 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: dave
Date: 2002-05-10 21:54
hi,
When I was a beginner, my band director looked inside my mouth and noticed that I had a high arch in the roof of my mouth. He said that was good for the clarinet. I notice that when I see dental retainers that some people have wide and relatively low roofs(or is it rooves?!). anybody ever thought about this before or is it all bunk?
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Author: Bob
Date: 2002-05-11 11:12
Isn't the oral cavity just an extension of the mouthpiece....
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Author: David Dow Symphony NB
Date: 2002-05-12 00:56
Refer to the marcellus article at the Queensland Clarinet society site. He believes too open a cavity is not condusive to a good sound, but must used judiciously based on the music being performed.
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Author: Bob Thomson
Date: 2002-05-12 07:37
All you need to do, to prove that the oral cavity is an integral part of clarinet (indeed any wind instrument) sound production is alter your tongue position. Waggling it of course, produces a form of vibrato by temporarily altering the mouth's resonating shape.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2002-05-13 12:42
Waggling probably involves the tip, and is likely to introduce a new parameter, air turbulence, Most vowel sound positions do not do this. So this test would have to be done with great care to be valid.
Do this test:
Blow air out (no mouthpiece) through a small lip aperture, flute style, and move your tongue around. When the tongue is lying flat the blowing is fairly silent. But when part of the tongue is raised near the roof of the mouth (e.g. 'ee' sound'), suddenly turbulent flow starts, making considerable noise. If you are blowing into the palm of your hand you will also notice a dramatic reduction in air flow when the turbulence starts.
Turbulence effects must not be confused with resonance effects, which I have lingering doubts about, simply because the mouth chamber has such a soft lining, unsuitable for resonance.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2002-05-13 13:43
Gordon (NZ) wrote:
> Turbulence effects must not be confused with resonance effects,
> which I have lingering doubts about, simply because the mouth
> chamber has such a soft lining, unsuitable for resonance.
Tell that to opera singers ...
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2002-05-14 10:45
Fair comment re the resonance, Mark.
Re the turbulence.... An opera singer does not use the stream of air to CREATE sound after it passes the oral cavity.
I do sometimes wonder though if turbulence can actually help CREATE the sound that some players want. It could well add upper partials as the reed moves around in a minute, rapid version of what an aircraft does in severe atmospheric turbulence.
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2002-05-17 14:55
It does.
Flutists can easily change the harmonics formation of a tone.
For example, in the beginning part of the famous le Fantasie Hongroiose by Doppler, they change the harmonics of the first long A. At first, its nearly pure tone, then full of harmonics, and back to near pure tone. The change should be continuous not stepwise. The markings are crescendo and decrescendo, but it does not mean to do this simply by the volume change. Harmonics exercises, which means flutists try to enut 5 to seven different tone with a same fingering, is therefore considered very important to them.Strangely, they can do this without trying to change their oral cavity. They can do this quite naturally. If they stick to keep the cavity big, it will jeopadize their efforts.
I play flute and clarinet. I can do this and anyone can hear the change easily when I play flute, but when I play clarinet it is much more difficult to get the knuck. However Saxophonists seem to be able to do this easily. Steve Lacy recommends this exercise to control the intonation of Soprano Saxes, which are very difficult to emit controlled intonation.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2002-05-17 16:06
The airstream is the reed for the flute. I believe (for flute playing) that these tonal changes come not from mouth cavity, but from altering the characteristics of this 'REED'. It can be thin, thick, narrow, wide, or even of variable cross-sectional shape. These changes can be made in conjunction with appropriate changes in air pressure, with little resulting effect on volume.
It is highly likely that players change their mouth cavity as a psychological prop to make the minute embouchure changes to alter the characteristics of the 'reed'. These psychological associations between vowel sounds and lip muscles have been well established in our speech patterns.
I believe that at least some of this tongue-embouchure association may be significant for clarinet players also.
Just because some players rely on associations as a prop does not mean that all need to.
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