 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Carnivalium
Date: 2011-10-24 13:57
Hey guys,
I've started practicing and playing up to 4-5 hours daily for the past two months. It's great for my skill, but killing my chops!! I want to strengthen my my embouchure without overworking myself, any tips on what I should do?
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2011-10-24 14:30
If your embouchure isn't sufficiently developed, 4-5 hours a day is probably too much. Once the muscles reach the point of exhaustion they need a reasonable recovery time before you exercise them again, and until they are recovered there will be no benefit from playing any more. Try breaking your practise down into blocks with a gap of several hours between them. This will allow recovery time. Once your embouchure loses its firmness there is no point in perservering until it has recovered. By straining to control the mouthpiece you are reinforcing what will become bad habits in your future playing.
Is the reed you are using harder than your current lip strength can comfortably support? While it's a good idea to use a reed that is slightly beyond your comfort zone until your embouchure stabilises, it can be detrimental to good embouchure development to use one that is too hard. Again, a source of bad habits. Don't listen to those who would tell you that soft reeds are for wimps and novices, this is macho rubbish. You and your lips will know what is the correct reed for you.
Tony F.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2011-10-24 15:24
I cut a plastic straw (the kind you get when you buy a can of soda) into 3 pieces (anything shorter runs the risk of choking if you inhale suddenly), flattening a piece slightly, forming an embouchure and squeezing it between my lips. I alternate between horizontally (across) and pointing out (like a cigarette).
You will barely be able to do it at all at the beginning, but lip muscle strength builds up fairly quickly, and the plastic gets softer with bending. A piece of plastic lasts me 3 or 4 days.
You can do the same with pencil, but the lack of resilience can cause muscle strain.
I also took a dead reed and snipped the tip as thick as my trimmer would do it. I put it on a junk mouthpiece with a junk ligature and added a junk barrel, and hold it in an embouchure while driving or web surfing. (If you don't have junkers, you can get them for free or for a dollar or two at any instrument repair shop.) You may want to start with just the mouthpiece. Unlike playing, you have to keep your lips and the mouthpiece and reed dry. I play double lip, so I also work with the reed on top, which exercises my upper lip better.
There's a commercial product called Chop-Sticks <www.liemartech.com/Chop-Sticks/DetailMain.html>, but it's intended mainly for brass players. Also, it's $25, and the DIY solutions are free.
Ken Shaw
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