Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-01-09 13:11
In the vibrato thread on this board, GMac asked: "When you do 'throat' vibrato, do you hear a gutteral sound on each pulse? I find that when I do vibrato that way (so I can feel the pulsations where my head meets my neck approximately) I can hear the pulsations."
Interesting that you should mention that, Graham. Professor Sorton this weekend, in addition to demonstrating vibrato, also talked very helpfully (to me, at least) about possibly allowing a little "snort" to get a clean initial attack when you are entering cold.
Making a clean, cold entrance is something that I have not always been able to do successfully, but I am having great success with what he taught -- which involves creating a circumstance wherein you might make a slight sound just prior to the release of the tongue. (I don't think he is saying that it is desirable to make this sound, only that you *might* find it occuring, and that it is probably not perceptible to the listener.)
He described the process in the following way: first, breathe (through the mouth) deeply into the midsection. (You can facilitate getting a deep breath if you imagine someone is standing in back of you pressing their hands on your shoulders to hold them down.)
Then, put the tip of your tongue on the tip of the reed, and allow the air to come up full-force, so that you get the sense that you could actually push it out your nose. Now, release your tongue.
The air will "puff" right into the reed, without any bagpiping or skreeling of the tone (presuming that you've got a responsive reed!). And if the pressure is high enough, you may hear a slight blip inside your head as this occurs -- as if you were squeezing air out your nose over the soft palate. Kind of a snort, or what would happen if you were only partially successful in suppressing a sneeze.
I think the magic of this, for me, is that it enables me to get the air (and air pressure) up "higher" in the oral cavity than I had been doing. And I imagine that this same sort of pressure-release experience could occur in the creation of a vibrato, as well, although I have not personally experienced that happening.
Susan
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