 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Nick
Date: 2002-09-19 22:51
I've come to ask everyone's help again. I've developed this bad habit of biting down too hard on the mouthpiece while playing, especially when trying to play loudly. I bite so hard that, after playing, my teeth hurt for a while and it's painful to play afterwards.
Can you guys give me some tips on how to break this habit? How should I position the upper part of my mouth on the mouthpiece? Is there some sort of padding I can put underneath my top teeth to help?
Thank you
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Author: Kat
Date: 2002-09-19 22:56
Pracice for a while EACH practice session using a double lip embouchure. It'll help with two things: First, you won't be able to bite DOWN as hard because your upper lip will be between your upper teeth and the mp. Second, you won't be able to bite UP as hard with your jaw either, for the same reason.
Try it while practicing slurred scales and a few long tones. It'll be difficult to tongue but doing this for a few minutes each practice session will begin to re-train your embouchure into a more healthy position.
Katrina
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Author: Metalclarinetgigman
Date: 2002-09-20 01:05
Regarding double embouchure, I was taught to play this way and had no trouble with it, I stopped playing jazz clarinet in the early sixties as pop music became more popular and did not play again until I was forty, I was asked to play in two bands by 2 people I had played with in my teens, so I dug out my clarinet from under the stairs, I bought some reeds and tried to played it, it was a disaster, I now had a full set of upper false teeth and a partial set of lower teeth, I could not play, my upper set just wanted to leap out of my mouth, I quickly decided to try the single embouchure, what an amazing difference, instead of my teeth trying to escape they stayed in place, the angle of the slope on the mouthpiece pushed my falsies back into my mouth, the 'problem' was gone, I only have three of my own teeth left now and I have no problems playing at all, so the horror stories about not being able to play a single reed instrument with false teeth as far as I am concerned is a load of rubbish!
ps, I joined both bands.
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Author: Nick
Date: 2002-09-20 02:22
Sorry, I'm new to clarinet and I don't know exactly what is involved in a double lip embouchure. Should I ask my teacher about it? He's never mentioned it before, even when I told him about my biting problem.
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Author: d dow
Date: 2002-09-20 14:19
Biting is not such an easy problem to solve.. Keith stein in his book writes at great leagnth about how this hinders technical development and leads to poor tuning and fatigue. I would say maybe the habit could be studied best with good advice from your private instructor-- or with a total change of embouchure concept on you behalf.
It is dangerous to take advice through a forum but I think a more circle like embouchure formed as in "whooo" with pressure from the lips only instead of teeth may be helpful.
As one can't see what you are doing, I advise getting rid of the mouthpiece if it has grooves in it left from the biting. The tendency of having your teeth fall in them and what will encourage you to go back to your biting habit....keep your chin pointed as well...
Sincerely
DD
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Author: AE
Date: 2002-09-20 18:47
Double lip practicing is surely a good idea..
If you use hard reeds, you could also try to practice with softer reeds - they will simply not sound if you bite to hard.
When it comes to playing loud, my experience is that you rather have to bite less, free the reed! Biting can appear as a wish of controlling the sound, generally it is better to just let it out.
good luck,
A
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