Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2016-05-29 15:18
Ah, the air speed thing. I carried that one around for a long time myself. It was Tony Pay, or someone of that ilk on this Board that got me re-thinking this as it was pointed out that there are OTHER dynamics.
Yes, students with poor, unsupported sounds are probably not offering up enough air speed for the given note at the given dynamic. But as a discipline, I have come to the conclusion that it is better to think of the air stream as STEADY and I mean ROCK STEADY, on any given note at any given dynamic. You do this by ensuring that you have an active control of (and actively feel the use of...) your abdominal muscles. The confusion over what is actually going on with the abdominals and diaphragm working together in opposition is that you won't feel the diaphragm because it such a big muscle that works all the time.
The talk about the "throat" (or back of the tongue) has been an issue for me over the years as well, particularly since John Yeh referred to "open throat" as "closed throat" (the oral cavity does get bigger, at the expense of blocking the flow of air at the top of the throat, just above the voice box).
I have softened on that in the last few months vis a vie the use of the closed German mouthpieces and soft reeds. This system (or any that are similar) achieves a warm, projecting sound without any undo effort whatsoever. So all the minutia we argue about the embouchure just seems to go out the window.
As I began using Legere on this "light" concept, I too started to feel a need to get the softest possible Legere and went through the "whoosh" phase. Bas De Jong of Viotto mouthpieces did have to talk me back from the brink on that one. He said that there still is some "support" of the mouthpiece however slight is may be.
I add this because it is important to know that the clarinet can never be equivalent to just placing it against your lips like a flute, there needs to be a "damping" at the "cantilever" point just before the point where the reed and mouthpiece come together.
But if you have a set-up that "plays" just by "blowing" (as much as that is possible on clarinet) then you DO have more flexibility with what else you do as far as tongue position (open vs closed "throat") or how much you actually feel the engagement of your abdominals (pushing at your mid-section), while you still get a really good sound.
....................Paul Aviles
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The Clarinet BBoard
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