Karl mentions reducing the aperture of his embouchure helps him to play
longer phrases...
I though I would pass on Yokoyama Sensei's advice on this issue.
He says you should try and get as much of your lower lip as you can into the
mouthpiece, if you look at your lower lip there is a line where the lip
changes from a dry membrane to wet. Yokoyama says if you line this line up
with the cutting edge of the uta guchi your chops won't dry out even under
hot stage lighting (some say you should suck on some chocolate before a
performance so your mouth doesn't dry out). This also reduces the size of
the aperture at the uta guchi (the lip placement not the chocolate!). I
have a habit of carving on the mouthpiece of my flutes to allow me to get
more lip in there, I don't recommend you do this though... If you carve on
your flute you do it at your own risk!
Cheers,
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: kyoung@MAILBOX.SLAC.Stanford.EDU
I agree with Paul re. the long process of educating the breath via the
shakuhachi (and who could argue with the Duke !); to paraphrase my Zen
teacher when I get impatient - just shutup and practice for 10000 years.
But in the meantime, for what it's worth, I've found that working on my
embouchure in terms of reducing the aperture has helped as much as
anything in terms of just being able to play longer phrases (more
efficient use of the air). Also Riley Lee has some great breathing
exercises for developing lung capacity; I'm not sure if those are
available anywhere (e.g. a website) but someone else might know...
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