 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ricardo
Date: 2001-10-11 12:24
Does anyone out there have a really good way of describing what air support is and what it should feel like?
It seems counter-intuitive, for example, that you need to increase air support in order to play softer and higher. How can you play soft if you are blowing really hard?
I've been playing for 2 years now and I cannot grasp this concept. I play on pretty soft reeds (Vandoren 2 1/2s) and I'm about the breathiest thing going.
Thanks in advance for your wisdom.
Ricardo
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Author: Bart Hendrix
Date: 2001-10-11 14:13
It's not so much how "hard" you are blowing, but with how much control you move the air.
If you are trying to move something small with your hand with great precision, you will probably not try to do it with a completely relaxed arm. Rather, you will tense the muscles in the arm so that they are working against each other. In doing so, you reduce the likelyhood that the arm will accidentally move in an unintended direction since it would need to move against muscle tension to do so.
In providing air support, you tighten the abdominal and intercostal muscles and the diaphragm, but maintain the air volume in the lungs. The tensed muscles provide greater precision in breath control. Then you are able to exhale with control over the volume and speed of the air column with significantly reduced chance for unintended variations. That improves soft or high passages since those are the ones most impacted by an inconsistent air flow.
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Author: Rene
Date: 2001-10-11 14:21
Breath in and hold the air without closing the airway. Obviously, you can do this. On a clarinet (or as a singer), you will have to keep the air pressure at any desired level, not too hard and not too soft. This is more difficult than simply holding a 1 bar pressure, since you are not used to it.
Anyway, it is called support, and you got to learn it, especially as a singer.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2001-10-11 15:50
Recardo -
"Support" is maybe the wrong word for what you do. That is, you don't support by blowing hard. Rather, it's the sensation of connection between your breath and the instrument. You let the breath do the work, rather than your embouchure or jaw.
Roger Garrett has a good article in the Online Clarinet Resource about the use of breath. It's at http://www.ocr.sneezy.org//articles/garrett3.htm .
I don't remember where I saw this, but one teacher says there should be dynamic tension between inhaling and exhaling. That is, your diaphragm lies in a domed shape beneath your lungs. When you contract it, the dome flattens out and pulls your lungs open. When you contract your abdominal muscles, this pushes up and forces air out of your lungs. The theory is that support results from working these processes in opposition to one another. I don't feel it this way in my own body, and when I try it, all that happens is increased tension. I feel best when I reduce tension as much as possible.
The great treacher Keith Stein taught me the following exercise:
Open your throat and drop your belly down and forward with a little thump, making a "pot belly." Then, immediately let the air plummet down to the bottom. Imagine it goes all the way to your hips. As this finishes, your chest will rise on top of the air, without any effort by you to raise it.
Then relax and let the air flow out. Don't push it out. Any push is down, not up.
Then do the same thing with the clarinet. You will get plenty of air flow to play as loud as the instrument will go. Concentrate on feeling a connection between the air stream and the reed and mouthpiece. You should be able to take a lot of mouthpiece and loosen your embouchure almost completely, so it's just an air seal. The air stream becomes what "supports" the tone.
Obviously, you will also use your embouchure when you actually play, but it becomes a balance between embouchure and air.
An advantage of this is that it frees up your tone and gives you more power, as well as a better sound. With less tension in your embouchure, you can experiment with your tongue position and control the reed vibration with your lips.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2001-10-11 17:21
i dont usually offer advice here because i dont think i have the expertise, however, i have been learning about breath support for several months now.
im learning to have better control by the pressure i use. the best way i can describe what its like is when water flows thru a hose and its turned on all the way, and you put your thumb over the nozzle, there is still pressure, but no water coming out. if you move your thumb, depending where and how much controls how much water comes out and at what pressure.
so, when you want to play high but soft, you need a lot of pressure that is also controlled. not neccessarily a lot of air coming out all at once.
does that make sense to anyone else?
JL
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Author: Brent
Date: 2001-10-11 17:41
I use the same water hose analogy when describing it to my students. I also suggest that there is a lever-operated nozzle at the end of the hose, representing the tongue. That makes it easier to imagine turning the air flow on and off with the tongue rather than at the faucet (abdominal muscles).
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Author: Lisa Chien
Date: 2001-10-11 18:55
What I was taught and really works to develop breath control is practice long tones on a tenor recorder. You can really hear even the slightest discrepancies of muscular support while playing long tones on a recorder. (Don't use the soprano because the tone will drive you crazy.) Because the timbre of a clarinet is so rich it is often hard to hear difficiencies in tones (although as one progresses up to the throat tones it becomes obvious.) Just leave the recorder together and pull it out at leisure and practice while watching TV. You don't even have to swab afterwards. Your embouchure won't tire because you merely press your lips to the mouthpiece. You will be supprised how variable breath support can be depending on how you are sitting, posture or whether you had too much coffee before hand. I remember once while practicing on a recorder I heard a continuious, slight shift in pitch: somewhat fast. It was my heart beating rapidly. It was affecting my pitch.
Use the above mentioned advice for muscular support in the above posts and give it a shot.
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Author: Ricardo
Date: 2001-10-13 09:50
well thanks to everyone who chimed in.
i especially found ken's advice usefull. i've practised pushing the
air in and letting it come out naturally instead of forcing it out.
i can now hit altissimo notes with very little difficulty. all fluidity
has gone out of my playing however as it is still a very unatural
feeling (to me it feels like trying not to sneeze), i'll keep practising it.
thanks again,
ricardo
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-10-13 14:37
To me the whole issue is very simple and scientific.
Support refers simply to air pressure.. no more no less.. Use muscles the same as you do for shouting, coughing, spitting, sneezing, blowing up balloons, etc. The more you push with the muscles the more pressure - the more support.
But don't confuse pressure with air FLOW (volume per second), i.e. how fast you are using up the air.
High pressure and high air flow will give you a loud 'supported' tone.
High pressure and low air flow willl give you a soft 'supported' tone.
(In technical terms you are providing less energy, therefore less volume.)
Now for the peculiar twist... How do you get less air flow for the soft notes?
Squeeze the reed closer to the mouthpiece so that there is less gap, i.e. restricting the flow, equivalent to squeezing the garden hose.
Note that this does not necessarily reduce the air SPEED past the reed.
So to overcome your brreathiness perhaps you could practice shouting louder and blowing up balloons etc, to develop muscle (being conscious that while doing these the abdominal (tummy) muscle and the intercostal (between-rib) muscles tighten to push the air out. You may also need to develop more strength/firmness in your lower lip in order to get the appropriate gap past the reed (and tension in it).
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-10-13 14:39
Diffiernt explanations suit different minds. Some need to understand; some work more in image props, etc. We are all very different inside our heads.
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