 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: whole note
Date: 2010-04-19 21:50
… is not just a simple choice.
My (amazingly great) teacher has been on my case in one way or another to ease off on biting since I returned to clarinet playing three and a half years ago. Luckily she hasn't given up and I am finally capable of getting a good sound without biting.
This has made me realize that it is impossible to quit biting cold turkey. You have to have the other support systems in place--strong muscles around the mouth and good air support.
Now that I'm biting less, a lot of other problems are solving themselves. Articulation is much easier with a relaxed jaw, and squeaking which had plagued me has been almost entirely eliminated.
So if you are relatively new to playing and biting is a problem, don't give up, keep practicing…
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2010-04-19 23:00
Good advice. Seems like you do have a good teacher. By any chance has your teacher said anything about practicing a few minutes a day using a double lip? There's been a lot written about this in past posts the last few weeks. It can be a bit painful the first few times, or more, so when practicing be careful.
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Author: whole note
Date: 2010-04-20 03:01
Yes she suggested that early-on and has come back to it a few times. I see how that would be a great way to begin opening the jaw while tightening the other muscles. I will try it again.
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Author: RoBass
Date: 2010-04-20 08:15
But biting is not bad biting in any case ;-) In the beginning the bite is necessary to support the lip not strengthened enough to modelize the tone perfectly. But later the advanced beginner should attend to a totally relaxed jaw and a strong lip tension instead of a bite (biting is less flexible and slower than lip tension change).
I would suggest every beginner to adjust a breathing and embouchure training programm at first - with the teacher but without the instrument's use.-) This comes more effective than the typical hour by hour enduring etude marathon...
kindly
Roman
PS: Some people need more than 2 years of constant practise do relax theirs jar as necessary! Your hint is very good - stay in practise if it works quickly or not!
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Author: salzo
Date: 2010-04-20 09:25
"Now that I'm biting less, a lot of other problems are solving themselves. Articulation is much easier with a relaxed jaw, and squeaking which had plagued me has been almost entirely eliminated."
In my experience, that is almost always the case. Fix one broken thing in your clarinet technique, and you have fixed many things.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2010-04-20 10:34
To me it is all to do with the thickens of lip in contact with the reed.
A tight smile, no lip support, and a forceful bite presents the extreme of a thin lip in contact. It has poor sound and little control, tending to squeaks.
A thickly bunched-up lip (as is desirable for sax), projected from the teeth such that there is no support from the teeth at all, presents a very thick lip to the reed, and is equally non-ideal.
The ideal compromise, somewhere between these, is what comes with practice and experimentation, and requires a certain amount of effort to develop the muscles needed. In the mean time, a bit more biting is required in order to actually play. Anybody returning to a heavy schedule of clarinet playing after months of being away from it would surely appreciate that. Most teachers are playing regularly, and perhaps find this difficult to understand.
And the ideal compromise for many people still has SOME support from the teeth. And that, by definition is biting, so "biting" should not be regarded as such a derogatory term. That just confuses students.
IMO, but I'm no expert player.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-04-20 17:57
>>This has made me realize that it is impossible to quit biting cold turkey.>>
I've caused my human staffer to fall asleep at the keyboard and type this for me. Why would anybody want to stop biting? I don't understand this whole thing humans have about not biting. I bite Lelia sometimes to get her attention but I never can get her to bite me back. Is it because humans are ashamed of not having nice fangs? Humans don't want to anybody to notice those weird flat teeth? It seems to me that clarinets would scream a lot louder if you bit them really hard. You could bite them in more places besides just the mousepiece, too. Just a thought.
Prrrr,
Jane Feline
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Author: whole note
Date: 2010-04-20 20:43
Hilarious!!!
My cat Thor is very discriminating about clarinet music. He once knocked my stand over by surprise leap from nowhere while I was practicing. He would also never want to stop biting!
Nancy
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Author: davetrow
Date: 2010-04-20 22:53
One of my cats complains bitterly and runs out of the room when I start practicing, another doesn't notice, and the third one tries to climb into my lap.
Dave Trowbridge
Boulder Creek, CA
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2010-04-21 10:51
My previous cat used to claw my back when I played.
My current cat runs away as soon as I play a wind instrument, but does not care how loud similar recorded music is. How insulting!
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Author: RoBass
Date: 2010-04-22 07:25
One of my in house cats don't need to hear the clarinet - suffices to take it... The other ones sleeps well until end of exercise, but she doesn't love the double bass.-)
kindly
Roman
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Author: marcia
Date: 2010-04-22 09:22
My previous cats, who are cavorting in kitty heaven, would run away at the sight of the case being opened. And often there would be a word of reprimand as the tail disapperead out of the room.
Marcia
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