Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-10-27 20:44
maiohmai wrote:
> I also understand that it is most likely air velocity issue, as
> my airstream becomes very "wide" when I attempt to play loud,
> making the airspeed relatively slower than what it should be.
How do you know that this is true? What is a "wide" airstream? How do you know at what speed your air is moving?
> No matter how "small" or attempt to increase the air speed, I
> just don't think I'm changing the "wide and slow" air stream.
> It just ends up being a huge wall of air that hits the entire
> reed surface.
>
How huge can it be? Your mouth is only so wide. Really, as mental images these may be useful concepts, but the actual air speed can only be controlled, if at all, by tongue shape, and if manipulating your tongue hasn't helped, there's not much more you can consciously do about it.
> Of course my lesson teacher and I have ...
> talked about using colder air vs. warmer
> air.
This, as I have come to understand it, is synonymous with "faster vs. slower" air. So you're just working with different words.
> It's frustrating because I know what is needed from me to
> achieve this, but I can't apply it, simply because I have a
> hard time figuring out visually and physically what is needed
> to be done from myself
>
Maybe because these are primarily images, and the imagery is not meaningful to you and, therefore, not helpful. I have to confess that I got through most of my playing years never having heard the terms warm, cold, slow or fast applied to my air stream from any of my teachers or colleagues. My first exposure to those concepts was here on the BBoard. Since none of my early training depended on them, I don't find them personally very useful even now.
So, my main suggestion, since all this focus on air stream hasn't helped, is to stop worrying about any of it and think about more practical ways to control the sound instead, particularly focusing on your embouchure.
In my own experience both as a teacher and a player, the most important thing in getting a controlled sound at any dynamic and, not coincidentally, getting a controlled response in the upper ranges of the clarinet, is control of the reed. That's mostly a function of embouchure. Wind makes the reed vibrate. Oral shape can affect the way the wind arrives at the reed-mouthpiece aperture (including, probably, the air's speed). But the way the reed vibrates is controlled mostly by the lip muscles and the way they allow the reed to vibrate while inhibiting it from vibrating in unwanted ways (damping).
I suspect your reeds may not be the optimal strength for your mouthpiece, maybe too soft. This can prevent you from using enough pressure on the reed to keep it under control. Also, the pressure you *are* applying may be jaw pressure upward against the reed. Pressure should be applied evenly across, or around, the reed, not directly up against the heart. Your lips have their best control when they are wrapped around the reed and mouthpiece like a rubber gasket, supporting the reed without closing it.
You might try, at least as a temporary experiment, to use a double-lip embouchure. It pretty nearly forces you to use a rounder, more supportive, less restrictive approach to the reed. You can't make a complete switch all at once - do short stretches of double lip interspersed with a single-lip that tries to emulate the shape of the double-lip without putting the top teeth on the lip.
You might also experiment with reed strengths that are adjacent to what you're using - both harder and softer, though, again, I suspect you're using a reed that's slightly too soft. But I would do this only after you've begun experimenting with the embouchure if the problems are still severe.
Karl
Post Edited (2017-11-01 16:53)
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