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Re: different concepts?

Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2004-11-19 02:48

Can I choose "None of the above"?

There is an extensive and instructive comment about reeds and embouchure from John Mack at the following site:

http://idrs.colorado.edu/Publications/Journal/JNL2/effective.html

Here's some of what he says (you might want to read the rest of the article):

". . . as an ideal, the oboe is played with the mouth open, and the reed is held with the lips and *not* with lip-covered teeth. . . . Now, getting into the usage of the lips . . . . The catechism, of course, is that the chin is down when you play and looks the same way that it does when you whistle. . . .Which reminds me to touch on the subject of the red part of the lips. A lot of people feel you shouldn't play on the red part of the lips -- that's not really necessarily so at all; it depends on the way your lips are. I think that if you'd play on the red part, you're better off. . . . You may feel stronger putting more lips in your mouth, but I think you have less control -- less control. . . . What I do feel is -- too much lips on the reed dampens the reed and forces you to make a noisier reed than otherwise and depresses the pitch. Not enough lips on the reed and the pitch is likely to go up.

"We're trying to find a balance in the embouchure, a balance that gives us enough tone with a limitation to keep it from becoming too nasty, and some kind of control over the reed pitch-wise, which keeps the reed from wanting to go up or down (assuming that the reed might be stable!). . . ."

Hey, it works for me!

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