 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: klarisa
Date: 2025-05-21 17:45
Good afternoon (from Belgium).
I have been playing clarinet as an amateur for over 40 years now. The last few months i started to lose air on both sides of my mouth. It starts after about a half hour of playing. I used to be able to play for several hours. The problem seems to be worse when playing low notes than high notes. I have 3 clarinets and it happens with all of them
Could this be due to age. And can i do something about it. I really like my current setup Vandoren BD5 mouthpiece and blue box nr3 reeds so i would rather not go down in reed strength, or change my mouthpiece.
Playing long tones come in to mind but that seems to make the problem appear even earlier.
Regards Johan
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2025-05-21 20:11
Hello Johan,
I think I may have some insights from my own experience that could help you. I am a doubler and often play alto & soprano saxophone along with clarinet & bass clarinet in shows or on other gigs. All require adjustments in embouchure; that's where I think your air leakage issue manifests itself.
You sound great playing soprano with the sax quartet. Nice technique and sound. A nice balanced group that I imagine is great fun as well.
My suggestion is the long tones as always but with your attention to embouchure changes required between each instrument. Scales would be fine but paying attention to things like the position of the lower lip, chin position, sensations/tensions around the side of the mouthpiece, etc. should be your focus.
Do you use a mouthpiece patch? What about differences in resistance with various reed/mouthpiece combinations? IMHO you will begin to find out some useful things very quickly.
Cheers,
Hank
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