Perfect Clarinet Embouchure and Voicing

[@brianguidry5246]

Saying it the way Martin does also opens the throat. Very interesting! Thanks Josh!

[@QuickStartClarinet]

Yes! Opening the throat and raising the soft palate is really good for air support and sound quality.

[@irisroberts5893]

1) By making that “ew” sound, a little tough does form! This area of the soft palate becomes the neck of that trough. I can understand how this would enable some sound! I can’t wait to see how that works! 2) Now I also understand what Julianne Kirk Doyle meant in her “Pedagogy Corner” article in The Clarinet, 09-2023, when she wrote, “my soft palate blew” during her master’s degree recital This anatomical part has no muscle to build upon! One probably just has to engage it or disengage it as habit involving the connective tissues around it! This is really in the weeds, but some of us really want to go there! Incidentally, that article with the importance of warm up, air budgeting, and the comparison to ballet warm up really resonated with me!

[@QuickStartClarinet]

That's great! You are absolutely right about the soft palate and having that nice open space in the throat and soft palate to resonate with the clarinet.

[@julianruiz3978]

What an interesting idea! I never liked the exaggerated “ew” because it can easily turn into an ooh at the end, most people drop their tongues. I think it’s better to flip the ew so that it’s something like “oohee” but it can be hard for people to keep the ooh shape when going to the hee tongue position. If we can get both shapes at the same time then I’m sure that’d be best!

[@QuickStartClarinet]

Yes, exactly! All clarinet players should learn one of the languages that has a good clarinet playing vowel in it 😄

[@welcomehere3594]

Do you know the piece Scherzo from Cardew?

[@QuickStartClarinet]

I wasn't familiar with it, but I just listened to it and it sounds really fun!

[@superkalifragilistisch6511]

Nice, but what you are saying (and meaning, I think) really isn't ö....😂 It's ü.

[@QuickStartClarinet]

😂 I guess it is Martin Früst’s natural advantage then! The Swedish video ö does look like a good embouchure too though.

[@Meriillos]

​@@QuickStartClarinet for all intensive purposes ö is just ü with a lower tongue. So the embouchure would be roughly the same but the voicing would be different.