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Re: Embouchure Jaw Position

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2024-04-16 06:20

What you're describing isn't an orthodox approach, but there are players who jut their jaw forward. That you get a poorer sound and range when you deliberately pull your jaw back to neutral isn't surprising. You're choosing (and maybe adjusting) your reeds and maybe your mouthpiece to accommodate the forward-thrusting jaw. To get back to a more neutral position, you'd probably have to change those choices to get the reed's resistance back to a more orthodox area of the vamp.

Whether your thrusting is an offshoot of your bass clarinet approach you would know better than anyone here. Which came first?

The conventional wisdom is to place the pressure from your bottom teeth (covered by your lip) at the point where the facing curve separates from the reed. If you place your teeth farther toward the bark you tend to lose control. I take a slightly different approach. I put a narrow piece of electrical tape across the reed vamp at the separation point (find it by sliding a thin piece of paper between the facing and the reed). That gives me a tactile point of reference that I can find with my embouchure. I start there and move the mouthpiece out in very small increments to find the point where I can get the best tone control and response with that mouthpiece.

It complicates things that your jaw position changes (moves in or out) with register changes. That's likely to make moving smoothly between registers more difficult.

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