 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: SarahC
Date: 2016-12-01 08:35
hi all
After many clarinet lessons, where I was told practise would strengthen my embouchure, and a year of playing.. my embouchure still starts leaking at the sides after 15 minutes.
Does any one have any suggestions what I can do to strengthen it please?
Thanks in Advance
Sarah
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Author: kdk
Date: 2016-12-01 11:52
I would say you need to find a more helpful and knowledgeable teacher who can help find the cause of embouchure stress when you play. Fifteen minutes should not cause an endurance/strength issue - even at the beginning after a couple of weeks' practice. Something you're doing is causing premature fatigue. Either your approach to embouchure is unnecessarily tense or your equipment is unnecessarily hard to blow.
Or consult your doctor to see if there's a possible neuro-muscular explanation.
Karl
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2016-12-01 15:21
As usual I favor Karl's thinking. You need a new or add a different teacher. It's time to look around.
Don't feel bad here. Golf pro's play for big money. If they win their paycheck is several million dollars. Lets throw out a figure of $12 million for just one event of 72 holes. The average winner hit the ball 260 times or so. Every time he hit the ball it worth about $45,000. You can bet that if he isn't swinging the club perfectly he will be looking for advice from another coach. This is OK to do.
We aren't playing golf, but we have to break a bad habit. Your embouchure is wrong. It's that simple.
I would play long tones for 10 minutes everyday starting at pp < ff >pp astarting with low E using a double lip and trying to put as much mouthpiece into your mouth as possible until you actually squeak. Then back off a hair. Buy a mirror and put it on your stand. Then go to E#, F , F#, G, G#, down back to low E.
When practicing and most importantly, look into a mirror and make an "O" formation with your lips.
Right now you may be favoring an E sound and not knowing it.
Get back to me in 2 weeks. Listen to each note as you start soft get to forte and soft. They must be even. If they aren't don't move on until they are. During your practicing the goal is NOT to get to the C but to make the low notes vibrant and ping. You want to fill the room. If you only master low E the first week you've done really well.
An old schoolmate from Interlochen Arts Academy named Lee Morgan likes to make an e o sound. He has a youtube lessen on it.
http://search.aol.com/aol/video?q=lee+Morgan+clarinetist+instructor&s_it=video-ans&sfVid=true&videoId=11362E8DF61F6EA86FD511362E8DF61F6EA86FD5&v_t=keyword_rollover
He studied with the great Fred Ormand and Robert Marcellus. He has that wonderful full sound that fills the hall.
You can actually take online lessons with him if you wish. (I think)
Take note with the amount of mouthpiece he uses. He is one heck of a nice man. Not sure if he will remember me if you talk with him. He was one of those superstars and still is. Unknown here in the US because he plays in Denmark or somewhere in that area of the world. We are going back into the early 1970's.
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
Post Edited (2016-12-01 15:29)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2016-12-01 18:24
In the thread about "Articulation and air support" you wrote,
> it seems to be an analogy that works well for my students. as
> this issue is one for all woodwind
I'm confused, assuming you're the same SarahC. Do you have longer experience on a wind instrument other than clarinet? Could this be part of the problem of your air leak? Embouchure formation is rather different from one wind instrument to another. Maybe an accommodation to clarinet that you aren't making?
Karl
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Author: Roxann
Date: 2016-12-01 19:04
My teacher recommended these to me: "Embouchure Building for Clarinetists" by Larry Guy (Rivermore Press) for exercises to perfect my embouchure and "The Breath Builder" (800-256-6421) to perfect breath control. Both are excellent and they've been a tremendous help.
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Author: SarahC
Date: 2016-12-02 05:15
That's right. Flautist and recorderist. Clarinet has been my most recent endeavour.
Thanks for the Lee Morgan referral, I actually bought and downloaded one of his teaching videos last night. My issue is I booked in for this exam next week six months ago... Thinking my embouchure would be strengthened by now (as that is what my teacher had said) so I have been frustrated to notice it hasn't been strengthened, and I tried to organise unsuccessfully lessons with my old teacher plus two others!
But I have some Skype lessons booked with two teachers in Denmark. Both of whom u b3plieve know Lee Morgan teaching, and we're taught by neidich....
Question though. So how do u reconcile having the flat taught lower lip, with having the o shaped mouth? I am sure my lower lip is too soft, but the o shape definitely makes sense for eliminating the side leak....
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Author: kdk
Date: 2016-12-02 06:11
SarahC wrote:
> Question though. So how do u reconcile having the flat
> taught lower lip, with having the o shaped mouth? I am sure
> my lower lip is too soft, but the o shape definitely makes
> sense for eliminating the side leak....
For some teachers at least (mine as an example) the purpose was to imitate the effect of double lip without actually having to pull the lip all the way under the upper teeth. If you form a double lip embouchure you'll generally have an O shape naturally. If you then release the upper lip but keep it (flat) against the teeth and pressing down slightly on the mouthpiece, you can still maintain the O shape.
There are other approaches that don't emphasize an active upper lip so much, but they still mostly want to make a circular seal around the mouthpiece.
My impression of a flute embouchure (never having been able to develop much of one myself) is that it's flatter, since there's nothing in the aperture to hold it open.
Karl
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