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Re: Issues of Pedagogy, and on the lower lip...

Author: suavkue
Date: 2010-11-08 17:29

@Lelia: I'm really starting to become interested on how much I'm starting to learn to fix in just these past... 5 days now. I found out yesterday that I've been breathing incorrectly. In my blog post (I've kept a daily journal), I mentioned:

What did I just learn? I haven’t been blowing through the clarinet properly. This is just outrageous – the amount of mistakes I’ve made on playing clarinet. I just learned that my stomach is supposed to expand while I’m breathing. The only memory I have of a similar instruction was of my then choir director in eighth grade (which was five years ago), who told me that the diaphragm expands as you breathe. I never did apply this to clarinet playing. I recall that one of my teachers (my third teacher) had solved my problem of my shoulders rising (not when I breathe – it’s just when I played, my shoulders were always up), and I did solve that problem right away, but I was (still) breathing incorrectly. When I thought of breathing before today, I was thinking, “Breathe up.” I had no idea that the stomach is supposed to expand as you breathe. How did I find out about this? Here:

“The proper clarinet air support EXERCISE. How do you know your lungs are full? Many people do not use the full capacity of their lungs. Try this breathing exercise:
Stand-up
Put your hands on your hips, now bring the hands up around your stomach, thumbs to the back and fingers toward the belly button. Grab your stomach slightly
Now, take a BIG BREATH. Fill what seems like your stomach up all the way to your thumbs. Now, blow out fast air.
While doing that exercise, try it again in front of a mirror. Make sure you are not raising your shoulders while breathing in.”

(From http://www.clarinet-now.com/clarinet-air-support.html .)

That exercise really helped me to see how I should be breathing. I’m surprised I was never told this way...

Notice the problem? I was told (constantly) that I needed more air support but I didn’t know what proper air support actually was because I was never taught what proper air support was. I really find it interesting how teachers expect you to know what they mean, yet they don’t even tell you how to approach what they want you to do.

Despite the embouchure change, I still had a "flappy" (I don't know how else to describe it) sound come out before the actual note came out. I figured out the solution yesterday, and I hope that I don't have any more bad habits that I still have to solve. I now know for a fact that a lot of clarinetists don't know what proper "air support" is - which I will be going through with the clarinetist (who I mentioned in the first post) who plays the eefer. (She does have problems with crossing the break.) I was always told to use the diaphragm, but I didn't remember how it works until I saw that website yesterday.

@salzo: No offense to you or anything, but I don't think my ears were the problem. I compose music as a hobby, and have orchestrated works for wind ensembles. My ears always heard that my tone was bad and uneven. I used to (and still do) listen to Stoltzman's recording of the Copland Concerto whenever I could. I did everything I could to try to mimic that sound. I always adjusted my embouchure (as I mentioned in my first post, I've switched embouchures usually at around 3 times a year, at least, because none of them produced satisfactory results, and there was none that sounded great). I would like to say that it's been my fault that I've had a bad sound for many years, but I always heard it and I did everything I could to fix it - I was mainly the product of poor teaching, and because of that teaching, I was given years of frustration. In other words, I have to kindly disagree with you with that embouchure should be very general.

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My current equipment:
Ridenour Lyrique 576BC, Rico Reserve 4, Ridenour Hand Finished Mouthpiece, Luyben Ligature

Post Edited (2010-11-08 17:43)

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