 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2010-04-15 04:02
I play both a little off center and with the mouthpiece slightly turned i.e. the reed not inline with the register key. Reason is I have one tooth in the middle of the bottom teeth.
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Author: TianL
Date: 2010-04-15 05:45
i used to. however i noticed that it caused me to use different muscle and different muscle strength on the two corners of my mouth. basically if you think about it, if the mouthpiece is further away from one corner, then it has to use more force on that corner. I felt this was causing many issues (as for one example, air leak always occurred in that side first).
Another disadvantage i found was that when the mouthpiece is off center, then the tongue would naturally touch the side of the tip of the reed, instead of the center of the tip. this can cause difficulties in eliminating undertone completely.
it really puzzled me for several days on what i was doing wrong and how to correct it, reason being, you know, no one is exactly symmetrical, so it's hard to figure out whether i was doing it wrong, or whether i was doing the right thing because of the unsymmetrical facial set-up. Eventually after a couple of days of thinking, i realized i'm not that unsymmetrical. so i just went to fundamentals - 1) first make sure the mouthpiece is in the center on the bottom lip, 2) make sure it's in the center of the top lip, 3) make sure both top teeth that touch the mouthpiece are pressing on the mouthpiece with the same pressure, and 4) tighten the two corners of mouth at the same time, and also make the chin firm.
i found that get the flat chin after making sure all the positions are set was very helpful.
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Author: RoBass
Date: 2010-04-15 09:03
Might be the consequence of an apoplectic stroke? Some saxophone players show this system too - due to the mentioned reason.
kindly
Roman
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Author: spage
Date: 2010-04-15 09:49
My normal mouthpiece position is very slightly off-centre and very slightly titled, mainly owing to history, overbite and uneven teeth, including the crowns at the top front. The historical aspect is that when I started to learn to play I had two broken top front teeth creating an almost perfect diagonal from top left to bottom right! Very interesting bite marks you get in your mouthpiece with that :-)
However I am also prone to cold sores and, depending on the position, I have been known to play with the mouthpiece very far off centre, in fact pretty well dead-centre to the side I'm using. This works (better on the Bb than, say, the bass), but does (obviously!) affect tone and tonguing.
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2010-04-15 19:24
I play a little off-center too because of a chipped top tooth. This also causes my mouthpiece cushion to have only one tooth mark on it!
I have a student whose embouchure is definitely off center too but in a very different way. I believe (but haven't corroborated since she's only interested in recreational playing at a rather high level) that her musculature in her face is weaker on one side and even though her former school band director and I have both worked on it with her, it's stable when off-center and she gets a great sound.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2010-04-15 21:39
"Apoplectic stroke"....hmm. In general educators assume all students have uniform teeth and alignment that's why most expect a "straight on" position. Tooth misalignment, condition and size are common causes of off center playing. Also someone might get used to a mouthpiece with non-uniform rails and accomodate to it. Yes, a stroke could lead to uneven musculature of the embouchure.
Bob Draznik
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Author: Dan Shusta
Date: 2014-04-01 05:29
So did Benny Goodman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcCZZ3l9tBo
If you stop the video at exactly 0:15, you'll see a very clear picture of Benny with the left most side of his mouthpiece in the center of his mouth. Also, it appears that his clarinet is approximately 30 degrees to the right of center.
I'm thinking of adopting this style of embouchure as a possible corrective measure to my embouchure dystonia.
Anyone else play off center?
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Author: Barry Vincent
Date: 2014-04-01 15:00
I always play central on my embouchure but I notice that often my clarinet is angled to the right a bit. This is no doubt because I"m partially blind in my left eye. The vision in this defective eye could be described as 100% peripheral but it's still a very useful eye. Even after I notice it on occasion and correct the Clarinet position , it soon ends up pointing slightly to the right again. It doesn't effect my playing in anyway. But yes, this is not quite what Chris J is asking about.
