 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: personwithaclarinet
Date: 2015-05-15 06:47
Hello. I am a sixteen-year-old student clarinet player and I am performing a concertino on Saturday. As of yesterday, my lower lip has been hurting severely (with pressure from my teeth) when I play even one or two notes on the clarinet except in the lowest register. I don't know why this is, whether it's cold sores in my mouth, or a subconscious embouchure change (?) or the intense strain to my mouth as a practice trying to get that held high B (!!) to sound good... Does anyone have advice, ideas about what's happening, or potential solutions? Thank you so much in advance; I was worried about the high b but now I almost literally can't play and I don't know what to do.
Post Edited (2015-05-15 06:49)
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Author: nbclarinet
Date: 2015-05-15 07:19
It sounds like you're probably biting. If you study with a teacher, have you spoken to him/her about it?
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Author: maxopf
Date: 2015-05-15 07:34
Fellow student here.
I used to have this - it was definitely a result of biting, and I'm guessing it's the same in your case. Most likely you were clamping down with your lower jaw to try to pop the high B out, and in the process you bit down on your lip too hard. The fact that you're referring to trying to hit the high notes as "intense straining" makes me think there's an issue.
It's probably too late to make drastic embouchure changes before the concert, but in the future you don't want to apply excess pressure on your lower lip. You have to learn to get a good sound and hit the higher notes primarily with your air, and not rely on clamping down on the reed with your lower lip/jaw. For now, you could get some floral tape and fold it over your lower teeth to create a cushion, which might help with the pain.
Part of the way I learned to stop biting was by using those thick black mouthpiece patches. When I used to bite, I would puncture those in a day; now I've had the same patch for months without making a dent in it.
Post Edited (2015-05-15 07:36)
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2015-05-15 15:47
No part of the body heals faster than the inside of the mouth. Lay off for a day and you'll be fine.
If it's still sore on competition day, make a pad for the top of your lower teeth. It's as easy as folding a clean piece of newspaper half a dozen times. It tastes nasty for a minute, but it's quick, easy and effective.
Good luck.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2015-05-15 16:12
I use a product called"Bonjela" for mouth sores or injuries. It appears to be an Aloe Vera based gel with some sort of antibacterial properties. Generally clears up mouth problems overnight.
Tony F.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2015-05-15 16:47
Meanwhile, to get you through the performance tomorrow, if you're still hurting, try folding a piece of cigarette paper or something similar over your bottom teeth to blunt their edges against your lip. I routinely use EZO denture pads, which have become hard to find in recent years, cut into smaller pieces and folded over my teeth.
For the future after tomorrow's concert:
The pain is almost certainly from your teeth irritating, possibly even cutting into, your lip, probably, as others have said, because of biting - too much upward pressure directly applied against the reed by your jaw. In the long run, you need to find a different way to control the reed, using your lips around the mouthpiece and air pressure from your breathing muscles to support the sound. It's especially important when you're practicing a lot for a special performance. If you rely on jaw pressure, the result is predictable and you're experiencing it now.
Oh, yes, and a different approach to controlling the reed should make that high B come out more easily without needing to bite on a hard reed to produce it.
Good luck tomorrow.
Karl
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2015-05-15 19:36
Good luck, but after your performance, you need to reconsider what you are doing that makes your lip hurt and why you are doing it.
If you are biting too hard, the mouthpiece and reed may be wrong. I've noticed that most players using either the Vandoren M13 or the more expensive Clark Fobes CWF model seldom have any problems with excessive pressure. That's because these two facings (the M13 has a very gentle resistance curve and is open only 1.005 mm at the tip; and the Fobes CWF personal facing also has a very gentle resistance curve and is even closer at the tip) play throughout the entire clarinet range with a minimum of force. When the tones emit easily, there is little need to bite on the reed. A third mouthpiece model with easy emission and little required bottom lip pressure is the MoBa C Camerata facing, open about 0.99 mm at the tip. Although usually expensive, sometimes you can find used or "studio" Moba Cs at under $100 if you search for them.
Medium strength #3 or 3.5 reeds work well on these mouthpieces. Playing harder than necessary reeds such as #4 or #5 can also encourage biting. If I switch from an M13 mouthpiece even to a Vandoren M30, 5RV, or 5RV lyre, I find myself biting too much, even with the same strength reed.
You may need to recheck, with a good teacher, how you are forming your embouchure. Using the types of mouthpiece recommended above, you should be able to play easily throughout the clarinet range using the "whistling" model for the embouchure. Daily practice in the Baermann Method Book III on the scales in intervals will build embouchure suppleness and discourage biting.
Post Edited (2015-05-15 22:32)
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Author: nellsonic
Date: 2015-05-15 23:05
Working with a double lip embouchure is probably the single most effective way to quickly break a biting habit, if that is indeed the issue here, which seems likely. It is also yields positive results for most people in other ways. If you do a search of this forum you will find plenty written about it.
Unless you have an unusually short upper lip, there is much to be gained by adding some double lip work to your practice routine. Some very fine players use double lip all the time, some use it in certain passages, and others use it only for long tones as an exercise. It does take time for the upper lip to adapt to this new use, much as it did the lower lip when you first started playing, but it's well worth exploring for a few weeks to see how it might be helpful.
Best wishes for a successful performance!
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Author: maxopf
Date: 2015-05-16 03:35
seabreeze: I play the CWF with a 4 without a biting issue, and when I visited Clark Fobes in San Francisco last year he said he plays either a 3.5 or 4 (interestingly, depending on the size of the room - he feels that softer reeds sound better in small spaces, like the room where he makes/tests mouthpieces, and harder reeds sound better in large spaces.) I usually use 4s that are on the soft side.
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2015-05-16 07:15
Maxopf,
It's pretty rare to see anybody playing the CWF who has a serious biting issue, even if they do go a bit heavy on the reed (which, it appears, you don't). 3.5 or 4 on that piece sounds fine to me. The charm in that mouthpiece design lies in the free-blowing nature of the internal specs combined with a non-taxing resistance curve and a comfortable, close tip opening. Yet the overtone spectrum is colorful and resonant. Contrast that with the relatively stiff feel of, for example, a Vandoren 5Rv or B45 coupled with a stiffer reed, and pinching and biting become likely just to control the sound.
Nellsonic,
I agree that double lip can be a big help in curing the biting habit, especially if you have a mouthpiece that accomodates double-lip playing. For many players, especially young ones still developing an embouchure, that often means a fairly close facing with a gentle medium to medium-long resistance curve. For me, double lip is easy on a Vandoren M13, a Fobes CWF, or a MoBa C and much more taxing and painful on longer, more open facings such as the CL4 and 5 and the M30. Shorter, more open facings, with brighter resistance curves, like the Vandoren 5RV and the B45, also make me pinch more.
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Author: personwithaclarinet
Date: 2015-05-18 01:51
Thank you all. I got through my performance by taking a practice break and some Advil, and I will take your advice in trying to prevent biting.
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Author: Wisco99
Date: 2015-05-18 10:50
I just reverse my mouthpiece every week so the reed is on top. That gives my bottom lip a nice rest, and shows everyone how flexible I am. We have lips and teeth on the top and bottom, so logic dictates this should not be a problem. Playing with the reed always on the bottom lip is just one of those bad habits we develop that are handed down over the years by musicians who lost their top teeth and are in denial.
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