 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: beejay
Date: 2002-05-17 22:50
I'm thinking of taking lessons from a voice coach to improve breathing and to try to understand how the diagphram supports the air column. Has anyone done this, and if so, what should I try to be getting out of the process?
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Author: Kat
Date: 2002-05-17 23:26
I would watch out. In my conversations with classical singers with whom I work retail, my understanding of how they breathe and support the air column is that it is rather different from how I've been trained on the clarinet. I'm no good at writing the differences down...but ultimately I think there are different muscle groups involved in singing. Developing those wouldn't necessarily improve clarineting.
My $.02...
Katrina
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Author: Jim E.
Date: 2002-05-18 03:54
I sing, I'm not sure I agree with Kat. I believe that the breathing is similar, particularly with the need to take in a large volume in a very short time. What differs some is the control of the air as it is expelled from the lungs.
You will be taught to move the diaphram, and to place your hands on your abdomen to feel this as it happens. You can also expect to be given excercises in exhaling slowly. I've been taught to make a hissing sound in slow bursts to sort of imitate a tire hissing.
Has singing helped me with breath control on the clarinet? I'm not really sure as I played the clarinet for 8 years before I ever sang seriously. (I was a boy soprano when I first played, I'm a solid baritone today.) Singing has greatly helped my listening skills as well as sight reading. (I sing in a busy church choir, I might sing something twice, and then at the service, and then am on to new music next week.)
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Author: William
Date: 2002-05-18 04:00
Since both singers and wind players use the same physical apperatus (lungs, diaphram, etc.) to supply a steady breath support for sound production, what you learn from your vocal coach should also hold true for your clarinet playing. I remember attending a university vocal music class to accompany a soprano who was preparing "Three Songs of Innocence" (soprano, clarinet & piano) for a recital. The vocal professor used me as an "example" of how her students should breath and support their sounds--and I was just doing what I had learned in my wind classes. BTW--it was always amazing how vocal majors could graduate with music degrees and be so inept at reading music (because so much music instruction is in terms of "rote rather than note") However, winds players, in general, learn to play any written music that is placed in front of them (often at sight), but are lost if asked to play something "by ear." I have always believed that wind majors could learn much from their vocal peers, and vise-vesa, in terms of critical listening and reading skills. But both music school "camps" certainly have much in common when it comes to breathing technique and tonal support. So, listen to your vocal coach, and, Good Clarineting!!!!!
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Author: Kat
Date: 2002-05-18 05:00
I guess I was just taught breathing differently. My undergrad teacher started us on the breathing bags right away, and had balloons as well to help us with inhalations. The other thing he has us do contradicts one of your suggestions, Jim, and I'm not sure if it's a pedagogical or a practical difference. In order to inhale the maximum amount of air quickly, he taught us to inhale using an "oh" sound. In other words, the tongue is down and a quick inhalation of lots of air is made possible. His interpretation was that a "hissing" sound was caused by too much tension and therefore would not allow maximum quick inhalation.
If the "hissing" is to help increase your lung capacity, then that's a different story. We used the breathing bags and balloons to work on that. One really good trick is to take a balloon (one that can be blown up to about 10" or so...). Exhale completely. Then inhale as much air as possible. Blow all of this air into the balloon. All of it. And then some. Then, without inhaling or closing off the balloon, let it flow back into your lungs quickly. Somehow, the air finds more places to go than you had inhaled it into previously! It's really interesting to try, and gives you a physical idea of what your lungs can do to fill up all the way.
Katrina
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Author: jez
Date: 2002-05-18 15:24
There was a recent thread about breathing where this article;
http:www.btinternet.com/~eastop/html/breath.htm
resurfaced. It may be of interest.
jez
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-05-20 17:04
beejay -
Singing is the best thing you can possibly do for your clarinet playing. It teaches you how to bind notes together with your breath and how to feel groups of notes as phrases, with direct feedback from your own body.
Don't worry about different descriptions of breathing. They all come back to the same thing -- just in different words. And even if they were different, you won't be confused, and it will give you different ways of getting at the same result.
I've learned more about clarinet playing from singing than from anything else. Grab the opportunity.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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