Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2021-12-25 01:13
McDonalds Eater wrote:
> ...As we all know, a
> key component of fine clarinet playing, at least in the French
> American school of playing, is the high tongue position: a
> concept in which the player positions the tongue as if saying
> “EEE” or imitating a hiss. This is said to focus the sound
> and make the air go quicker.
It's a funny thing. I studied through my teens and early 20s with clarinetists all of whom would be considered to have been in the French tradition via Curtis Institute and Daniel Bonade. I never heard from any of them a suggestion that I should raise my tongue or try to produce and EEE syllable. Instead, I always heard about keeping my throat open.
I have read somewhere, maybe in Bonade's Compendium, that Bonade himself talked about forming a French "u" (or a German u with an umlaut) - lips formed in "ooo" and tongue in "eee," so maybe my teachers all missed the lesson where he taught it. But it doesn't seem to have been a central part of the tradition back then.
I'm not going to say that forming "eee" doesn't change the sound from an "ooo" or "aaah" tongue position. But it isn't the only way to focus the tone, and if other things aren't working efficiently, it won't provide focus by itself.
Rather than trying to hold a specific tongue or "throat" position, you might have better success thinking of relaxing the inside of your mouth, including your tongue, to avoid any rigidity. The trouble with any syllable is that if you try too hard to form it and tense the soft tissue inside your mouth, you will generally inhibit resonance.
One other thing to consider is that your reed needs to be not just the right strength but carefully balanced. An unbalanced reed can cause you to tighten too much. 3.5+ Rue lepics should work on an M13L facing, but not every one. And you may find Series 13 mouthpieces in general to be a little more diffuse that some other mouthpieces, even non-S13 Vandorens.
Karl
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