Author: maxopf
Date: 2014-09-20 08:16
Hello,
Some background:
In my first year of playing clarinet in middle school, I didn't take private lessons, and I never really learned proper embouchure formation. I ended up bunching up my chin and taking in way too much lower lip.
After a year, I began lessons with a private teacher and asked about my embouchure, having realized that it wasn't exactly standard, but his opinion was that I shouldn't mess with it since I got a good tone and it wasn't posing any issues with the music I was playing. So until the end of my freshman year in high school, I continued to play with this embouchure, and still managed to be successful with it, making 1st chair in my school band and local youth orchestra.
However, a year ago I began lessons with my current teacher (who plays professionally) and moved on to more demanding solo and orchestra repertoire. After about half a year, she and I began began to realize that my bunched up embouchure was causing some issues with biting, sluggish articulation, and sharpness (which wasn't evident until I began more difficult music), and I asked her to help me switch my embouchure to the more standard flat chin embouchure.
At the start of summer break about 4 months ago, I was really able to focus my practice time on fixing my embouchure (as well as tackling other, smaller bad habits in my air support and technique), and the change has made a huge positive difference in my tone and articulation. The issue is that now, no matter how much I practice long tones, take breaks, practice in shorter intervals, etc., my embouchure tends to revert somewhat after playing for a while (anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes into a rehearsal or practice session.) This gets very irritating during 3-hour-long youth orchestra rehearsals. My chin no longer bunches up like it did before I changed my embouchure, but my lower lip bunches up and I start biting which negatively affects my sound. I'm going to discuss this with my teacher at my lesson tomorrow, but in the meantime, does anyone have any experience with these habits, or any bad embouchure habits in general, that won't seem to go away? How did you manage to get rid of these habits?
(I've just started practicing with a mirror by the way - I'm hoping this will make me more aware of any embouchure movement.)
Post Edited (2014-09-20 08:21)
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The Clarinet BBoard
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