Hi James, I'll comment below in between your post.
On 5/12/05 5:57 PM, "James Jennings" <jennings@megaseattle.com> wrote:
> At 9:36 AM -0600 5/12/05, Peter Ross wrote:
>> Let's talk about embouchure, ...
>
> Thanks Peter, for a well written summary of the issues.
>
> I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I think I still have
> a problem somewhere in the back of my mouth or in the throat. I've
> had teachers say to "relax" or "open the throat" or "pretend to
> yawn", but I don't get enough feedback to tell what is going on. I
> think I'm open and relaxed, but then I'll sub-vocalize (the vocal
> chords kick in for a moment), which means I'm probably not.
>
> I should mention that "opening the throat" and "yawning" seem to be
> the opposite of "relaxing" to me. Yawning tenses things up.
I don't think my throat is relaxed. It's expanded as much as possible.
That's why I mention the image of a tiger claw opening. Try to open your
hand and all your fingers as if you were going to hold a basketball with one
hand. That's how I feel inside. Not relaxed, but totally expanded.
>
>> Think WAAAAAAH. Or AAAAH to fully open inside.
Different vowels give different shapes to our mouth and throat and affect
tone and pitch. I mention aaaah or waaaa because they open things up top to
bottom and elevate the pitch.
>
>> 1) Always sing internally what you are playing
>
> I've tried singing the note just before I play it, and keep the
> internal feeling the same as I play. I'm not sure my singing is the
> best though. I wonder what a voice teacher would suggest. (I did
> think it interesting that my fingers could feel the flute resonate
> with the sung note.)
I didn't mean to sing with sound. It's hard to explain, but it's a silent
internal singing. Without this it's like playing with less conciousness.
Our throats open or take different shapes for each note we play. Play low
RO and then two octaves higher. Watch as your adams apple moves to make the
adjustment. If we sing-silently-internally we help that adjustment. It's
simultaneous, not before. How can I explain this? It's not really singing,
maybe it's imagining or hearing the note as you play it. Let's call it
internal hearing. Your whole being will adjust to give you what you want
and you don't have to get caught up in the details. Boy. This is much
easier to do than explain.
>
>> 5) Try to get full ringing sound esp. on RO without blowing hard, but by
>> opening fully and adjusting to get that ring, willing it to ring.
>
> When I reach for a nice ringing Ro-otsu I often get a sort of
> turbulence, an instability in the sound. Some people have suggested
> that it's because I'm constricting the airflow so it might be related
> to the above. I'm still stuck with the question, how do I learn to
> feel if my throat is properly relaxed?
It's often the case that players restrict, press and squeeze the note and
don't allow the sound to flow out. Think of meathead and Archie Bunker
trying to go through the door at the same time. Again, this is hard to
explain, but you have to not try too hard or you'll restrict the sound from
flowing. With practice you will learn to make a big, harmonic ringing
sound. Be careful not to push too hard and keep most of the sound inside,
it's got to go out. It's hard to put into words what took years to discover
and each of us would choose different words or images to describe the same
thing. I hope some of the images I use ring a bell for you.
Hang in there!
Peter
>
> James
> _____________________________________________
>
> List un/subscription information is at:
> http://communication.ucsd.edu/shaku/listsub.html
>
>
_____________________________________________
List un/subscription information is at:
http://communication.ucsd.edu/shaku/listsub.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jan 06 2006 - 10:00:45 PST