Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2016-10-29 12:45
Sean.Perrin wrote:
> I can't figure out how to quote, sorry Karl.
>
Click on the "Quote" button icon on the left of the same row where "Post" is located.
> Pretend it's very cold out and blow air into your hands, as if
> you warm them up. This warm, "haaaa" air is very slow and warm.
> Not good clarinet air.
>
> Now pretend you're blowing out a candle from a distance. You
> have to focus the air in such a way that it's fast and cold.
> Feel it with your hand.
>
> This is the basic difference between cold, fast air, and warm,
> slow air and is generally what people here are referring to.
OK, I understand how this affects the volume of air per unit of time, hence, speed. But the way I make the air "faster/colder" (moving more air per second) to blow out the candle in this example, which I've read here before more than once, is to blow harder and make the aperture of my lips smaller.
But if I blow harder into a clarinet, all I get is "cold/fast air = loud" and "warm/slow air = soft." If I always play with fast/cold air as you and others describe it, I'll never get below mezzo-forte. I can't change the aperture much and then only by biting the reed closed with unwanted consequences in the response. IMO air speed in this sense is how you control the sound volume, so trying to maintain fast air at soft volume levels is to me more or less impossible. Other control techniques are needed to keep the tone quality clear and "centered" at piano and pianissimo.
It is, of course, the tendency with a clarinet to get more noise - rushing air - in the tone at very soft volume levels, when the player is necessarily using relatively little air over time (slower air). Many excellent players accept the noise, knowing that what the audience will hear is just very soft clarinet tone because they know from experience that the noise won't carry. But I'm still not sure from your explanation how to make air go faster and still maintain a piano or pianissimo dynamic.
I had no problem, btw, with your other three recommendations. It clearly *is* possible to play pianissimo without extra noise in the sound, and points 1, 2 and 4 can certainly help.
KArl
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