Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2020-03-26 22:09
The reason I ask is that when I take a deep (REALLY deep) breath, and HOLD (in my mouth), this is the same feeling I have at any time that I am playing. I just assume that if someone where to be able to hold their breath (not with hands on face, just.....hold), then they should be able to create the same pressure differential used for playing clarinet.
There are SOOOOOOO many OTHER things we worry about when playing: tongue position, tongue movement, mouthpiece placement within lips, lip position, lip movement......etc. that we might be subconsciously creating (or exacerbating) a problem that normally would not manifest itself under normal (non-clarinet) circumstances.
Then there is the issue of age. It is not just the outside skin that starts to sag with age. The structures at the back of the mouth also get flabby and this is the cause for many of us to develop sleep apnea (for those not familiar, it is not just a snort every few minutes but actual cessation of oxygen getting to the lungs in micro units such as 40 time per minute). Snoring is a sign of sleep apnea but also the lack of dreams (or severe infrequency) when you sleep. For me I also aspirate fluid (unintentional "breathing in" liquid) with some frequency.
But despite all these symptoms of age, I have not yet experienced the "leaking" of air while playing no matter how much time I put in (which can be four or five hours) in a day. However if I try to take a nap on my back WITHOUT my CPAP machine (continuous air pressure), I will very quickly get a gagging snort even still wide awake.
...................Paul Aviles
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The Clarinet BBoard
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