I have written about voicing here before. I find it to be one of the most neglected topics in woodwind teaching, and when it is taught, is is often taught without a lot of clarity. This is a shame because voicing is crucial to good tone production, affecting response, tone, and intonation.
Here is a handout from a recent workshop. I don’t think there is much here that I haven’t covered on the blog already, but it’s a good overview in a tidy package.
A few months ago I shared a list of published opinions on how to avoid undertones on the clarinet.
Many of the ideas shared by the distinguished authors seemed like just descriptions of good basic clarinet technique (“ensure correct, stable embouchure formation,” “establish breath support/air pressure before releasing tongue”). I agree that the most important way to improve undertones is to have a solid baseline tone production technique. If you can play with a beautiful, characteristic tone, mostly in tune, with good response, then your undertones are probably mostly gone already.
I do have one small tip that I find helps a great deal with clearing up any remaining undertones, that wasn’t mentioned by any of the sources I consulted. My readers know I frequently discuss the importance of keeping voicing very stable, but as I have indicated previously that’s only one side of a multifaceted issue.
I have good success with lowering my voicing just a little bit in the upper clarion register. (I tell my students to think of warming the air by just a degree or two.) This seems to stabilize and clarify those notes.
As always, expect any change in voicing to have multiple consequences, for tone, pitch, and response. In the case of clarinet upper-clarion notes, I find a very slight lowering of my voicing to have only minimal and acceptable effects.
If anyone is aware of others teaching this technique, I would be curious to hear about it.
Non-doublers often seem to think that the most amazing thing about doubling is keeping all the fingerings straight. I don’t find that to be a major problem; the keywork of each instrument feels different enough in my hands that I think I tend to switch into the right fingering mode automatically.
It’s the other stuff that’s a problem. I find I often need to give myself a few reminders as I’m setting down one instrument and picking up the next. Here’s the stuff that has been going through my mind lately—maybe one or more of these will click for you, too. Read More “Doubling reminders for the day”
“Tighten your embouchure” is bad advice for young clarinetists.
That goes for young saxophonists, too, and really for any young woodwind players. But young clarinetists hear it often because their pitch is flat and their tone lacks focus. “Tighten your embouchure” gets thrown around as a fix-all, except it doesn’t fix all. It doesn’t fix anything. Unless your students are actually leaking air around the mouthpiece from utter slack-jawedness. In that case, they should tighten, but only a little.
The real issue isn’t embouchure, it’s voicing. Good clarinet playing requires a high voicing. (The opposite of almost every other instrument in the beginning band.) That’s why your clarinet section is flat and tubby-sounding. Tell them to blow ice-cold air, which fixes the voicing problem. Train them to back it up with powerful breath support. Let them relax their embouchures—not tight, just airtight. And enjoy the clear, full, ringing, and in-tune sounds!
For a decade now, virtually every solo recital I have played has involved multiple woodwind instruments. I enjoy the variety and the challenge, and audiences are always duly appreciative and complimentary.
However, I do wonder sometimes about the novelty aspect of using multiple woodwind instruments in solo “classical” performance. Often well-intentioned (and much-appreciated!) audience members will tell me something like, “It’s so amazing that you can play all those instruments!” That’s nice of them, but would they say something similar at a single-instrument recital? “It’s so amazing that you can play that instrument.”
I’ve leveraged the variety a couple of times recently to do composer-themed recitals, one of music by Debussy and one of music by Telemann. On a single instrument, I would mostly shy away from playing an hour of music by a single composer. Such a thing could be done, but to make it a real success would require both a very engaging performer and an appropriate audience: for listeners with a casual appreciation of classical music, an hour of Bach flute sonatas or an hour of Brahms clarinet sonatas could be a bit of a drag. My recent Telemann sonata included music performed on six different solo instruments, two of them relatively rarely-heard (recorder and EWI), and that seemed to be enough to keep the audience on board.
But were they on board purely because of the composer’s and performers’ art, or was it the feat of instrumental derring-do that held their interest? Of course I would like for my performances to stand on their own, regardless of how many or how few instruments I use, but it’s hard to tell when the audience is distracted by the parade of shiny objects. I’m not bothered by having a gimmick per se, but I don’t want it to be the only thing holding the performance together.
Here are some of the questions readers sent me in celebration of this blog’s 10-year anniversary. I have edited, combined, and otherwise adapted some of them but hopefully there are answers here for those of you who were kind enough to inquire.
What are your thought on voicings on the various extensions of the big five? I find I get optimal results on flute with low voicing, but on piccolo I use something more similar to high register alto sax.
I tend to be generally consistent within instrument families: low voicing for flute, so also low voicing for piccolo, alto flute, etc. High voicing for clarinet, so also high voicing for bass clarinet. Saxophones are a little different because they require a “middle” voicing, and I do think it’s worthwhile to target each member of the saxophone family precisely. The easiest way to do that is with mouthpiece pitch: a baritone mouthpiece should sound a concert D (a ninth above middle C on the piano), a tenor mouthpiece sounds a G, alto an A, and soprano a C.
I recently purchased a pennywhistle and I’m really enjoying it so far. I was wondering if there’s any specific kind of voicing associated with that kind of instrument. It feels easy to play the lower octave, but going up higher than the fourth or fifth in the second octave is really difficult without absolutely blasting.
