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Re: Trouble Sustaining Notes

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2019-12-14 23:56

It's hard to tell from the recording how softly you're actually playing. The G is pretty meaty sounding on my computer. Can you sustain G any softer?

On the other hand there's a fair amount of air in the sound of your B - that's air that's wasted and not driving the reed. Assuming there's no leak from the instrument (you don't mention if you've checked that), the air in the tone suggests resistance in either the reed or the mouthpiece, or you're exerting too little pressure to make the reed vibrate efficiently. None of those may be problems when you're actually playing, because many players will accept a certain level of air noise at very soft dynamics so long as it isn't audible to the audience. But the lack of efficiency at pianissimo may affect what you're trying to test, which is in a way an artificial condition.

If you have a teacher, he or she would be in the best position to suggest improvements. In any case the overarching issue shouldn't really be how long you can hold a soft long tone. The real issue is whether or not you're running short of air for phrases that other players around you can manage more easily.

Karl

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