 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: tBurhart
Date: 2014-01-02 21:18
At my school we're playing Frank Ticheli's "Angels in the Architecture" and I'm playing 1st clarinet. The piece has a lot of high notes (at one point getting up to an A), and I'm noticing that on a lot of these notes I'm biting and creating a squeak or an overtone. I usually play the high notes fine if I'm slurring up to them, but if I have to tongue the note, overtones and squeaks almost always come out. So, how do I stop biting when playing these notes? When I played "Sleigh Ride" recently I used a double lip embouchure in one small passage where there were high notes and I managed to play it. However, this piece is almost all high notes! Is there a way to stop biting?
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2014-01-02 23:53
Make sure your reed selection is good. There should be enough strength in the reed to support the high notes. If there is then the embouchure can function without contortions. Find a reed that plays high g's up to pitch and don't require embouchure manipulations.
Freelance woodwind performer
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Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2014-01-03 13:58
>>I usually play the high notes fine if I'm slurring up to them, but if I have to tongue the note, overtones and squeaks almost always come out.
To me this says you are making a change in your tongue position when you tongue. Compare how your tongue is positioned from when you are slurring to when you are tonguing. Are they the same?
John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2014-01-04 07:05
Could also be a subconscious change in embouchure. Maybe as you're "preparing" to tongue you subconsciously tighten up. When you slur, you're keeping the embouchure stable and using the loose embouchure that you used on the lower note.
So you've discovered already that keeping your embouchure the same and slurring works. Slur up to it and then stop and focus hard on not changing your embouchure. Then tongue the note. Then stop. Then tongue, etc. all the while focusing hard on keeping your embouchure stable. Hopefully that'll start to set in your mind that you can keep the loose embouchure and you won't be "preparing" to tongue the note in the future.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: JonTheReeds
Date: 2014-01-04 15:21
I'm working on high notes at the moment and something that has helped me is something that David Pino wrote: "An embouchure is nothing more than the properly shaped and reinforced doorway through which the airflow must pass to be properly received by the instrument...The only job the embouchure must do is allow the airflow to act upon the clarinet so that the best possible quality of sound results. The embouchure itself does not cause good quality sound; only the airflow, with appropriate help from the embouchure, can do that."
Before, I was using the embouchure to make the high notes speak, rather than using the airflow as the foundation for everything. I've found that the reed will speak with just the airflow, and the embouchure just keeps the airflow focused and keeps the note in tune.
Still lots of work to do, but it's getting more secure up there
--------------------------------------
The older I get, the better I was
Post Edited (2014-01-04 15:48)
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Author: tBurhart
Date: 2014-01-04 14:49
Thank you for all the responses!
I have noticed that when I'm rapidly tonguing my bottom jaw will slightly move, which I'm sure is affecting the sounds that come out. So I'll need to work on keeping the embouchure and tongue steady and relaxed like several of you said.
And @sfalexi, my private teacher had mentioned something similar to what you had said. In a piece for an audition, I had to tongue a high E, and I would always tighten up and end up playing a high A. So, he had me use a "no-miss" high E fingering until I was used to how my embouchure should be positioned for an E. After I grew comfortable with it, I switched back to using the normal E fingering and could usually hit the note.
I appreciate all the responses, and I'll start working on all of the suggestions :-)
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Author: clarinetist04
Date: 2014-01-04 15:55
If you have a private teacher, which you evidently do, it would be better for you to work on this with them if it is as big a problem as I perceive from your questions/comments. There are lots of etudes and studies out there that focus on the altissimo range.
If you forge ahead and work on all these "solutions" to a problem we don't have first hand working with (each problem is different for each person, especially in cases like this where it's a combination of instrument position, tongue position and attack, embouchure, reed, mouthpiece placement, etc.) then you run the risk of developing or, worse, ingraining bad habits into your playing. That's why you have a private instructor.
The first thing I thought about was, what is the problem? You're not able to tongue the high notes with good articulation. OK, are you sure it's because you're biting? Is it something more related to air flow? If so, the solution might not be to "bight less" but to provide more support with your air stream. But without working directly with you it is useless for me to provide any help...thus, work with your instructor to solve problems like this.
Keep up the good work...you'll get those notes in no time with some focused practice.
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Author: tBurhart
Date: 2014-01-04 22:04
Thanks for your input.
I'm definitely going to bring this up with my private teacher, but my next lesson is going to be after the first rehearsal of this piece, so I'm just trying to find out the possible cause of this problem.
I'm positive that some of the causes might be air flow, biting and poor tonguing.
I have a device called the Breath Builder that my teacher gave that has really improved my air capacity. After using that it helps the higher notes come out. Whenever I slur up to a high note, and it is coming out fine, and then add some pressure to the reed, I get the overtones that usually come out when I tongue the note. I really feel that these overtones are possibly the result of me trying to force the note out with too much pressure on the reed.
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Author: tBurhart
Date: 2014-01-06 03:12
Good news! I've found that using less of the mouth piece has drastically improved my high notes! I still am getting the occasional overtone, however, I'm so much more consistent in producing the note. :-)
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2014-01-06 07:52
Moving your jaw (or your Adam's apple) is a big no-no when tonguing. It brings in big, powerful, slow-moving muscles, just the opposite of what you want.
For the same reason, make sure you aren't making a puffing movement with your abdomen when you tongue. Worst (i.e., slowest) of all is making the Valsalva Maneuver, which is, aah ... the movement you make when defecating or women make in labor.
Ken Shaw
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