Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2020-03-26 12:50
London wrote:
> I was wondering if anyone here has overcome stress VPI from
> playing,
I've had to deal with it since my tonsils were taken out 52 years ago. It seems for me to be a fatigue issue. So the most important thing **for me** is to stay in reasonable shape with regular practice.
Another trigger is having to blow against a lot of resistance. Too hard a reed triggers the air leakage much sooner. If you're using a very open mouthpiece with too hard a reed, it can bring on fatigue much sooner.
> I’ve been struggling with this for almost 2.5 years now, but
> only took it seriously about a year and a half ago. It started
> when I played on a new clarinet (The new one was an E-11; now
> I’m back on my student Yamaha clarinet).
>
How long can you play before the pharyngeal leaking begins to happen?
Unless the E-11 was leaking or for some other reason was unusually resistant, I don't know why this would cause the problem. Were you using the same mouthpiece on both instruments?
> I’m almost certain that one of my problems revolves around my
> technique, since I learned to tongue on the roof of my mouth
> (and not my reed, which I’m currently working on now),
Could be causing you to contort your tongue a little, which could certainly add tension and cause fatigue. Or, it could be causing you to take in too little reed, which could set up a battle on a couple of fronts, maybe forcing you to blow harder against a closed-up aperture at the mouthpiece opening.
> and my
> (possibly) lacking air support.
This depends on what you mean by air "support." If what you think of as "support" involves stress/strain or it's an issue of having to just blow hard to overcome reed/mouthpiece resistance, then it could be a contributing factor. By itself tension in the muscles that control your tongue and the soft palate area can cause earlier fatigue.
Playing in band, where you can't always hear yourself well, can give you more opportunity to overblow, which will tire everything out more quickly. Be careful you aren't trying to be louder than everyone else around you.
It wouldn't hurt, BTW, to consult with an ENT doc if the air leak comes on quickly enough to present a real disability during normal playing.There could be a physical cause that might be addressable with therapy.
Karl
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