# Clarinet Embouchure Collapse/Dystonia



## maiohmai

Greetings!

I have posted on the boards before, but yielded poor results due to lack of information and audio supplements to my problem.

I have even playing clarinet for 12 years, and have been experiencing this problem for roughly 5 years.
I just entered my 1st years Master in Performance at CMU.
My equipment at this moment in time: Greg Smith mouthpiece, Fobes African Blackwood Barrel 66mm, Vandoren V12's 3 1/2+ Buffet R13 nickle plated bought in 2008, and the A clarinet in the video below is a Greenline R13.

A walkthrough of what happens every time I play, practice setting:
I will warm up with long tones, usually only lasting 2 minutes because I will already have acute airleak out of the corners of my mouth. I've recently noticed that my upper lip is unable to seal after two minutes of long tones. 2 minute break. I do my Klose or Jettel scales and arpeggios. Takes about 10 min, due to many pauses with breathing and not being able to make as long of phrases gradually down the page (meaning i can do a whole scale up and down in one breath, by the end I have to breath every measure) 
30 min break. Going into my solos I will have to stop periodically. My upper lip will no longer seal over my teeth and will "flare out". My biting is uncontrollable, and my corners will not seal, allowing so much airleak that the clarinet isn't audible. My practice session last no longer than 45 min of playingl and I am pretty much shot for the day.

What usually happens is that I notice my top teeth start to clamp down within 15 minutes. My upper lip begins to flare forward (away from my teeth) and my corners aren't sealing, allowing all the air to leak. As much as I try to not use the "Smile" embouchure, I CANNOT control the corners of my mouth at all... Unless I rest for a few minutes. During this time I also have very shallow breaths, my hand get really cold and tingle from time to time, with lightheadedness probably twice a semester.

I've been told to go see a respiratory specialist and possibly a neurologist, but financially that isn't possible at the moment. I was thinking of taping a practice session and linking it here if anyone is interested.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do, who I should see, etc? I really would like to find a solution, as I really don't want to give up this profession.

Here is a link to my Youtube video:






The first half is pretty much what I've said here... So you can skip to the section where I play the Rachmaninoff (I play it twice. First time starts @ 4:18, 2nd time @ 6:20)

Thanks for your time!

Cheers,

Tony


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## Guest

you are currently using a 3.5 riet.My advice is to use a lighter reed, 2.5.I use it on my RC with a Viotto N1+2.This is a mouthpiece developped for a French clarinet and will give you a beautiful tone with a 2,5 reed ( german)It is a modified Zinner mouthpiece.










It is possible that you can't buy it at home ,my advise is to experiment with another mouthpiece and reeds.
This is all I can say about this.


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## maiohmai

I have been told to maybe go for a mouthpiece that is medium facing, open tip. I will definitely start experimenting a new reed/mouthpiece combination.


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## Huilunsoittaja

Hola, fellow conservatory grad student!

As flutist, all I can suggest is, practice exercises to strengthen the corners of your mouth! As a flutist this isn't too much of an issue because we train the corners of our mouth from young age, it's a part of our embouchure.

The only way I know to practice rigidity of the embouchure is to simply practice making a small o shape with your mouth, flexing the whole lip area until your lips wrinkle. Do that with intermittent relaxation/stretching of mouth.

And yeah, listen to the other people who are clarinetists. :lol:


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## david johnson

go for a slightly softer reed and push up against your top teeth rather than thinking of a 'bite down' raise the reed tip a little higher and see what happens. got a B44 mouthpiece to try?


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