Haha wow, that's a much better way of opening the soft palette than working out how to half yawn. I've been struggling to find a method that doesn't encourage tension around the throat. Thanks :)

Do you ever use double lip for practicing any more? I find it's a great tool for identifying heavy fingers and gives me smoother lines in legato passages, but the latter is probably because of my poor single lip.

Great reason to buy a webcam :)

You talked about the top lip, do you mean form my usual double lip embouchure? I've grown quite attached to it, and I struggle to find a single lip setup that doesn't get me into old habits of biting. Do you recommend I work on both?

As I understand it theoretically the two should be identical except for the top lip, but when I try and form a single lip embouchure that feels like a double lip, my top lip gets pinched between my top teeth and the mouthpiece when I snug the clarinet up.

To be honest, I haven't worked on single lip for a long time so my memory might be hazy :) I'll try your suggestions tomorrow and report back.

Ambrose

This article got me experimenting with clarinet angle, with enlightening results!

I've suffered from a horrible biting embouchure that was so bad that I decided to switch to double lip to give myself any chance of getting rid of it. Gradually over the past year I've been isolating and fixing problems, and my sound is much fuller, but I've still been struggling to find the "right" spot to play.

As an exercise I tried to move my jaw in and out as I varied the clarinet angle, to a point that I get a controlled sound at any angle from almost straight to Artie Shaw.

Priceless exercise, never really have given much attention to the angle of the clarinet relative to the embouchure formation. Has an amazing influence on the sound.

For me, after a bit of experimentation (using my natural jaw formation as you suggested) I found I was holding my clarinet about 10 degrees further out that my natural jaw formation accommodated.

My older setup resulted in pushing my jaw out to compensate, which quickly turned back into a semi biting embouchure. This never felt like a "solid" setup, having a very floaty feel (that I misdiagnosed as a double lip problem), and holes in the upper lip are never fun.

With the clarinet angle lower, my jaw doesn't have the tendency to move, and the whole setup fells more secure.

I did note the angle that felt the most secure had me moving my jaw back slightly from the natural jaw drop*. I can feel my jaw poking out towards my ear lobes. Maybe it felt more secure because I could concentrate on keeping my jaw slightly back, and resisting any temptation to move my jaw forward, which always snowballs into disaster.

*Then again, it is very close to a natural jaw drop if I thought of the jaw opening as if on hinges, instead of literally dropping it towards the ground, which is something I've never considered funnily enough. What are you thoughts on this?

I'll be doing a lot more experimentation with this. Thanks David :)

Ambrose