 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Qladstone
Date: 2020-10-05 13:22
What are you thoughts on practising with only the mouthpiece (and reed/ligature) without barrel and clarinet body?
I suppose the main advantage is that the mouthpiece is small and you can bring it anywhere. So if for whatever reason you had to move between places without bringing your clarinet you could just bring the mouthpiece, reed, and ligature and practise with that. There is also this attachment called the Jazz Lab silencer that will reduce the volume - supposing that this reduced volume is quieter than practising with the full clarinet, then we have the added advantage of being able to practise in places or times where otherwise using a full clarinet would be too loud. Of course we can't practise fingering and slurring on only the mouthpiece, but practising tonguing, embouchure, air support, tone, and bending should all be possible.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2020-10-05 17:09
Qladstone wrote:
> What are you thoughts on practising with only the mouthpiece
> (and reed/ligature) without barrel and clarinet body?
> Of course we can't practise
> fingering and slurring on only the mouthpiece, but practising
> tonguing, embouchure, air support, tone, and bending should all
> be possible.
Of course, the final answer to this is that if you find it useful, then it's useful.
As to practicing "tonguing, embouchure, air support, tone, and bending," I'm not sure how much practical help this kind of exercise would be. The resistance is completely different, so tonguing works differently. Tone is, I would think, impossible to judge - it will either be clear and shrill or airy and fuzzy. Pitch bending without the added pitch limits imposed by the instrument is probably not a realistic sensation of anything. The air support needed to maintain a mouthpiece tone will be different from what's needed with the full air column of the instrument. Still, if you find the similarities of any of these to actual playing strong enough to be useful, then you may get some sense of benefit.
As to embouchure, you could certainly keep some muscle tone and endurance there if you did this for long enough periods of time, but I suspect you'll be bored long before your endurance will be tested.
Bottom line (IMO): I myself wouldn't spend my time doing this, but if you find practicing with the mouthpiece helpful in any way, it certainly won't hurt anything.
Karl
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Author: ruben
Date: 2020-10-05 23:17
I find this a really interesting topic! I'm pretty good at coming up with weird practice techniques, so I'll experiment on just using a mouthpiece and get back to you.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Tom H
Date: 2020-10-06 00:51
I agree with kdk. Perhaps it could be useful for a beginning player. Otherwise your embouchure, tonguing, etc. is developed beyond the need to use just the mouthpiece. I know brass players do this, particularly trumpeters. They need to keep their lips in shape if away from practicing/playing for a while. I once went a whole school year when teaching band without really doing any practicing. The following summer my lower lip area got painful when playing full rehearsals & concerts in summer groups. But I could still play and last through it.
More practical, I think, is to practice silently if noise is a problem. Fingering and even blowing into the instrument. Keeps the technique in decent shape. I've done that quite a bit in the car waiting for someone or some other reason. -- while I'm parked.....
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Post Edited (2020-10-06 22:12)
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Author: Qladstone
Date: 2020-10-06 07:27
kdk, Tom H: Thanks for sharing your thoughts! You make a good point that practising with the mouthpiece would differ significantly in terms of resistance, and it's uncertain if there would be any benefits of exercises carrying over to playing on the clarinet itself. I have read some things in the saxophone community saying that there are some benefits, and in fact they find better results for developing tone by practising on the mouthpiece alone than on the entire saxophone, for example here: https://www.bestsaxophonewebsiteever.com/a-set-of-mouthpiece-exercises-to-boost-your-tone-big-time/. Of course I'm not even sure if this is an acknowledged benefit for saxophone playing, much less whether it also applies to the clarinet.
ruben: Wonderful, I await your findings.
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