BJV
"The clarinet is not a horn"
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2014-04-01 15:58
I think people just find what's most comfortable for them and what requires less effort and concentration. I play with mouthpiece centered, but more often than not, if seated, the bell is rested on my left knee (the rim of the bell so no sound gets blocked). It's comfortable, I can easily turn pages with my right hand without losing support of the clarinet, just works for me.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: ThatPerfectReed
Date: 2014-04-01 12:07
This post is directed at me, isn't it! (he jokes with comedic paranoia)
I don't play off center! It's my clarinet that does that, not me!
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Author: LJBraaten
Date: 2014-04-01 18:35
Katrina wrote:
> I play a little off-center too because of a chipped top tooth. This also causes my mouthpiece cushion to have only one tooth mark on it!
>
I had a chipped front tooth for over 50 years, and recently realized how it was affecting my playing. To my surprise the fix was a "filling", which was relatively inexpensive as far as dental work goes. It also blends perfectly with my other teeth, I don't know why I didn't have this done years ago. I was warned that it may not last if it suffered abuse, but a year later it is still holding up. (I figured I would have it redone if necessary). I am careful about what I bite into with my front teeth, however. I am not consistent, I usually slice my apples now before chomping on them.
Laurie
P.S. Anyone watch the Christmas story? The demise of my tooth was a BB, and I was the one who pulled the trigger.
Laurie (he/him)
Post Edited (2014-04-01 22:52)
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Author: Bruno
Date: 2014-04-02 00:20
Evan Christopher plays off center . . . . and centered . . . . and on the opposite side . . .and when he's looking sideways at someone.
IOW, his embouchure is very well-developed.
bruno>
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Author: TomS
Date: 2014-04-02 05:30
It is rumored that Merle Evans, the cornet player and conductor of the Ringling Brothers Band had 3 embouchures ... when the middle one got tired, he shifted his cornet to the left or right side ...
(I played a "circus screamer" under his baton at a convention back in the 1980s. No preparation beat, not a verbal hint of tempo ... he just dropped the baton and BOOM, away we went!)
So clarinetists could have several embouchures as well ... could come in handy.
Tom
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Author: gsurosey
Date: 2014-04-02 09:23
I play with mine slightly off-center (if you look the long way down with the register key centered, my mouthpiece is turned so the table of the mouthpiece is off to the left). At first, I thought it was because one on my front teeth is a little longer than the other, but it turned out when I thought about it, it's not that since my left is the one that's longer (and thus you'd think I'd turn it the other way).
Turns out it's a function of my hand position; my teacher and I tested this. I don't remember exactly how we did it, but we found that's the optimal position for my mouthpiece.
----------
Rachel
Clarinet Stash:
Bb/A: Buffet R13
Eb: Bundy
Bass: Royal Global Max
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Author: Funfly
Date: 2014-04-02 19:12
Off centre...
Bernard Stanley "Acker" Bilk MBE (born 28 January 1929[1]) is an English clarinettist and vocalist. He is known for his trademark goatee, bowler hat, striped waistcoat and his breathy, vibrato-rich, lower-register clarinet style. Bilk's 1962 instrumental tune Stranger on the Shore became the first No. 1 single in the United States by an English artist in the era of the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.
Edited to add that he had 2 broken front teeth.
Further edited to say that I have looked at current publicity pictures of him and he seems to be posed with the mouthpiece centre. However when I saw him in the 1950s he certainly played out of the side of his mouth.
Martyn Thatcher Mature Student Cheshire U.K.
Clarinet - Yamaha SE Custom
Alto Sax - Yamaha YAS 480
Guitar - Yamaha FG 375-S
Post Edited (2014-04-02 19:26)
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Author: Ursa
Date: 2014-04-02 19:44
I strive for a dead-on centre embouchure and instrument holding position when playing single reed instruments. The more precise I am about this, the better the results.
On brasswinds, I do shift between 3 positions. Like the reed of a clarinet, the condition of the lips is ever-changing. Changing the position of a brasswind mouthpiece is not unlike swapping out a tired reed during a playing session.
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Author: chris moffatt
Date: 2014-04-04 15:53
Ian Wheeler (IMO a far better jazz player than Bernard Bilk - I knew them both slightly in my young days from hanging about in too many London jazz clubs). Many of these guys were self taught and developed habits that would cause a real teacher to cringe.
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