Author: Jarmo Hyvakko
Date: 2018-11-17 10:53
Lower lip: how about this definition: it's important that your teeth are below the lip, not the skin down from the lip? This because you need your lip muscles to form your enbouchure. If your lip is inside your mouth you can't use your lower lip.
Double lip: The most important thing is, that you actively use your upper lip muscles. Test this: are you able to waggle the mouthpiece left to right while you play? If not, your teeth touch the mouthpiece too strong, in other words you bite the mouthpiece. The biggest advantage in double lip is, that it makes impossible to bite the mp (it hurts!) but i believe, that you can get as good or even better upper lip control with single lip enbouchure. To get a feel, which muscles you should use, try to play a C major scale in the second register with single lip enbouchure without the upper teeth touching the mouthpiece!
In this way you quarantee that it's your lips that form the tension around the mouthpiece and reed, thus giving the maximum control over the sound quality and intonation.
By the way, if you start learning an enbouchure with a very active upper lip, change the rubber patch on your mouthpiece to the thinnest and hardest one. It's very difficult to control the upper lip pressure when the lip meets a thick and soft rubber.
Jarmo Hyvakko, Principal Clarinet, Tampere Philharmonic, Finland
Post Edited (2018-11-17 10:55)
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