over whatever tenon you deem fit. Doubles as a leak detector when used instead of the bell.
--
Ben
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Author: Copland
Date: 2008-03-09 20:22
With the balloon, what do you do? Just blow into the clarinet until it fills up and then let it go and do it again?
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2008-03-09 20:55
Copland wrote:
> With the balloon, what do you do? Just blow into the clarinet
> until it fills up and then let it go and do it again?
Yes. I also find out how much finger pressure is needed for a sufficient seal (less than one would think). Also, you can practice finger landing (open up and close again before all air has escaped). Or simulate long tones.
I didn't yet try to burst the balloon - this would defeat the purpose of silent practicing, wouldn't it? ![[tongue]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie6.gif)
Oh, and get a new one from time to time - they get tired and too soft.
--
Ben
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