 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: McDonalds Eater
Date: 2022-02-11 20:52
I used to be a heavy biter. Nowadays I barely put any pressure at all; more like I just rest the reed on the bottom lip.
But have I gone too far the other way?
I’m now at the point where I can’t play anything stronger than a 3.5 Vandoren V12 on an M13L; otherwise I get an airy or spread sound. I have also been having problems with high notes splitting. For example, if I play an altissimo E, a lot of the times the note splits and start getting different overtones. My teacher had me put the slightest bit of pressure. He squeezed my finger to show me; the difference was so small it almost felt like he did nothing. I applied it to clarinet and the issues were gone.
Is some pressure needed on the reed? Obviously not to the point of biting, closing the sound, and playing 20 cents sharp, but maybe just enough to control the reed?
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2022-02-11 21:23
You can get a sense of the right range of pressure to apply by daily practice of scales in intervals, for example the scales in 3rds and 6ths in the Baermann method book 3 or the Jettel scales in 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, and 6ths. Listen to the legato connections across the intervals and from top to bottom of the clarinet register. When you can play all the interval scales from top to bottom with a good sound and clear, smooth, and even interval connections, you will have found the sweet spot range for embouchure pressure. Your goal is not to create a static, unchanging embouchure set in cement; it is to find a supple, gentle range of pressure from lips and teeth/jaw below them that gives the intended musical result. Focus your attention more on the sounds that are coming out rather than the physiology of the embouchure. When the sounds are right, the embouchure pressure is right.
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Author: Micke Isotalo ★2017
Date: 2022-02-11 23:24
McDonalds, besides listening to your tone, I would advice you to basically let your tuner guide you. That would probably be the simplest way to know when you have reached the appropriate amount of lip pressure.
I would also strongly recommend applying your lip pressure "all around" your mouthpiece, instead of just vertically (up/down). You could imagine forming your lips around your mouthpiece similarly as when you are whistling, or as when sucking through a thick straw, as a drawstring or rubber band around your mouthpiece, or as when kissing - which all are analogies of the same thing.
I've also been a biter, but the benefits of an embouchure as above have been numerous to me: Better tone, better internal tuning, better control and securer responses at low dynamics, and less rising of the pitch at the beginning of a note after an inhaling.
Post Edited (2022-02-12 21:59)
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