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Re: Clarinet Embouchure

Author: maxopf
Date: 2014-12-30 22:39

To answer JonTheReed's question: When I started a little over 4 years ago in my middle school band, I wasn't really taught embouchure formation, which proved to be a problem later on when I started taking private lessons.
What I was eventually taught to do is what kdk describes (except not double-lip) - pull a portion of your lower lip over your bottom teeth and bring in the corners of your mouth to form a seal, like you're saying the letter O. I've heard it described as a drawstring embouchure.
There are variations of this incorporating a little bit of smiling, and some people still smile. I have a friend who uses the smile embouchure and he's a very good clarinetist, but he gets a very noticeable "hiss" and sometimes looks strained while he's playing, likely because a lot of air escapes the corners of his mouth. I tried the smile embouchure once and had the same experience - plus the thinner lip approach seemed to hurt my lip quite a bit. I suppose if you built up the corners of your mouth enough that little to no air escaped, the smile embouchure wouldn't be an issue.

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Clarinet Embouchure new

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2014-11-30 08:43