 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Dewey
Date: 2006-03-02 22:57
On sax, of course your throat needs to be very open to have the correct tone. Is this the case on clarinet also? For some of my younger kids I get them to use a 3/4 inch pvc pipe to breathe through to get them to open their throat. I just need to know if the throat needs to be as open on clarinet.
You guys have given me some fantastic answers so far. Thank you, this is actually an educational forum. How refreshing. All of the sax boards I have found, i'm the old man trying to convince kids that there is more to playing the sax than trying to figure out kenny g songs on their metal mouthpieces and plastic reeds.
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Author: Dewey
Date: 2006-03-02 23:00
That is to say, I use this method for my younger SAX students.
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Author: John Scorgie
Date: 2006-03-03 18:01
Dewey, I appreciate your frustration but you have raised an issue which is really too complex to be answered in a few sentences. Here is my .02 worth and maybe others will chime in with their suggestions.
IMHO, "open throat" is a good teaching concept on any wind instrument, especially voice.
The main problem with the open throat concept is in the area where the "throat" becomes the "mouth".
Students who take the open throat concept too far often exhibit puffed out cheeks and a flabby embouchure. Others keep their throat open but tighten up everywhere else.
Some coaches teach students to blow "warm air" (like fogging a mirror) on saxophone and "cold air" (like blowing out a distant candle) on clarinet.
To put it another way, the usual recommendation is some variant of the "ah" vowel quality for saxophone and some variant of the "ee" vowel quality for the clarinet.
Many informative posts on this website deal with the specific issue of how to shape and position the tongue for optimum results.
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