Author: Clarence Beale
Date: 2016-05-31 06:00
When I play the clarinet I hold the instrument firmly in my mouth, but that stability is not provided by clamping down on the reed and mouthpiece with my lips and jaws. To the contrary, I simply lay the front of the reed on the flesh in front of my lower teeth with the stability being provided mostly by some upward pressure from my right thumb being countered by my upper teeth resting on the mouthpiece top.
To me it seems like there is very little pressure against the front of the reed. There is some, just enough to focus the sound. I can back off that little bit of pressure but there still is sound although unfocused and not especially pleasant. Because of this it seems to me that Max should be getting at least some kind of sound when the air is moving rapidly across the mouthpiece facing into the mouthpiece.
I think all of this maybe is better explained by Anthony Gigliotti. The following few paragraphs are from Arthur Hegvik's 1977 interview of AG from the Instrumentalist magazine.
A.H. What about the corners of the mouth?
A.G. There are students who come to me and look as if they're smiling when they play, and they say their teacher taught them to pull the corners of the mouth up. Others look like they are frowning, and pull the corners down. I feel they shouldn't be pulled anywhere. They should stay exactly in their normal position, with a slight tightening of the corner muscles to prevent air leakage, but that's all.
A.H. How much pressure should be exerted by the lower lip against the reed?
Very little. You should not get a grip on the reed. The lower lip should touch the reed with just enough firmness to focus the sound. Of course, if you are playing a wide open mouthpiece, you have to use a lot of pressure to bring the reed up to the lay of the mouthpiece to get it to vibrate, but if you use a facing like mine, which is medium-close, that is not necessary. You can play with very little pressure, just enough to control the reed and focus the sound properly, and that's it.
A.H. How would you put this across with a young or beginning student?
A.G. I demonstrate to the student by playing an open G with no pressure at all, so the sound is spread to the point of a squawk, and it's very obvious to the student that it's not a good tone. Then I play the same note with a good quality of sound. (You must first establish these tonal conceptions in the student's mind so he can recognize when the sound is correct and when it is not correct.) Then again I play the open G with the no-pressure, squawky tone, and show them that by increasing the pressure or firmness against the reed very slightly you can focus the sound. Now this requires a very minute change of firmness. Then I have them do the same thing. I spend some time in this so they realize that the difference between the unfocused, spread tone and the well-focused sound in terms of embouchure firmness is very slight. This way they don't get in the habit of biting and gripping the mouthpiece. The important thing is to establish the concept of just enough firmness, and not too much, to avoid the habit of playing with a tight, tense embouchure.
I suspect that some might disagree with some of these ideas but I include what Mr. Gigliotti said simply to note that when he played with no pressure against the reed at least he produced a squawk.
Clarence Beale
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The Clarinet BBoard
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