Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2010-04-10 06:35
In my instrument toolkit I have a small adjustable wrench, around 4 inches long. It adjusts to a maximum aperture of, I suppose, 3/4 of an inch. (It's actually the second one I've owned; the first one was confiscated by an overzealous airline security man in the US a few years ago, as 'a dangerous tool'. I told him he could keep it and give it to his 3 year old son to play with, which didn't go down all that well:-)
Anyway, playing about with this, I had the thought that it's a quite useful way of thinking about embouchure.
I've posted a response to Tom Ridenour's videos here:
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=284366&t=284177
...with a followup about Michelle Gingras:
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=311859&t=311609
...and this post complements what I said there.
The idea is that when you 'set' your jaw aperture, you can think of it as being like setting the aperture of the wrench.
When you 'snug' the instrument in, your teeth remain 'set' just like the wrench. The musculature of your lower lip, which is what modulates the behaviour of the reed, can do its work freely. (With a slightly bigger wrench, and perhaps some flexible stuff to represent the lips, you could even demonstrate with a real clarinet reed/mouthpiece.)
Notice that the wrench resists being EITHER opened OR closed -- unlike a pair of pliers. That sort of behaviour may be useful to think of when forming the basis of an embouchure.
Of course (as has been pointed out in another thread) in any embouchure there ARE forces being exerted by jaw muscles on the lips, via the teeth -- just as there are forces being exerted by the various bits of the wrench on anything that tries to open it, or close it.
But if you THINK of those human forces as 'wrench-like' rather than 'plier-like', you may do better.
>> Gotta catch a plane to Madrid....:-)
...now in Madrid, with no concert till tomorrow...:-)
Tony
Post Edited (2010-04-10 21:07)
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The Clarinet BBoard
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