Texas Bandmasters Association
Bandmasters Review • April 2014
17
MEC:
Do you prefer to tell students to blow
against
the reed rather than across reed?
JD:
Yes. Tell students the point is to make the reed
vibrate
against
the facing of the mouthpiece. If you
blow into the aperture, you’re going to spread it apart.
Instead, you want to make the reed and mouthpiece
meet each other. It will feel as if the air is going
downward, but it’s really going against the reed. They
get an infinitely better sound this way. I’ve done this
in clinics for music educators. If you have your tongue
in that “shh” position, you can’t puff your cheeks.
The air is going forward; it’s not going sideways. Puffy
cheeks are a result of the air going sideways because
the tongue is too far down. Often teachers say, “don’t
puff your cheeks,” but the problem is not the cheeks.
If the cheeks are puffing, it is because the tongue is
low and the air is moving to the sides. The tongue
has to be in the right position so that the air doesn’t go
sideways; it goes forward, against the reed. The tone
evens out, and you don’t have to change the tongue
position for throat tones, high notes, etc., especially on
better clarinets. You’ll have a lot better pitch, and you’ll
enjoy the sound. When there are twenty students
playing at once, you’ll enjoy it even more. It takes a
while for young students. Obviously they don’t put it
all together at once, as we all know. So I just have a
mantra that I developed: Is your pressure point right?
What about your chin? What about your corners? Are
you using your top lip?
MEC:
So the pressure point is where the reed and
the mouthpiece split, and where the line of muscle at
the color change between lip and skin meet the reed;
that’s all in one place, right?
JD:
For me, it’s the place where your reed touches
the lip, which touches the teeth. That’s at the color
change, where the muscle line is. People always ask
me, what if you have a thick lip, what if you have a
thin lip? It’s mostly the same, except if it’s a really thick
lip; maybe they can’t put quite so much in. If it’s a thin
lip, it doesn’t matter at all. They still can get on the
pressure point.
MEC:
Have you seen people who are touching too
much of their lip with the reed?
JD:
They’re usually puckering the lip out too far
and not rolling it around the teeth enough. If you see
the color change when they are playing, they don’t
have enough in. But, if the lip disappears entirely,
they have too much in. The bottom lip shouldn’t be
so far gone that it’s completely swallowed because
then they’re usually putting the reed on their actual
chin muscle, and they’ll get a rub right here. There
shouldn’t be too much visual evidence you play, such
as a rub mark on the chin. You should see some lip on
either side of the reed, but that’s it.
MEC :
Sometimes you see students with their
ligature touching their chin. Would you work with
the mouthpiece and barrel and match pitch, or are you
looking for a particular tone when they start?
JD:
First of all, if the ligature is touching the chin,
the angle is too close. I always start students on the
mouthpiece with the barrel on only; it’s easier to hold.
The squawk is funny, and everyone laughs. Once they
get a noise, it’s kind of a fun way to start.
As far as teaching students, I think there’s nothing
wrong with getting on the whole instrument as soon
as possible. Actually let them start playing some notes
so that they have more fun with it. For me, the better
way to listen is with the clarinet in your hands, trying
to get a good clarinet sound. I can’t really describe
tone in words, but I think of it as a spectrum of color,
and I want the whole spectrum. I don’t want just the
dull colors, I don’t want just the bright colors; I want
it all there.
Clarinet Clari ty: An Interview wi th Jul ie DeRoche