 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: nbblazer
Date: 2009-11-19 01:51
What do you say to a young student to get them to understand how to form, and then maintain while playing a clarinet embouchure?
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2009-11-19 01:58
At what stage of playing development? A brand new beginner needs the instruction to be kept simple and clear. I ask a beginning student to fold his/her lower lip over the bottom teeth, place the reed against the lip and close the lips around the mouthpiece. That's usually enough to produce the first sounds solidly, assuming all is well with the equipment.
Later, more detailed refinements can be added as problems come up that require them once the student becomes comfortable.
Karl
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Author: nbblazer
Date: 2009-11-19 02:08
When I am told to "pull the corners in, make the chin firm and flat", I know exactly what it means. What can I say to a middle school student to understand what I am asking them to do when they are unfamiliar with these directions and are unfamiliar with the facial muscles?
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Author: Dan Shusta
Date: 2009-11-19 02:44
I believe that if you tell the student to keep the upper and lower teeth directly in alignment, this, hopefully, should resolve the embouchure formation problem.
Extending the jaw outward until the lower teeth are in alignment or directly below the upper teeth should keep the chin firm and flat.
I'm no expert, so the above is just my opinion.
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2009-11-19 02:53
Well, that's the art of teaching. Look at the student and listen to his playing and try any way you can think of to make the refinements you think are needed understandable. It will be different with each student because once he's been playing for any length of time, he'll already have established individual habits that may need to be replaced.
Unfortunately, I can't describe a way to get a student to produce a "firm and flat" chin, because that isn't part of my teaching emphasis or even a priority in my own playing. What I do inside my mouth (which I usually describe to students in terms of vowel sounds) and with my lips is far more central, even though what I do probably results in something very similar to what I think you're describing. As far as "pull the corners in" is concerned, I talk about closing the lips firmly _around the mouthpiece_, sometimes describing it as a rubber gasket that needs to seal around the mouthpiece. It isn't just the corners, it's the entire aperture. What I say still depends to an extent on what the student is already doing that I'm trying to correct, since after as few as a couple of months of playing no student comes as a blank slate.
Is this prompted by a particular student?
Karl
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Author: nbblazer
Date: 2009-11-19 03:06
Like any music educator, I'm just expanding the bag of tricks so that when the student is sitting there, what to say has been prepared though this exercise.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2009-11-19 03:11
I like David Etheridge's (my former teacher) method which he illustrates in his new Skill Builders series "A Practical Approach to the Clarinet"
1. First, pull the WHOLE lower lip into your mouth, rolling it all the way over the bottom teeth as much as you can.
2. Next, roll the lower lip back out of your mouth and curve it against your lower teeth, until your are able to make the sound "vuuuuum" . The chin will then be flat and your lower lip will be curved against your lower teeth.
3. Set the reed/mouthpiece against the lower lip.
4. It is important to stress that the top and bottom lips function together. Thus, in order to "thin" the bottom lip to reduce surface contact, the corners of the top lip should be pushed inward (against the eye teeth) and downward. This provides the support to allow you to hold the mouthpiece firmly in the mouth.
...GBK
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Author: CEC
Date: 2009-11-19 06:10
Tell your student to pretend that they are applying lip balm to their bottom lip. Just a start (but a good one, IMHO).
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2009-11-19 06:58
instead of telling him with words, how about showing him either with your own embouchure or pictures. Show or demonstrate an incorrect embouchure and then a correct one. Go to a big mirror and demonstrate what you mean, then ask him to copy it and to practice forming it in the mirror. to maintain it while playing, have him play the first 4 notes of a scale while looking in a mirror. you can add more notes once he can maintain it with the first 4 notes.
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Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2009-11-19 19:37
I had a chance to meet Bruce Pearson at a workshop several years ago, and I use a slightly modified version of his approach. Here's a link:
http://www.kjos.com/band/band_news/band_news_emb2.html
I also like the way Michele Gingras presents it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SlFgO4Hi5k
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Author: salzo
Date: 2009-11-19 20:00
"When I am told to "pull the corners in, make the chin firm and flat", I know exactly what it means. What can I say to a middle school student to understand what I am asking them to do when they are unfamiliar with these directions and are unfamiliar with the facial muscles?"
I tell them to form the lips as if "sucking on a straw".
I then tell them to "get the chin down to the floor.'
I read that 'chin to the floor" business in Keith Steins clarinet book. I find that book to be an excellent teaching resource-it is especially good at putting concepts and ideas into words.
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