 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: huda
Date: 2011-12-27 04:53
sometimes i spell habits with 2 b's, but here i need to know how to stop puffing my cheeks out when i play- i dont think it effects my sound- it just looks ridiculous and very unprofessional. any ideas? thank you , m.y.k.
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Author: oca
Date: 2011-12-27 05:41
Imagine an wearing an electric mask that hovers a centimeter above your skin
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Author: Tony M
Date: 2011-12-27 10:46
That might put an end to the bad habit but it might take a while to cure yourself of the ensuing psychosis.
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Author: Pastor Rob
Date: 2011-12-27 10:52
My teacher is trying to break this habit in me as well. He has me focusing on narrowing the stream of air going into the clarinet. When I focus on air going into the mouthpeice it seems to require the cheeks being drawn in. It also improves tone.
Pastor Rob Oetman
Leblanc LL (today)
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2011-12-27 15:50
It doesn't just look bad, it prevents the air column from being as narrow (focused) at the mouthpiece as is should. This WILL PREVENT you from achieving a full, rich, centered tone.
You must begin to focus on engaging your cheek muscles when you play (the other half of a good embouchure). These are the same muscles engaged when you try to get a thick chocolate shake through a narrow straw, only you are blowing out of course.
The proper use of cheek muscles and lip muscles actually go hand in hand. If you are using ALL the muscles around your mouth properly (exerting a 'force' around your mouthpiece in a way that you may think of it as a rubber band wrapped around the mouthpiece) then your cheek muscles are free to be made firm (the area within an inch and a half of either side of your mouth should be FIRM).
Some get away from all the right things by thinking of shaping the lips in a 'smile' posture, which is ALL wrong !!!
...................Paul Aviles
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2011-12-27 18:50
Yeahr, the notes that puffed cheeks hurt your sound are all good motivation to stop doing that.
Part of your embouchure is to bring your cheeks solidly against the outside of your teeth so that the air is funneled right into the tip of your mouthpiece.
That takes muscle development to fight the air pressure in your mouth.
Here's a strange sounding, but solidly engineering based (biaxial stress in the cheek flesh due to internal pressure increases with radius, ....) way to exercise your cheeks. Get a bag of pretty good sized jaw breakers. Put one between your teeth and your cheek and then try to jam the jaw breaker through your teeth by pulling in with your cheeks. Do various sorts of repetitions. Squeeze, relax.
When the flavor and sore cheeks remind you of your exercise regimen, pull both cheeks to your teeth, smile and curl your lower lip over your teeth...
Switch to the other side and work that too.
I tell my students' parents that the kids don't have to swallow the jawbreaker, and that it can be baggied and reused.
Bob Phillips
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Author: DrewSorensenMusic
Date: 2011-12-28 02:49
A little scary.
To fix your problem, maybe start with long tones, slowly and chromatically up the instrument without puffing. Then proceed up with Chromatic major seconds. Minor thirds. Major thirds, etc... you get the point.
There may be two habits to break. Puffing over the thought of high notes, then puffing over the thought of large leaps in the high register. This exercise will hopefully help.
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Author: bethmhil
Date: 2011-12-28 20:59
My best advice is to go to the other extreme... try to suck your cheeks in when you play. Your jaw will naturally drop, and there will be a difference in your sound for sure. You won't be able to pucker like a fish by any means, but with any "inefficient" habit, going to the other extreme trains your muscles well and helps you break the habit faster.
I once had issues with my left index finger hyperextending and hopping around when playing A & Ab, and my teacher literally taped my index finger to the key(s) at lessons for a few weeks. It was extremely uncomfortable and went way beyond what we were trying to accomplish, but I broke the habit, and I have no issues with that anymore.
BMH
Illinois State University, BME and BM Performance
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Author: huda
Date: 2011-12-29 01:35
thanks! i also read somewhere that it helps to play facing a miror!
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2011-12-29 16:08
The mirror is a good ploy, but it is hard to read your expression and your music at the same time! You need to get a page-sized mirror and prop it on your music stand right next to your music. You'll have to tip it back (most likely) AND turn it toward you.
Or, as my favorite violinist practices: in front of a full-length mirror with them music stand "over there" out of her way. "By time I've learned the piece, I've memorized it..." She worries about every aspect of her whole body embouchure: posture, bowing, fingering, ...
Bob Phillips
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Author: Claire Annette
Date: 2011-12-30 03:52
Good thread. Paul, I'm on the same page with you in your description of an effective embouchure. (I had to break a high school sophomore clarinetist of the "smile embouchure" his band director had taught.)
All the suggestions have been good--and I got a chuckle out of David's pin story. I'm wondering...surely stretching the area of skin from right under the nose to the upper lip would make it difficult to simultaneously puff out the cheeks? You know, creating as long of an area as possible between the nostrils and the upper lip. I'm theorizing, here.
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