 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Richard
Date: 2001-08-11 11:18
Hello. I've just had a horrible experience. Me, another clarinetist,and a saxophonist were giving our first recital type thing ina church as part of a local music festival in front of two hundred people. I played th Finzi Bagatelles ...fine. THe Malcolm Arnold Sonatina went quite well. But halfway through the slow movement of Weber's concerto No.1 this horrible chugging noise started coming from the back of my throat - behind my nose. The air stopped coming out of my mouth and through my nose instead. My tone just faded away until I literally couldn't play. I had to stop. I recovered after a few seconds and got through the rest of the piece, but I'm really worried about this. The other clarinetist was really nice about it - she said the rest of the piece was perfect,and that it 'nearly made her cry' - but I think this problem's quite serious. The air leaking thing has happened before but never in as big away as this. I've read a bit about it here, and it doesn't seem very curable. Has anyone got over this problem, naturally or medically? I also thought it could be related to poor breath support or bad relaxation? If anyone could help, I'd be really grateful - I'm currently quite nervous about performing again,
Thanks a lot,
Richard
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Author: Anji
Date: 2001-08-11 12:52
You should be congratulated on playing in public and having such an ambitious program! It takes dedication to rehearse with other people and nerve to perform.
This sounds like a Glottal stop (the tongue position to make the 'ng' sound) gone bad... probably not insurmountable, maybe repeatable.
When people get "All choked up" in public speaking, this is the area of the throat responsible... something of an autonomic response.
Were you having an emotional reaction to the Weber?
Have you played this long at a stretch before? If your embouchure began to fail, back pressure needs to go somewhere... so out the nose it goes!
(I think an earlier poster had a similar prollem to this. You might search "nose" to see what comes up. Wish I could be a lil less vague, sorry.)
Did you make an equipment change?
A markedly heavier reed, or one that is too light could force you to bite and there we are. A rapid change in humidity may have made your reed unresponsive.
I would redress the resistance of your set up in larger venues... this may be the easiest thing to control. If you have a difficulty playing quietly, the clearance of the pads on your horn might be suspect.
(May I suggest you start with the reed and work your way out?)
Sorry I can't be more specific, I have the same sort of noise coming out of my nose after practicing more than 1 hour, so I suppose it is fatigue related.
Wanna bet the audience thought you were performing the noise as scored?!
As my teacher says, "Nevah lettum see ya sweat."
Keep us posted, won't you... this is a VERY interesting problem and not covered in any of my Plonker's guides to the clarinet.
anji
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Author: Bob Curtis
Date: 2001-08-11 14:40
Richard:
As I read your statement there appears to be several items which need to be addressed. First, are you SURE that this is not a medical problem with a simple answer. It might be wise to have it checked out. Secondly, FATIQUE. You did quite an extensive program and one which could be quite taxing not only to the physical body, but alo to the emotions, both of which could cause stress and exhaustion. I believe that you said that this had happened before but not to this degree. That is a sign that something is not correct and needs to be looked into. Again, I would suggest that you check this out with your family physician who may refer you to an ear, nose and throat specialist. Don't put this off thinking that it will go away, because it may not!!
Good luck,
Bob Curtis
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Author: Danielle
Date: 2001-08-11 14:53
Hey! That happened to me a couple times! Both when I was playing jeanjean's Arabesques, which is a hard piece to perform. My teacher told me that it was from fatigue, and has me practicing long tones, to build up my endurance and stuff, i guess. But isn't it weird when that does happen?
Danielle
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Author: Melanie
Date: 2001-08-11 18:10
Richard,
That exact same thing happened to me just the other day when I was rehearsing with my accompanist, and I was contemplating posting something about it here. In the past, it's happened when I have been playing for really extended periods of time, such as last minute practice before performance studies exams ( I was doing Weber 1, too). This time it's because I'm a bit out of shape, embouchure-wise, and I was beginning to pinch back in my throat. I'm quite positive it's fatigue-related. As mentioned earlier, when your embouchure muscles tire, your throat muscles try to pick up the slack, but they tire quickly, and out goes the air through your nose. A most unpleasant feeling, I know. When it happens, I try to yawn and relax my throat as much as possible and focus on really supporting my air from the diaphragm, but that only works for a few minutes before I get tired again.
I'm anxious to see what the seasoned pros have to say about this!
Melanie
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Author: Wes
Date: 2001-08-11 18:25
This was covered extensively in the oboe and bassoon list but those comments are probably lost. Continue to search for information as you are not alone in this.
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Author: Micaela
Date: 2001-08-11 21:11
This has happened to me a few times. When I was a beginner, it would occur pretty regularly when I practiced for longer than usual (in those days, over 30 minutes). I still get it sometimes after a lot of playing. Had you been practicing a lot before the performance?
Don't get too bent up about it. We all have an awful performance or audition sometime. When I used the Copland concerto for an audition for the first time, I was really tired and had this exact problem, right during a long, high phrase around the middle of the first page. It was so awful, I had to stop. But the auditioners knew what was up and didn't penalize me for it. It happens.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2001-08-11 21:11
There's plenty of info both here on the BBoard and in the Klarinet archives. Do a search on
"air leak nose"
or similar words.
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Author: mw
Date: 2001-08-11 21:50
Congratulations on a performance with GREAT material. For now, RELAX. No doubt this is something physical .... consider when it gas happened ... ,ost of all RELAX. The Weber 1 is a tough piece. OTT, you should have been fatiqued.
Best,
mw
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Author: col
Date: 2001-08-12 01:47
This problem is very common with for wind musicians. I would say that it's about a 99.9 % chance that your soft pallate collapsed. This is the bit of your throat muscles that closes to varying degrees when you play to stop the air from escaping from your nose ( back of your throat above you tounge). When placed under alot of pressure for a long period of time it can collapse and then the air will rush straight out your nose. I have seen it happen at many college student recitals. The difficult thing is that it tends to happen when the performer is under alot of pressure,eg a recital situation.
You may be able to fix it by using a softer resistance setup but this will probably only work if your setup is very hard. I doubt this is the problem though if you managed to get through the program up until the Weber. I think this is a problem you will just have to work though by increasing your practice sessions maybe to around the 2hr mark so you don't get fatigued. Also it would be a good idea to start running your recital program a full month before the concert. This will help to build the endurance you need and show you where the fatigue is likely to begin.
On the other hand if you have alot of tension in your playing or if your breathing it to " " high " and shallow then you should look into correcting this as it will greatly assist both your all round playing and this problem. Possible using alexander technique. You should also experiment with using your soft pallate to voice/ shape the notes , this will both strengthen it and give you a far more focused sund.
Best of luck
col anderson
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