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Re: Overblowing

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2019-01-25 17:54

My thought about the embouchure formation has to do with making the fleshy part of the lower lip thinner over the lower teeth. So you do what you need to do to make that happen. For me, that would be to draw the corners of the mouth (if you think of corners) BACK, and DOWN. In that way you are forming the lips AROUND the mouthpiece while still achieving a good thin pad of lower lip for the reed to sit on.

So Karl,

I find your tape and my "backing off slightly from the squawk point" one in the same. I saw the "squawk" idea here first from Tom Puwalski who stated that it was a way for him to switch from one mouthpiece to the other effortlessly and play them well.

Of course you CAN play much closer to the tip than closer to that fulcrum point but that is essentially damping more reed than necessary (less of a resonator) and you are effectively, dare I say "biting," because that posture causes the reed to bend closer to the closed position. Brad Behn gave me an eye opening bit of advice upon seeing me do that years ago and said, "why don't you use a more closed mouthpiece with a softer reed and start off that way rather than where you end up now [sic].

Just tryin' to pass on some advice that has been helpful for me.

Michelle Zukowsky,

That's the first I've seen that advice to get your natural playing angle. I will try that with a student tomorrow!

AND FINALLY:

I think we are skirting the issue of "shrillness." For me, there is ALWAYS a balancing act between the energy we put into the embouchure vs. the amount of air we use at any given time. I would suggest that a "shrill" or overly "reedy" sound would be caused by too much embouchure energy for the amount of air you use in the moment. So for any given note try to actively (consciously) push more air and use a little less "energy" in the embouchure and see what happens.

.........................Paul Aviles

Post Edited (2019-01-25 18:18)

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