 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ResourcefulHedgehog
Date: 2024-04-16 00:27
Hi all,
I've noticed recently that when I play clarinet I push my lower jaw quite far down the mouthpiece- essentially giving myself an "artificial underbite" where the lower teeth/jaw are further in front than the upper teeth/jaw. In my resting position I don't have an underbite or anything so it's not like this is the natural placement of my jaw.
When I try to play in the completely relaxed position, the sound quality reduces significantly and I can't really get any notes out higher than a long b. (It's also very hard to get myself to play like that because my face subconsciously molds to my normal embouchure without me realising 😂).
In the more "normal embouchure" (which I assume isn't the one I'm doing), do you actually not need to move your jaw at all from it's natural position? Do you just tighten your lips and... blow? If so this seems pretty wild to me.
Also wondering if my embouchure is something that needs to be fixed. I don't want to cause jaw strain further down the line when I start practicing more hours in a day leading to inability to play without pain. And how would I go about fixing this considering I currently can barely make a sound without pushing my lower jaw forward?
Sorry, lot of questions here, If anyone has any advice I'd be very grateful.
Post Edited (2024-04-20 11:25)
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Author: Ed
Date: 2024-04-16 03:35
Funny, in recent years I started to find that I was having some fatigue and issues with tongue position and realized that it was because I was doing something similar.
I have been attempting the hold my jaw as natural as possible when inserting the mouthpiece. it feels much better and I doubt there is any difference in sound.
Sometimes weird habit creep in over time and we don't realize it.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2024-04-16 06:20
What you're describing isn't an orthodox approach, but there are players who jut their jaw forward. That you get a poorer sound and range when you deliberately pull your jaw back to neutral isn't surprising. You're choosing (and maybe adjusting) your reeds and maybe your mouthpiece to accommodate the forward-thrusting jaw. To get back to a more neutral position, you'd probably have to change those choices to get the reed's resistance back to a more orthodox area of the vamp.
Whether your thrusting is an offshoot of your bass clarinet approach you would know better than anyone here. Which came first?
The conventional wisdom is to place the pressure from your bottom teeth (covered by your lip) at the point where the facing curve separates from the reed. If you place your teeth farther toward the bark you tend to lose control. I take a slightly different approach. I put a narrow piece of electrical tape across the reed vamp at the separation point (find it by sliding a thin piece of paper between the facing and the reed). That gives me a tactile point of reference that I can find with my embouchure. I start there and move the mouthpiece out in very small increments to find the point where I can get the best tone control and response with that mouthpiece.
It complicates things that your jaw position changes (moves in or out) with register changes. That's likely to make moving smoothly between registers more difficult.
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Author: Ed
Date: 2024-04-16 06:27
Connected to the last post, you may be finding that the reason it sounds "better" is that you have more reed in your mouth. Make sure that the instrument is closer to your body so that you can keep the amount of reed the same. Sometimes you hear of people telling students "take more mouthpiece' when they really need to say"take more reed"
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2024-04-16 07:18
I admit a little confusion regarding the placement of the lower teeth along the reed. There should be no ambiguity about going too far down the reed (or rather taking in too much mouthpiece). You immediately loose control and only squeal wildly when you pass the point where reed and mouthpiece come together. It has been pointed out by others that you "can" play at any point from there back toward the tip, but it is my experience that your sound is best when you take advantage of the full length of lay that the mouthpiece has by positioning as close to "that point" as possible.
So it should be a matter of just taking in more mouthpiece rather than jutting your jaw forward. It does sound to me that strain would eventually creep in to that posture (TMJ related strain) whether you can avoid that in the short term.
For me, the idea is to make most of clarinet playing as natural and comfortable a posture as you can muster. Usually, exaggerated positions and muscular engagement only causes unnecessary work.
...............Paul Aviles
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Author: Alexey
Date: 2024-04-16 12:56
I have found that I prefer the sound of clarinetists who overbite. I also prefer my sound when I overbite.
I also noticed that there are a lot of things that should work together to make it work. At least in my case. And everything below is how things work for me.
First is the head position. The head should be held naturally upright. There is an old saying smth like "Don't head down for the mouthpiece, bring the clarinet up to you".
The next thing is a clarinet angle. It should be held about 30-40 angle from the body. There is another saying smth like "tip of the mouthpiece should be behind the top teeth not under the teeth."
The next thing is the jaw's alignment. If I form an embouchure and blow I blow rather down than forward. Like I want to cool down and blow under my t-shirt, or try to cool down a hot cup of coffee that I hold under my lips with my head held upright. So bottom teeth are behind top teeth (overbiting).
Then I insert the mouthpiece and start blowing. But there is no sound as there is not enough pressure in the reed. Then I have to apply pressure. I can apply it down the reed, or forward, but these two are underbiting. So I realized that I apply pressure rather up or up and forward (so I don't lose overbiting).
Definitely, it goes somewhat against the common understanding that pressure from your bottom teeth should be at the point where the facing curve separates from the reed. It's a place where I put my bottom lip but the pressure is applied not perpendicular to this point but rather up diagonally.
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