 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Domenico1994
Date: 2017-05-09 15:57
Hi everyone, I've a little problem with projection of sound....I usually try to have a tone which is more centered as possible when playing, in order to project better, but it's not enough, because people usually don't hear me in the range of 2 meters for example...So I have to use the classical way of thinking that I'm in a big theather and the sound must arrive to a person sitting in the last chair of the audience. It works, luckily, people are able to hear me from far away, and I've a much powerful sound, this way, but the problem is: I always have an headache when thinking about doing this. Anyone had the same problem with it? You have any suggestions?
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Author: Tobin
Date: 2017-05-09 21:04
It would help to know what instrument, mouthpiece, and reed you're using. The simplest explanation is that you're overblowing: eithr you have too resistant a set-up, you are too tense as you're directing your air, or you delivery of the wind itself is over-pressurized. Or some combination of the three.
Do you bite?
James
Gnothi Seauton
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Author: Domenico1994
Date: 2017-05-09 21:32
No no, the instrument has nothing to do with it.
The problem is much more a psychological thing,in the sense that when I try to do this thing I always get nervous, because I have to concentrate on this thing (I.e. thinking about a person who is far away from me, in a big theather). When i don't do this, for example, when i think just to have a centered sound, I have no headache at all. It's caused by being nervous, and I get an headache, but don't know how to solve this situation. I want to ask if someone of you had the same problem, and how did you solve it.
My setup, anyway(it has nothing to do with it, is a psychological thing) is :
BUFFET RC clarinet
Vandoren lepic 4
Mouthpiece Vandoren M30
Thanks.
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-05-09 22:46
Domenico1994 wrote:
> (I.e. thinking about a
> person who is far away from me, in a big theather). When i
> don't do this, for example, when i think just to have a
> centered sound, I have no headache at all.
You need a different image. But, with or without a mental image to direct your approach, if, while you're playing to the guy at the back of theater, you could think a little about what you're actually doing differently, then maybe you could reproduce the sensations without the image and the worry and the nervousness.
Assuming you're right that you don't carry well when you don't imagine this person in the back row (who has told you this?), the main thing you must be doing is using more air. Concentrate on air movement and how it changes as you aim for the back, then relax and use the same amount of air to blow the violins away.
But, of course, it is possible to play softly and still be heard at the back of the theater if the accompanying sounds aren't drowning you out. I wonder if you're underestimating your projection when you aren't trying so hard. You're certainly exaggerating when you say people can't hear you from 2 meters away - you'd almost have to be inhaling, and even then someone 2 meters away would hear the rush of air.
Karl
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Author: Domenico1994
Date: 2017-05-10 00:04
The fact of playing for a person which is sitting far away, is a concept which I learned in band, and which I was always told at conservatory too, when it comes to projection. From what I know, opera singers use this concept too ,when they sing, so is very widespread, and it works very well from me too.
The problem with thinking about the air, and how it flows, ecc. Maybe a solution, but I think that, in the act of merely playing the instrument, you have to think also to many other things( centering your tone, good breathing, embochure, ecc), and I think this would complicate things. In addiction, many people here, in other posts, did say that the best thing about projection is thinking to this person far away, and, obvsioully, centering the tone.
So, the, question is, what do you actually think at, when playing?
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Author: Domenico1994
Date: 2017-05-10 14:58
Although I've also read, recently in this forum, that someone who studied with Harold wright (a true master when it comes to projection), was told by him, that "correct voiting and focused tone is the only way to project". So what should one do?
Post Edited (2017-05-10 14:59)
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-05-10 19:05
How do you know your more focused sound (when you aren't consciously projecting) isn't projecting?
Karl
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2017-05-10 20:36
The problem, as you say, is mental rather than physical, correct?
To better express where I'm going with the question, its more correct to say that fear (the obsession-the thought) of your sound reaching the masses, NOT the physical exertion (the compulsion--the act) associated with you doing so (read: blood pressure, vaso[diolation/constriction] associated with the ACT is the source of the headaches?
(Blood and vessel pressure may still play a role here but get triggered by mental, not physical stress.)
I'm not suggesting Obsessive Compulsive (OCD) Issues here by any means. The limited data (and my limited training) otherwise doesn't support it. But the disorder provides a good paradigm around which to understand your aches and pains, whether seated in fear (thought) or action (playing).
I think it's fear--thought---. Correct me if I am wrong.
Given that, do you play differently--and is there actual data, even if anecdotal, to suggest that you do project better when concentrating on it (i.e. the thing you believe sets off your tension headaches?)
(That's me trying to address the problem with logic (i.e. "shrinking" you)--which may not help here, as you may know your thoughts illogical, but are nevertheless uncontrollable for you.)
====
Words like "concentrating, relaxing, focusing, stressing"---all run the risk of meaning different things to different people.
Concentration and relaxation need not be opposites and often work best, especially in clarinet playing, when concurrent.
As an example, take a difficult phrase for the fingers to handle. We deliberately slow down the metronome to a point where we can take the phrase accurately without stressing the fingers. We should not dare speed up the metronome, even if we can handle the phrase accurately at a faster pace, if it comes at the expense of finger tension--which paradoxically needs to be less, not more, (or at least not [much] more than when playing slow) for us to play accurately and consistently at tempo.
Are you able to stop worrying about this? Perhaps not--in which case cognitive therapy and/or medicinal (typically drugs in the SSRI class) may help.
Good luck. Try to focus on the idea that clarinet playing is, and should be fun.
(Do you feel you fail to project well and that this headache causing mental exercise you do helps it?)
Like Karl said, simply thinking about it another way may help. Let me give you another a second and alternative mindset.
Speaking from experience and consensus, making a sound by blowing through (quite literally) a Ram's horn, (a so called call to the populous still done in the Jewish faith), is not simply about blowing your brains out into it--in fact it's counterproductive. Such bursts result in the sound of wasted air flowing through the horn and competing with the desired note. The most projected sound actually somewhat regulates the air flow and focuses energy on the embouchure.
Try that. Best wishes.
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Author: Domenico1994
Date: 2017-05-10 21:27
To kdk..I know I m not projecting because people near me, like teacher at conservatory, or the director of my band, they always tell me that don' t hear me, although I usually play in the range of mezzoforte. When I try to project the sound, so. i think to play for a person sitting in the back row.of a theathre, they're able to hear me. That ' s how I know that I don't project sometime.
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Author: Domenico1994
Date: 2017-05-10 21:57
Whiteplains dave: thank you very much, I think it's something like it. To solve this, I tried not to create a mental picture of a person sitting on the theather ( which is something abstract), but rather to concentrate on "sending" the sound to a point which was far away from me, in this case I had the window of an house near the place in which i was playing, and I thought about playing for a person which was at that window.
So maybe I understood the problem: if I have to call a person which is far away from me, I don't try to get a mental picture of this guy, concentrate on him, and then call him. I rather see this person in his eyes, and start talking with this person.
The same thing, I thought, happens to music: if i have to project sound, and if I am, for example, in a small room, now I don't try to get a mental picture of a theather, imagine a person sitting there, and play. I'd rather concentrate on a point, like the window I was thinking at, today, and start aiming the sound to that point.
Anyway, thank you very much for help. I appreciated that
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