Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2007-07-27 14:19
My teacher (who was a sometime-Mack student, as opposed to her husband, who was a "real" Mack student at CIM) has used the analogy that Cooper mentions with me -- early and often.
Basically, it's a line graph, with one axis being the air pressure, and the other being lip pressure. For any given "note" (and, I would add, with any given articulation), air pressure and lip pressure need to be in balance in order for your tonal line to be consistent. The point of balance is where the axes cross. Too much air, and you make the "X" lopsided in one direction -- producing too "raw" a sound (harsh, loud, quacky are terms we sometimes use). Too much lip, and you make the "X" lopsided in the other direction -- producing too dull of a sound (thin, pinched, forced, muffled). Guided by your ear, you learn to make ongoing, minutely changing adjustments as you play, keeping the sides of the "X" in balance to create the sense of musical line from tone to tone
Then, of course, you can do what I have too often been found doing -- giving both too much air AND too much lip, which results in the sound that is forced and too loud. I supposed one could also do simultaneously not enough air and not enough lip, which seems to me would result in unstable pitch and puny sound. (No one has ever accused me of doing that!)
Craig alluded to the fact that attaining the "balanced X" in your tone production requires reeds that are responsive and designed to produce a rich inherent tone color. In my experience, most reeds that one buys (handmade or not) are too resistant, encouraging overblowing and too much lip. This is why the couple of reeds that Craig sent me (as a thank-you gift for helping him find his new Covey) were such a revelation, and why I was so keen to have him teach me how to make and/or adjust reeds. It IS possible to have reeds that are both responsive and possessed of an inherently lovely tone color. And having such reeds goes a long, long way toward attaining the "balanced X" sound.
The other thing that needs to be mentioned here is that it is important how one produces the air. Sprenkle ("The Art of Oboe Playing") talks about the fact that the inside of the oral cavity should feel big, open, and "airy" -- the feeling that one experiences when making a big, deep sigh -- a big "ah" all over your mouth and throat. He goes on to say that the muscles of the face, throat and jaw "need not participate" in this at all -- which is to say, they need to be relaxed. The pressure comes from below. The lips are also relatively passive -- they just act as a valve or "stopper" on this great container of air that you have (your lungs and mouth), restraining or permitting the outflow of air into the reed and instrument as necessary to keep the arms of Mack's "X" in balance.
The Sprenkle book is really quite good on this subject -- not a throwaway word in the whole section on tone production (pp. 8 - 26).
Susan
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