 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: klarisa
Date: 2025-05-21 17:45
Good afternoon (from Belgium).
I have been playing clarinet as an amateur for over 40 years now. The last few months i started to lose air on both sides of my mouth. It starts after about a half hour of playing. I used to be able to play for several hours. The problem seems to be worse when playing low notes than high notes. I have 3 clarinets and it happens with all of them
Could this be due to age. And can i do something about it. I really like my current setup Vandoren BD5 mouthpiece and blue box nr3 reeds so i would rather not go down in reed strength, or change my mouthpiece.
Playing long tones come in to mind but that seems to make the problem appear even earlier.
Regards Johan
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2025-05-21 20:11
Hello Johan,
I think I may have some insights from my own experience that could help you. I am a doubler and often play alto & soprano saxophone along with clarinet & bass clarinet in shows or on other gigs. All require adjustments in embouchure; that's where I think your air leakage issue manifests itself.
You sound great playing soprano with the sax quartet. Nice technique and sound. A nice balanced group that I imagine is great fun as well.
My suggestion is the long tones as always but with your attention to embouchure changes required between each instrument. Scales would be fine but paying attention to things like the position of the lower lip, chin position, sensations/tensions around the side of the mouthpiece, etc. should be your focus.
Do you use a mouthpiece patch? What about differences in resistance with various reed/mouthpiece combinations? IMHO you will begin to find out some useful things very quickly.
Cheers,
Hank
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2025-05-22 00:46
I would practice with lighter reeds. 2 or 2 1/2. Once you are fatigued and leaking air give yourself enough recovery time. Take a day off.
Freelance woodwind performer
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2025-05-22 00:56
I like the direction the advice has taken so far. I'd add that perhaps you can check to see HOW you're forming your embouchure. In addition to lighter reeds and taking breaks, some of us fall into a "smile" type formation of the lips. I'd suggest looking at that. And if that's part of it, try turning that smile "upside down." Bringing the corners of your mouth IN and DOWN (in addition to consciously relaxing those muscles) could go a long way to making playing much easier.
There are a few folks who post to this Board who suffer from muscle dystonia and may have some helpful ideas if that turns out to be what has begun to happen.
............Paul Aviles
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Author: David Eichler
Date: 2025-05-22 03:01
This is impossible to diagnose accurately from a distance. Maybe if you could post some video with close-ups of your embouchure, that might help rule out some major technique deficiency. But I really think you need to consult an expert teacher.
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Author: Tom H
Date: 2025-05-22 06:12
I had that problem when I was going for my masters in 1978. Loss of air at mouth corners. My professor tried several things which didn't work. Finally figured it was mental. Think I heard a player or two with this problem and somehow transferred it to myself. I was 24 so it wasn't an age thing.
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Author: klarisa
Date: 2025-05-25 00:56
Thanks for the reply's,
I tried lighter reeds but that did not help.
I do use mouthpiece patches and tried another brand. That was no help either.
I am now thinking of a mental problem... Maybe i do need some time off. Next week on vacation. Let's hope that helps... If not i micht search for a teacher who can help...
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Author: graham
Date: 2025-05-25 15:13
The only thoughts I would add is that we sometimes form gradual changes to our playing habits that go unnoticed owing to the slowness of their progression. Two of these are how much mouthpiece you insert, and at what angle you hold the instrument. Trying significant changes to either of these may trigger a resumption of your previous technique.
graham
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2025-05-25 17:10
I like what graham said. Long ago I had the same problem of losing air at the corners of my mouth, but it went away. Fairly quickly, too. The reasons were unclear, but at some point I started trying to make ALL the air go into making sound and nothing else!! and that vague directive somehow changed something I was doing. Something about tongue placement or shape, or jaw position . . . . I didn't analyze it. (One of the zillion times a teacher would have been handy.)
At this point, it feels like there's zero effort to contain air with the lips. If there's air pressure at those corners, either the muscles have strengthened too much to notice it - or there isn't any. I perceive no exertion in that regard at all. (The lips may eventually fatigue from being vibrated by the mouthpiece, but that seems a different thing, and it takes hours of continuous play.)
Tongue position / shape is involved in directing, or better to say, containing, the air column. Lips have less or little to do with that containment.
Suggestion: in practice when you're fresh, try to deliberately make the problem want to happen with something you're doing, not with your lips, but with your tongue, jaw, mpc angle or insertion depth, etc. See if you can turn it on and off. Maybe that will clue you in to something.
Or consult a teacher.
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Author: eac
Date: 2025-05-29 20:38
Look for the embouchure exercise on YouTube by earspasm. That exercise will strengthen the muscles you need to bring in the corners of your mouth. Go easy to start. Those muscles will fatigue just like the large muscles elsewhere in your body.
Liz Leckey
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