Author: Katherine Pincock
Date: 1999-08-10 23:04
Oh, boy. This is the major project for all clarinet players, something that everybody spends years on. There are a couple of things you can focus on, but pretty well what's required is a lot of time in the practice room working on them. The first thing is good air flow--if you don't have enough steady air, you don't get any tone at all. The next thing is a solid, steady embouchure, to control the air that you put through the horn. There are lots of different ways of describing the right embouchure, but the way that I found made most sense to me is to imagine your embouchure as an O ring around the mouthpiece, with the chin flat and cheeks not puffing. Both of these can be improved by lots of long tone work, but be careful--long tones can be very tiring. Listening to numerous clarinet recordings will help too, because we do duplicate what we hear.
It can take a long time to get just the right combination of things, and of course, there's always lots of adjustments to be made. I'd suggest getting a couple of good long tone studies, from books or teachers, and working on them daily as part of your warm-up. Not only will this help your tone, but you'll also improve your endurance for playing. Hope this helps!
|
|
The Clarinet BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
