Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-09-15 22:17
Genevieve -
You more than anyone know that anatomy is destiny. However, many fine clarinetists have anatomical oddities. Steve Girko, a truly amazing player, has a crooked lower jaw and rotates his mouthpiece well to the side to match. Bernard Portnoy, the principal in Philadelphia, had a very short jaw and adjusted by holding his clarinet absolutely vertical. Nothing is wrong in and of itself. You do what works.
Your soft palate leak can cause trouble. You should talk to your dentist and ENT physician about exercises and possible prostheses to deal with the problem. You should definitely ask for a reference to a practitioner who has experience in helping wind players.
I have a short upper lip, too. Just tuck it in tight and neat against your upper teeth.
The closer to your face something is, the more difference it makes. A new reed makes more difference than a new clarinet. After the reed come the mouthpiece and barrel. An R13 will sound and feel great, but a handmade mouthpiece and matching barrel, for around $500, will put your E11 almost at that level.
For your lower lip, learn to point your chin, drawing the tip down to make the skin tight between the tip and your lower lip. Only about half of the red part of your lower lip should be over your teeth. Then put your lower lip on the reed so that the teeth are exactly beneath the spot that the reed separates from the lay. (Mark it lightly on the reed with a pencil.) Then put your upper teeth on the mouthpiece, tuck in your upper lip and bring the corners of your mouth in to seal, making just a little of an "aardvark face."
Take a good breath and take a good but not enormous breath. Then blow a lot of air to make the tone, not biting and sending the air all the way through.
Above all, what makes the difference is YOU. Open your mouth, shine a flashlight into it and look in a mirror. Then yawn. Your soft palate and uvula will rise. Relax and snore. Your soft palate and uvula will descend. When you have memorized how this feels, play your clarinet and yawn and snore. You won't use either extreme, but it helps to know what they feel like.
Then use the flashlight and mirror to learn how your tongue feels in different positions. Usually, you'll want the back of your tongue high, with a "ski-jump" contour down to the tip and a little lift at the end. This focuses the air stream and lets you tongue with minimum movement and effort.
But, once again, the important part is you. You need to learn to make many possible sounds, not just one. Read the great Robert Bloom article at http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=94788&t=94788
To make many beautiful tones, you must also be able to make many ugly tones. Work on them all. Snarl like a buzz-saw. Roar like a lion. Howl like a wolf. An awful squeak has the high frequencies you also use to give energy and "ping" to your tone.
Then go to the other end. Croon like a mother comforting her baby. Hum along with My Country 'Tis of Thee and Silent Night.
The sounds you can make are limited only by your imagination. That's what you want to stretch and exercise.
So, maybe too much information. Do it a bit at a time, and always look for something new to add.
Ken Shaw
|
|
The Clarinet BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
