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Re: Blowing terminology

Author: rdc
Date: 2008-09-21 19:34

I'm a new poster to the Clarinet Bulletin Board. I have followed this thread with great interest and hope the following comments are clear.

Can the clarinet be played effectively without support? Tony Pay’s definition of support, “diaphragmatic resistance to blowing,” is succinct and true, but it points up a distinction we make between “blowing” and “support” that is not quite accurate. Rather than two separate things, what we think of as “support” could better be viewed as a subset of “blowing.” We could call it “effective blowing” or “excellent blowing.”

It is the nature of “diaphragmatic resistance” that makes me think this. The diaphragm (as is true of all muscles) can contract (or flex), bringing air into the lungs, or it can relax, expelling air from the lungs. If it remains contracted, no movement of air can take place. Air leaving the body implies that the diaphragm is moving (relaxing). Diaphragmatic resistance when blowing or supporting, then, is not “maintaining diaphragmatic contraction,” but rather, it is “slowing the rate of diaphragmatic relaxation” in order to set up a resistance to the abdominal push. Within the overall concept of a slowly relaxing diaphragm, more air blown means that the diaphragm is relaxing less slowly, and less air that the diaphragm is relaxing more slowly.

This seems to be not the case because proper blowing with diaphragmatic resistance (support!) sets up what feels like an equilibrium between the abdominal push and the resistance to that push. Air can be blown for quite a while before subsidence of the abdominal expansion-proof that the diaphragm is indeed relaxing-can be felt or seen.

Blowing (and support) means that the air is being put under pressure, and diaphragmatic resistance (slowly relaxing diaphragm) is the most efficient way to do this in terms of both consistency of air pressure delivered to the reed and the length of time this consistent pressure can be sustained. One can take a full breath and blow out all of the air very rapidly if no resistance is offered, that is, with mouth open and diaphragm relaxing as quickly as possible. Attempting to do this while playing the clarinet is also possible, but if the diaphragm is relaxing rapidly (offering no resistance), the only resistance to the abdominal push of the air would be that of the mouthpiece-reed set up. Tone can be sustained for only several seconds this way, until the air pressure drops when its speed can no longer be maintained. Even in fff playing, when the diaphragm is relaxing most rapidly, I believe it is still resisting the abdominal push somewhat if any consistency of blowing is to be realized.

Blowing is pressurizing the air by the use of diaphragmatic resistance to the abdominal push. Support as we think of it (which is also “blowing”) is using the range of diaphragmatic resistances that will give us the most effective results in terms of quality, response, and duration of tone, and the realization of the musical phrase.

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Blowing terminology new

Arnoldstang

2008-09-18 15:10