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Braces Making Playing Harder?

Author: Exiawolf
Date: 2014-07-07 05:04

I'm a high school clarinetist with 4 years of experience in playing. Now of course I'm not too, too experienced however I'm working on Brahms sonatas and other difficult passages and have noticed certain things about braces that if like to ask about. I believe that braces create a small bump on the lower lip that I'm having a hard time overcoming. When I'm playing and the clarinet slides very VERY slightly forward, it tends to always squeak. Whenever this happens I stop playing and feel my embrochure. And it ends up being the "bump" directly on the reed. How should I go about this? It's getting VERY frustrating and it seems like nobody that plays clarinet well in my area has braces on that I can talk to.

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Re: Braces Making Playing Harder?

Author: BartHx
Date: 2014-07-08 21:26

I had braces when they wrapped every tooth in metal in order to hold the wires. I used a lot of wax to protect my lip, but never had a problem with the braces moving the mouthpiece around. Unless you have a major underbite, it sounds like you are trying to hold the instrument too close to your body. Try moving it out some.

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Re: Braces Making Playing Harder?

Author: Roxann
Date: 2014-07-10 02:12

A friend of mine (a sax player) uses a product called Brace Guard. It fits over her lower teeth and keeps the inside of her mouth from getting chewed up. She plays a lot and it lasts her about a year before she replaces it. It's available at braceguard.com. I'm going to order me some right now because EZO, which I thought would work, must have reformulated their product. It no longer holds its shape once it's in your mouth. The brace guard initially forms to your teeth and it retains its "customized" form for as long as you use it. I would have purchased it initially but it's a bit spendy. After unsuccessfully trying several other products to try to stop the inside of my mouth from being torn up by my teeth, this one will be my next try. I would imagine it would form around your braces really well and create a smooth surface for your lower lip.

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Re: Braces Making Playing Harder?

Author: marcia
Date: 2014-07-10 04:57

I used dental wax which was provided by my orthodontist at no cost to me. Worked just fine.

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Re: Braces Making Playing Harder?

Author: Katrina
Date: 2014-07-10 17:19

I may be misunderstanding what you wrote, but I don't think the braces cause the squeaks you referred to. I had braces (not during high school) and I never found the braces to cause squeaks.

Any movement of the lower lip on the reed _while blowing_ vastly increases the chance that you will squeak.

My suggestion for you is to concentrate on keeping your embouchure completely still while moving air into the clarinet. Make sure your lips are "set" before blowing.

While playing, pay attention to any tendencies you might have to shift your lower lip on different notes or (more specifically) between registers. Your embouchure can stay the same in different registers.

Hope this helps.

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