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Re: Embouchure and articulation

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2018-08-13 15:46

Jam 12,

A friend just made me aware of these videos (short)

Anthony McGill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpPLXPscXKE

Here Anthony McGill shows a basic basic beginning for embouchure, but he encapsulates the very essence of it as well. It may help to consider his verbiage when he states "roll the lip over the lower teeth."

James Galway (from 0:34-1:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcXRzZZv1mE

Of course flute embouchure functions a bit differently but I could not agree more with James Galway. We control so much of our sound with the subtle (mostly subconscious) movements of the embouchure. The "smile" pulls UP which takes most of the other lip muscles out of the equation. Don't use, or even think, "smile" at all for anything anytime........EVER.

That said, your sound really has gotten clearer!

Back to McGill. He points to a spot on the top of his mouthpiece and says you put your top teeth here. I think he is just going for a basic generalization there. Mr. Tom Puwalski posted a method for discovering very quickly where to place the mouthpiece in your mouth. The "ideal" spot to place your embouchure is just slightly back (that is, slightly closer to the tip of the mouthpiece) from the point where the reed and mouthpiece come together. That allows for the maximum vibration possible out of the reed for the length of that mouthpiece's facing. I believe Mr. Puwalski called this method a "squawk test."

You play an open "G" starting close to the tip of your mouthpiece. Then, as you continually play the open "G," you slide more and more mouthpiece into your mouth until you get a great big "SQUAWK." You just back off slightly from there, and that is the "ideal" spot for YOUR mouth on THAT mouthpiece. The only reason I put quotes on that is because you CAN get reasonable results playing further back from ideal [certainly not FORWARD of that spot.....too noisy :-) ] but it's less advantageous.

Your top teeth pretty much land where they land with the above protocol. It depends on the angle at which you hold your clarinet.....and that looks fine from what I can tell.

My guess about your fatigue is that you are putting way to much thought and stress into the musculature around the mouthpiece. All the stuff we talk about is mainly just to get the mouth around the mouthpiece so you can blow and air doesn't leak out.

And that brings me to air. Your basic sound has gotten SOOO much clearer! However, now you need to support the sound more. You do that with steady, focused air. What I do is firm up way down on my abdomen (if you ever said to your younger brother, "hey....punch me in the stomach," you'd firm up first. You wouldn't just let him go for flab. So, much like getting a steady stream of caulk out of a tube, or (back to the tire again) that sudden rush of air out of a tire valve when opened, you want that sort of effect for the air you produce to hit the reed. You do that by actively pressing it out. It may also be helpful to keep in mind that the air that vibrates in the clarinet is already there! Tuba players (and clarinet players) expend about the same amount of effort as piccolo players. All we do is actuate or excite the existing air column in the clarinet with the reed.......and our breath.

..................Paul Aviles

Post Edited (2018-08-13 19:30)

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Embouchure and articulation new

jam12

2018-07-01 07:45