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Re: Double Lip Embouchure on Bass

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2018-05-09 07:00

Speculator Sam wrote:

> So my story goes like this. I tried all the double lip
> embouchure on my bass for fun, and other than some more than
> normal mild squeaks it seemed that I achieved a bit more of
> that rounder Timbre ....
> That, and my instrument was sharp today so it helped with that
> having weak double lip to flatten the pitch.
>

If you do double lip effectively it isn't weak. The muscles need to be strong. It *can* bring your pitch down a little if you were biting the pitch up with single lip. If your double lip embouchure is truly weak, it could explain the squeaks, which can happen when you aren't in control of the reed.

> Last time I tried to double lip embouchure on soprano clarinet,
> and I didn't improve at all this by having stuck with it for 2
> weeks. I know it's good to experiment with double Obama sure
> rallies every once in awhile but alas.
>

I'm going to assume that your spell check changed embouchure to Obama, since I can't imagine what out last President could have to do with this.

> So what's your opinion? Any experience doing double lip
> embouchure on base? I think I'll
> incorporate into as much practice as possible and stick with it
> for at least two weeks.

I do play both bass and soprano double lip. Others may disagree, but I don't think it's the best approach to stick with it exclusively for two weeks or, really, at all until it's comfortable. You end up tiring your embouchure and irritating the inside of your upper lip, which can cause you to distort the embouchure and lose control, even to bite (yes, you can bite with double lip, but the resulting pain is double that of biting with single lip). I would start with maybe 10 minutes of easy playing (scales or easy music without leaps over large intervals), then go back to playing single lip for the rest of your session. Gradually try to increase the time you use double lip but be conservative about how long you use it in any one playing session. Once you feel comfortable, do as much as you can without tiring.

Check Tom Ridenour's videos out. If you have a clarinet teacher, he or she can help you do the double lip effectively.

Karl

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