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Re: Snorting Problem, Biting Problem, Air Leak?

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-04-04 06:40

You really need someone who can see and hear you to help sort this out. There is only so much anyone can suggest based on your account alone.

The "snorting" problem that you started with after the audition sounds like it's a failure of the muscles that seal off the nasal passages while you're blowing through your mouth into the clarinet. It's possible that when you were preparing for that honor band you were putting so much stress and strain on the soft tissue in your pharyngeal area that you actually injured something. If I'm understanding your description correctly, I've had a similar problem since 50 years ago I had a tonsillectomy, which I've always suspected resulted in some slight damage. It only happens when I'm tired, so it is most bothersome when I'm out of shape, but it is disabling when it begins to happen.

It went away when you rested for a couple of weeks but then came back. In the meantime, you've gone through some real issues with your embouchure and you've basically, from the sound of it, become disoriented in your whole approach to controlling the sound and the reed. Your account sounds like you've introduced several distortions that need to be straightened out.

The first thing I would suggest is that you go back to the softest reed strength you can control - one that doesn't require a "tight" embouchure that causes biting. Maybe even try a #3 56 Rue lepic if it doesn't go flat in the upper clarion. You may want to get back to the 3.5s that you started with before all of this happened, but use something that requires minimal embouchure effort to focus.

Many people here have suggested, and I will suggest now, that you try at least for awhile to incorporate double-lip in your playing. I began to play double-lip as a grad student to solve my own biting problem. When Anthony Gigliotti, my teacher at the time, suggested that I try it, he meant it to be a temporary aid to help solve a specific problem. For me, it turned out eventually to be permanent, but only after several less than successful tries at going back to single-lip. In any case, double-lip tends to help re-form your embouchure in a way that avoids the upward jaw clenching that is the root of pinching and biting. Start with only a few minutes of double-lip. Then, when you go back to single, try to concentrate on replicating the shape of the double embouchure. You can work to lengthen the time you spend with double-lip, but always with the goal of using it to set up a similar feeling with only the bottom lip covering teeth. It can help if you keep the upper lip engaged, pressing lightly downward toward the mouthpiece and lower lip even when it isn't covering your top teeth.

You may need to read a little about how to form a double-lip embouchure, although I find it more intuitive than a good single-lip tends to be. Bad single-lip embouchures, of course, are easy to form and, once they become habit, are hard to correct.

It would be a great help if you had a skilled teacher who could help you evaluate the result of anything you try to change and maybe also help you avoid many of the trial-and-error mistakes and unproductive alleys you can waste time following if you're doing this completely DIY. The overarching problem at this point is that you've forgotten what an efficient embouchure and efficient blowing technique feel like and, very possibly, your concept of tone has been compromised in the process. You need to remove sources of strain and let things heal and settle.

Karl

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