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Trying to play quietly without air behind sound

3K views 16 replies 11 participants last post by  GHawk 
#1 ·
Forgive me if this is the wrong forum. I have been trying to figure out how one plays quietly without having a bunch of air behind the sound. I cant really figure out what I am supposed to do with my tongue to shorten the air stream but I feel like I am onto something when I begin to raise my teeth off of the beak when I try to get quiet and rely only on my lower lip to sustain the pitch but that only works in the lower register. Any suggestions?
 
#4 ·
It has to do with how you focus your air and keeping a firm but relaxed embouchure. When you play loud, the air you push is naturally more compressed than when you play quietly. This is easy to understand using a simple "hose" analogy: if you force a larger amount of water through a hose, it will come out with more force.

The solution then is to practice blowing a small but fast air stream. Again, the "hose" analogy makes it easy to understand. If you run the same amount of water through a hose, it will come out with more force if you put a fitting or sprinkler at the end. This translates in abdominal support (keeping a constant pressure) and raising the back of the tongue.

Another tendency when playing soft is to relax the embouchure too much when it should stay more or less the same.
 
#7 ·
FWIW, through my research on this topic, I've learned that the "focusing the air stream" stuff is a good way to visualize or think of what you're doing, but not actually what is changing the sound... It seems the shape and size of the resonating chamber in your mouth is just more accurately supporting the horn in its creation of the sound, and therefore removes wasted energy or noise from the sound. Following from that line of thinking, it stands to reason that your fuzzy, subtoney sound is less efficient than the clean sound that you want. Furthermore, it would make sense that you wouldn't be able to hold it out as long.

So, one way to let your subconscious mind take over the process of improving the embouchure and tongue position so that you control the reed while allowing it to vibrate freely and support the sound with a proper tongue position would be to simply try to play longer long tones. Shoot for 30 seconds on your low Bb. Then 40, etc. As you struggle to make it last longer, which is easy to measure, you'll become more adept at producing tone correctly, PROVIDED that you understand how to form the embouchure and you maintain a strong air stream at all times. That doesn't mean that you have to blow HARD, or LOTS of air, but that the air must be pressurized and supported.
 
#12 ·
As you struggle to make it last longer, which is easy to measure, you'll become more adept at producing tone correctly, PROVIDED that you understand how to form the embouchure and you maintain a strong air stream at all times.
I'm not sure I understand the reasoning here. How would simply sustaining a note longer improve tone quality at softer dynamics, which was OP's question? Not trying to be confrontational here, I just don't get the point you're trying to make.

With this said, snoeman, make sure your horn as no leak or it will be next to impossible to play with a full tone softly.
 
#8 ·
I understand the distinction between quiet subtone sound and a quiet non-subtone sound. I find you basically need MORE air support to do the latter than the former. Subtone seems to me to involve embouchure change of some kind (note: not tightening) but I find it difficult to put into words exactly what's happening. Whereas a non-subtone quiet sound doesn't involve embouchure change at all.
 
#10 ·
The human body is really amazing at adapting without really having to understand every little tiny detail of how the adaptation works. If you play quietly a lot you will get better at it. As always, imagine the sound, play softly like this enough while keeping your desired sound playing along in your mind, you'll get better at it. Just do it a lot!

I like the above advice, "breathe softly but steadily". Breath control is so important when playing softly, and beyond getting better to allow you to play softly, I think breath control improves overall when you play softly a lot. I also feel dynamic range opens up.....you now have more latitude on the soft end to contrast with the louder end, adding another dimension to your sound.
 
#14 ·
It's really all about support - you do need to expend the same amount of energy at your "core" (diaphragm, belly muscles, etc.) for a very soft note as a very loud one. It's just that the amount of air you allow to escape into the mouthpiece is less. Embouchure the same, oral cavity the same, breath support the same - the only thing that changes is the *_amount_* of air.

(Note - this is hard to do because subconsciously we expect to expend less energy for softer notes, but I have found that it actually takes more physical energy to produce a ppp compared to a mf.)

Long tone exercises will help. I suggest doing a crescendo then diminuendo, concentrating on controlling the air from belly/diaphragm only, making sure everything else stays the same. Like start at mf, increase a little then decrease until ppp, and hold there as long as possible. Then you have to dump all your unused air before the next note :)
 
#15 ·
Or you could change mouthpieces. Smaller tip opening. Different lay. Another possibility would be a different reed. One strength down.

Now back to our regularly scheduled practice, practice, practice long tones using warm air through the center of your tongue and the core of your being.

Mark
 
#17 ·
As has been suggested, first make sure you don't have a leaky horn. Focus your air stream ..DON'T take your top teeth off of the mouthpiece! Try a softer reed..
 
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