Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-06-04 22:07
Tony Pay wrote:
> Karl, people use the word 'support' here in a very casual way,
> as though everyone is agreed as to what it means. (You
> yourself have it be synonymous with what you call 'abdominal support'.)
> And on the
> clarinet, this support has other uses than precise control, it
> turns out.
>
> My view is that we need to represent this view when the subject
> of support comes up. And, I have to say, you very often don't,
> here, and I don't understand why.
>
> Every time you ignore one half of the situation, you give more
> space to MISunderstanding.
>
Interesting - you're right that I tend to think of support, used in the context of clarinet (or wind instrument) technique, as the deliberate use of the abdominal muscles to strengthen and homogenize the air supply that produces tone. I suppose I consider the other half - "you just blow" - to be something we do naturally without much if any thought and, so, not needing instruction or description. I do include in my post the idea that "support" (of the abdominal muscular variety) is a tool that isn't always needed.
I suppose in my teaching I tend to look for the simplest explanation that a student's level of skill demands. More complete a description of any process than necessary to solve an immediate problem risks eye rolls and distracted glances around the room as the student who asked about (or couldn't do) A waits for me to finish talking about B, C, C prime and D so he can get on with his playing. As a private studio teacher and, certainly, as a school music teacher teaching 4 to 8 young students at a time, I've become conditioned to limit my response to what was asked or required to solve a specific problem. And so, when I write here, I guess I tend to do the same thing. As I implied (actually, I was more explicit than that) twice - once in my first post and once again in my response to yours - without knowing what the OP really wanted to know, it's a little difficult to tailor an answer that he might find useful without going into details that may be several steps beyond his immediate interest.
I suspect he wants to know how to produce a richer, maybe louder sound, in which case my answer might well have been even simpler that it was - blow more air. The most immediate caveat at that point is to avoid tightening the throat as a reactive consequence (which Gigliotti's speech illustration focused on). That's even more incomplete than the answer I actually wrote, but I'm not sure it's any less than the OP needs to get to the next level of skill and awareness and solve what I've supposed, without hearing him play, is his immediate problem. It's why so many of the questions asked here by very inexperienced players ought better to be addressed by a teacher in person who can hear the problems the student may not know how to ask about.
None of this is meant to dispute the need here of more complete and carefully thought-out analyses than I admit I often write. Yours often force me to think farther than previously and I'm certain I'm not alone. And even if I decided to try to go into the same level of detail, I'd risk simply parroting what you've already written, since I've learned much of it from those past posts.
Karl
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