 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: much2bored
Date: 2011-07-19 08:00
Hi, I'm Chase, I've been playing clarinet for around 3 1/2 years. I've been playing on a student mouthpiece (the brand isn't even specified), and whatever messed up clarinet my school let me use. Normally, I play on Vandoren traditional 3 1/2 reeds.
My problem is, a recent change in embouchure has pretty much destroyed the strength of my embouchure. On top of that, I got, just last week, a Buffet R13, and a Vandoren M13 mouthpiece (I didn't get a say in any of it). The 3 1/2's I normally play sound too soft for it, but I don't have a strong enough embouchure for 4's at the moment. My goal is to get to a point where I can play on 4's (I don't want this equipment to go to waste, and I don't want to hurt the feelings of the person who bought it for me) by the end of this month.
All I'm asking is for tips on strengthening my embouchure in a short period of time.
P.S. I really have no idea what I'm doing xP
Post Edited (2011-07-19 08:19)
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Author: Clarimeister
Date: 2011-07-19 09:00
Hi there. What would definitely help strengthening your embochure would definitely be long tones. Start from the very bottom on low E and play 4 counts from piano to forte then forte to piano the next 4 counts totaling 8 counts per note. Go up chromatically and back down again all the way to like altissimo G. It'll seem super boring and annoying, but trust me, it'll help strengthen your embochure in no time, if you do it everyday.
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Author: sonicbang
Date: 2011-07-19 10:41
I agree with Clarimeister. This is the best way and you should do this at the very beginning of the warming up.
Additionally you can strengthen your embochure even without a clarinet with holding a pencil in your mouth while forming a proper embochure. Take about 10mm pencil to your mouth and try to hold it for 1 minute by using only your lips and not your teeth. Then rest 1 minute. Repeat it as many times as you can. Later you can increase the time of practising that and decrease resting time.
Another good thing is to play the long tones with double lip embochure. Recently I found a very good video on this theme by Tom Ridenour at youtube . You may find it useful. Good luck!
Post Edited (2011-07-19 10:42)
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Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2011-07-19 13:08
Judging from much2bored's screen name, it could be playing long tones for ever might be much too boring. How about playing scales? If you play a 2 octave scale in thirds it takes three times through it to get back to the beginning note in rhythm. I have an example at http://www.jb-linear-music.com/scales.pdf. It is the one in 6/8 time. So, you play this or another scale for a period of time and the result is having played steadily for a period of time, right? Same thing as looooong tones, but at least you have something else to concentrate on except how tired your embouchure is getting. Yes, long tones help you to see how even your tone is, but if you are much2bored, another way might be good.
John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com
Post Edited (2011-07-19 13:09)
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Author: Chris C.
Date: 2011-07-19 15:15
What you could do for now is just take whatever reed you're playing and sand it down a little until it's comfortable. I have a mp with a tip opening comparable to an M13 and I sand down a "4" to a "3.75."
Chris.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2011-07-19 17:10
The first thing you need to do is to make sure you have a good embouchure so you're using the proper muscles otherwise you will strengthen the wrong muscles. Look at some pics of a good embouchure and then use a mirror to match it. You need to have a control with the top lip sealing the top of the mouthpiece, the side muscles kept around the mouthpiece like a pucker or a whistle and the bottom lip and jaw in the proper position so you're not biting but supporting enough without the chin coming up against the reed. Once you know you have a decent looking embouchure you need to feel relaxed with it but in control, no tension. Besides playing what some others told you to play as warm ups include one or two slow etudes each day playing them a few times each. That way you're not just playing boring stuff all the time. Use a mirror whenever possible to check on yourself. One more thing that I used to do, I would keep my embouchure formed when I did not have a clarinet in my hands and gently blow teaching the muscles to keep their shape. I would do that while watching TV, driving or what ever. My wife thought I was crazy when I did that on our honeymoon while driving but as a young man, many years ago, I was afraid to go for two weeks without playing, silly me.
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2011-07-19 17:27
I know you said you're only looking for advice on strengthening your embouchure, so I'm probably a little out of line with this post. It seems to me your P.S. is more to the point.
You've made an unspecified "change in embouchure." It isn't likely that a change would "destroy" any strength you've built up in the muscles around your mouth. At worst, you'd be using the muscles in a way they're not used to and need to apply the strength in a different way. You've left it completely open whether or not this change was productive or, if it was, what its impact might have been, so suggesting ways to re-educate the muscles to work in the new way are hard to make. Long tones, whether in scales or single sustained notes, are useful, but given your implication that you had a feeling of greater strength before the change, may not be enough.
Someone else is apparently making choices for you about instrument and mouthpiece. Who is it? Is it the same person who suggested the embouchure change? Is this a teacher you're studying with? If so, the teacher should be the one to guide you through the process, including retraining your embouchure. If the teacher is a generalist who you suspect doesn't know enough about the clarinet to be helpful, you should really find a teacher, even for the short term, whose expertise is the clarinet who can help you work things out. It may be that the change itself was unproductive and some other approach would be more appropriate.
There's nothing generically wrong, btw, with an M13 mouthpiece or an R13 clarinet, both of which are from the sound of your post vast improvements over what you were using. V12 #4 is a good strength for an M13, but other players I know use #3-1/2 and produce a good sound. I'm not sure whether you mean that your current embouchure won't produce or control an acceptable sound with a #4 or that your endurance with a #4 is too short to get through normal practice sessions and rehearsals.
If you describe your situation in a little more detail, it might be possible from cyberspace to offer some more specific help, but the best help (as always) would be a teacher listening to you in person who knows both how the play the instrument and how to diagnose problems that he/she hears in someone else's playing.
I know I've gone more than a little beyond what you asked, but often trying to solve one small part of a much larger set of problems ends up being a waste of energy, especially if the small part isn't the most significant one.
Karl
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Author: much2bored
Date: 2011-07-19 21:00
Karl:
My change in embouchure was simply going from using the wrong muscles, to using the right ones (I don't know how else to describe it). The muscles themselves haven't lost strength, I'm just now using muscles that aren't as strong due to not having been worked as much, thus weakening the embouchure as a whole. However, it was a very productive change. I experienced an improvement in tone, intonation, range, and dynamic range.
I guess you could say the internet is my teacher xP and it was my dad that made the decision. He did a lot of research and talked to a lot of professionals and what not, but he doesn't really understand.
The 3 1/2's did produce good sound, but I didn't like it. On a 4, my problem was (I've gotten past it) the fact that my embouchure struggled to maintain its shape regardless of how long I've been playing. Now, my problem is just endurance. I've only been playing on 4's on my own time so I have yet to see how well I'd last in a rehearsal (right now all I'm doing is marching band, but that's gonna change in a couple weeks which is why I set that goal).
Btw, my tone sounds rather nasal and strident in the clarion and altissimo registers (it always has so, I assume it's an embouchure thing?).
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Author: Clarimeister
Date: 2011-07-20 03:35
If you're using 4's and they seem too hard, and 3 1/2's are too soft and you're using V12s, try the 3 1/2+. That's what theyre there for. They work great if you need something in between.
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Author: TianL
Date: 2011-07-20 13:49
if i were you, i would stick with 3 1/2 until the muscle builds up and let me use 4's. if you force it, like some have suggested above, it's very likely that you develop more bad habits without you realizing it. after all, 3 1/2 would be considered medium strength.. so it's not like you have to use the 4 on the M13. My teacher uses a 3 1/2 on an M13 and he has been playing professoinall yfor almost 30 years
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