 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Julie
Date: 2002-06-15 19:05
Hi.
ok, one of my friends, a flute player, recently decided to play clarinet. She has been practicing clarinet far more than she has been practicing flute. She is going to camp on flute in a couple of weeks, and is now having trouble with her flute embouchure. Any advice?
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Author: Kat
Date: 2002-06-15 19:50
She needs to play flute more!
I play both, but am primarily a clarinetist. I'm completely self-taught on flute, but here are my thoughts...
Flute requires a looser and more relaxed lip configuration than clarinet. She needs to keep that in mind when playing flute. Also important is breathing and air. Flute requires MUCH more air than clarinet. There is no resistance on flute, and there is plenty on clarinet. When I switch back and forth during a gig, I always "shake out" my lips before and after flute. By "shake out," I mean blowing out through VERY relaxed lips. Kind of like a raspberry without the tongue. I know that's as clear as mud... Another way of saying it would be to describe it as a brass embouchure "buzz" with COMPLETELY relaxed lips.
Katrina
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2002-06-15 22:11
In more detail about flute ambouchure:
Flute needs a controlled aperture. Its shape should be a very small oval of about 10mm or smaller lengthwise. At the corner of this oval the muscle should be tight but the contour of oval should be relaxed to make the tone vibrannt. Besides,if the exhaled air flows through the smooth part of mouth, the tone becomes more smooth without noise. To enable this, flutist tries to make the inner side cine out slightly. Especially good flutists are good at using upper lip.
Sorry, Kat. Brass embouchure is not what you described or what you wrote is said to be the worst habit. All brass teacher tells not to use inner part of mouth, which comes out when the lip is completely relaxed. Rather they teach like this: open the teeth 8-10mm between upper and lower, set the upper and lower lips in a closed position and curl ithen in toward the teeth. Before I started to play trumpet after flute and clarinet I thought just like you, but I found it wrong.
My suggestion:
Another thing to consider may be the order of practice matters.
If she practices flute and clarinet during the same period, she should start by flute not clarinet. If she starts by clarinet, embouchre muscle does not work. The muscle used to bite just before does not work for mouth opening work so to speak.
I play saxophone(alto and soprano) too. I cannot play alto after soprano since soprano has a very small mouthpiece and the pressure is greater with the same jaw force. Doublers or tripplers or quadpllers seem to consider these things.
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Author: Pam
Date: 2002-06-16 00:13
Yes, she needs to keep practicing both. I'm still a relative beginner to flute at almost a year. I find that practice sessions are easier if I begin with the flute and then play the clarinet after that. Maybe my embouchure is more "set" on clarinet. It seems harder to get my flute embouchure correct after playing clarinet. It's something I'm trying to get used to though - switching back and forth with more ease.
Sometimes between instruments, I do what Kat does as well. Maybe just to relax and adjust to a different mouth position.
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2002-06-16 00:29
Doubling is an art form. Practise on each instrument a lot especially flute if it is one of your doubles. Accept that you are never going to be as good on all instruments. Know your strengths ie. which instrument or instruments are your specialties. When starting out as professional, a much older player who is now in his 80's told me you do whatever you have to get it right. I have now just about dumped flute out of my repertoire because of lack of practice time. If something payying the right money comes along that requires flute then I practise like crazy.
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Author: Kat
Date: 2002-06-16 23:55
Well, Hiroshi, I didn't mean for her to do that while playing a brass instrument or other instrument...and I'm not a brass player, so that's that!
It's merely an attempt at a description of how I relax and "shake out" my lips when they're tired or when I have to switch instruments...
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2002-06-17 10:18
Yes, I know. Tight but soft at the necessary parts.
This may be what we seek for always although this may sound like
Zen talks.
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