 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ned
Date: 2016-03-25 07:22
TONY PAY wrote in an earlier post:
To begin with, I'm going to take the position that the essence of an
embouchure lies in the contact between the muscles of the lower lip and
the vibrating reed. Other muscles (such as those of the upper lip) are
also involved; but their influence on the embouchure occurs largely via
their effect on the contact between the lower lip and the reed.
[[This approach leaves aside the possibility that the upper lip may
directly damp vibrations of the mouthpiece itself ]] (not the reed,
notice); but I'm going to assume, along with most other people, that
that effect is negligible.
BOB BERNARDO wrote in reply to the latest posting:
Double lip players tend to use a shade more mouthpiece, almost to the point of when the reeds squeak. The reasons are many, [[but the main reason in my opinion is playing with a double lip and using more of the mouthpiece in you mouth will let more of the reed vibrate freely.]]
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Both of these comments are of interest to me - in particular those I have highlighted using double square brackets.
I have become aware of a phenomenon just recently. This phenomenon may be limited to myself, but I suspect not.
When I am in my ''long note'' warm phase of the daily warm-up I can, if I choose, take my left hand off the instrument and hold it sufficiently steady with my RH and knee. I find playing long notes to be of of great benefit to maintaining muscle tone, and therefore I can rest my LH and arm - I also alternate by resting my RH and arm. There is no real skill necessary for this. I should add that this is useful to a person in his sixties.
Whilst in the process of resting my LH, I swap between single lip and double lip to give my embouchure the complete work-out, even though, on the job, I tend to use mainly DL.
So at this particular time, I had the RH in the usual position and, in the process I also lightly held the bell between my thumb and left forefinger. I noticed that I could feel the clarinet vibrate whilst using DL mainly, and that these vibrations were not nearly as pronounced when switching to SL.
This was interesting to me, so I placed my LH thumb and forefinger at various points including the mouthpiece/ligature, barrel, top joint, lower joint and the lower portion of the bell. I swapped between DL and SL at all these points whilst maintaining a steady air stream with a moderate volume, and discovered that I could distinctly sense the clarinet vibrating more so with DL rather than with SL.
I graded my perceived vibrational responses from 1-5 with #1 being the lowest and found that:
Double Lip
M/P =5
Barrel =2
T/Joint =2 to 3
B/Joint =2 to 3
Lower bell = 4
Single Lip
M/P =2
Barrel =1
T/Joint =2
B/Joint =1
Lower bell =1
I’m afraid my knowledge of physics and acoustics is minimal, however my lay person observations may be of interest to a good number of folks who write to the BB.
So really, my point in all of this is one of tone production. I suspect that, given the distinct difference in my physical perception of clarinet vibrations, between DL and SL sound production, there may well be a distinction in tone as heard by the listener.
I intend to conduct a ''blindfold'' test with my band colleagues at our next rehearsal to test the listener response.
P.S.
The equipment used is a Hawkes & Son 12 key, 2 ring instrument of approximately pre-WW1 vintage, a no-name barrel, a Meyer #9 M/P and a Rico Royal #3 reed and a Selmer metal ligature.
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2016-03-25 10:27
Ned, I agree with your comments regarding warming up. It's actually very hard to make each note sound perfect and you nailed it by talking about using the left and right hands.
Way back in the days I auditioned for Stanley Hasty at Eastman, 1976. He didn't really care too much about the prepared music as much as he did about my ear. I had to play long tones going from PPP < FFF > ppp. Then he'd ask what part of the note that I was playing sounded better, then the tricky question was WHY! It was a really fun audition. It was more like having a lesson from one of the great masters. I sometimes wonder if I made a mistake by going to Peabody and not to Eastman. The audition was actually about 25 minutes. I was a scared kid going into the room and left feeling like I just made a new friend. Don Hasty was a great man.
Long story short Ned, you are surely correct about such little things, but these have major impacts with just 1 single note. Very cool observations.
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
Post Edited (2016-03-25 10:32)
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2016-03-25 21:26
ned wrote:
> So really, my point in all of this is one of tone production. I
> suspect that, given the distinct difference in my physical
> perception of clarinet vibrations, between DL and SL sound
> production, there may well be a distinction in tone as heard by
> the listener.
>
You've shown that when *you* switch between SL and DL there's a difference that you can feel as increased vibration in the instrument. It may well be a difference in the way DL and SL interact with the reed and mouthpiece generically, or it may be that it's something *you* change in the switch and not a change that's endemic to the two embouchure variants themselves.
A blind test of your sound will still only demonstrate that they sound different when you're the player. To make a generally meaningful case, you'd have to involve a lot of players and a lot of blind listening tests.
This isn't to criticize your playing. But your use of DL may well give an improvement in sound that isn't necessarily a universal benefit, but more the result of your increased comfort with DL over SL..
Karl
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2016-03-25 22:38
I have to agree with Karl on this. For me, feeling vibrations under your fingers (in place, over the respective tone holes) is THE test for producing the correct sound on clarinet in the first place.
But that in no way diminishes what you experience! Bottom line is that you need to pursue that. It will dramatically improve your sound. Of course I would add that you could achieve this on single lip two, but who cares. If you get amazing results one way over another, stick with the amazing results.
.............Paul Aviles
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