For fipple flutes like recorders and pennywhistles (also known as tinwhistles or “Irish” whistles), I recommend a very low voicing, the same as for concert flute or double reeds. Recorders have a thumb hole that serves (sometimes) as a register vent, which tames the upper registers somewhat. Pennywhistles don’t have that—the only way to get to the upper register is to overblow. With some practice and finesse the registers can be balanced somewhat, but with fipple flutes don’t expect nearly the level of dynamic control that you have on a concert flute or modern reed instrument. Bear in mind, too, that fipple flutes generally take much less air than a band/orchestra woodwind.
Some nice handmade pennywhistles are designed to improve the register imbalance issue. (Narrower-bore whistles in particular tend toward a sweeter, softer upper register, but a weaker lower register.) But many professional whistle players prefer the more “authentic” sound of inexpensive whistles, and might try out quite a few to find one that plays well enough.
Thanks for your questions! Voicing is a little-understood, little-taught aspect of woodwind playing.
Thanks to all who participated in my 2021 woodwind doubling survey, and to those who helped spread the word. I’m releasing the results in installments, so be sure to use my social media links, RSS feeds, etc. to keep up.
I got 284 responses, an improvement over 2011’s 187. The numbers for each of these questions don’t necessarily add up to exactly that number, since not everybody responded to every question.
I provided more options for gender identity than in 2011’s survey. Here’s the breakdown. (Percentages are of those who answered the question.)
| 2021 Data | ||
|---|---|---|
| Male | 222 | 78% |
| Female | 49 | 17% |
| Female, Transgender | 1 | ~0% |
| Nonbinary/nonconforming | 10 | 4% |
| Transgender, Nonbinary/nonconforming | 1 | ~0% |
| 2011 Data | ||
|---|---|---|
| Male | 146 | 78% |
| Female | 41 | 22% |
As was the case 10 years ago, the numbers skew toward the younger end. I’m not sure if this is affected by the survey being distributed primarily online. No respondents claimed to be younger than teenaged or older than in their 70s.
| 2021 Data | ||
|---|---|---|
| Teenage | 22 | 8% |
| 20s | 72 | 25% |
| 30s | 67 | 24% |
| 40s | 40 | 14% |
| 50s | 41 | 14% |
| 60s | 35 | 12% |
| 70s | 6 | 2% |
| 2011 Data | ||
|---|---|---|
| Younger than 20 | 19 | 1% |
| 20s | 54 | 10% |
| 30s | 31 | 29% |
| 40s | 36 | 17% |
| 50s | 33 | 19% |
| 60s | 12 | 18% |
| 70s | 1 | 6% |
I provided options for this that broke down by continent. A few of you island dwellers responded with “other” and specified locations in Oceania and the Caribbean. I probably need to rethink this question for 2031, but for purposes of data reporting I have lumped everyone together into continents for now.
The continued absence of responses from Africa and South America may be related to language barriers and/or other factors. I did get a few responses from Asia this year, which I didn’t in 2011.
| 2021 Data | ||
|---|---|---|
| Asia | 3 | 1% |
| Australia | 11 | 4% |
| Europe | 20 | 7% |
| North America | 249 | 88% |
| 2011 Data | ||
|---|---|---|
| Australia | 11 | 6% |
| Europe | 12 | 6% |
| North America | 162 | 87% |
The “city, but not a ‘major’ one” option was added based on feedback from the 2011 survey. A few of you used the “other” option to explain more complicated living situations (such as multiple locations), and for reporting purposes I’ve taken the liberty of lumping those into the categories I thought were the closest match.
| 2021 Data | ||
|---|---|---|
| major city or metropolitan area | 127 | 45% |
| city, but not a “major” one | 69 | 24% |
| suburb or exurb | 63 | 22% |
| rural or remote area | 24 | 8% |
| 2011 Data | ||
|---|---|---|
| major city or metropolitan area | 93 | 50% |
| suburban area | 66 | 35% |
| rural or remote area | 23 | 12% |
| other | 5 | 3% |
“Less than high school diploma” is a new option this yea. The categories in the graph are abbreviated; the full text from the survey is in the data table.
| 2021 dATA | ||
|---|---|---|
| Less than high school diploma | 8 | 3% |
| High school diploma or equivalent | 6 | 2% |
| Some college | 33 | 12% |
| Bachelors degree | 70 | 25% |
| Some graduate school | 18 | 6% |
| Masters degree | 103 | 37% |
| Doctorate | 38 | 13% |
| Other degree type or comparable certification | 6 | 2% |
| 2011 Data | ||
|---|---|---|
| High school diploma or equivalent | 8 | 4% |
| Some college | 28 | 15% |
| Bachelors degree | 59 | 32% |
| Some graduate school | 16 | 9% |
| Masters degree | 53 | 28% |
| Doctorate | 16 | 9% |
| Other degree type or comparable certification | 6 | 3% |
Thanks again for your participation and stay tuned for more survey results.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Excellent handout thanks very much for your time making this.
Concisely written and easily understood. Important topic, thank you.
Very nice handout. Are the mouthpiece pitches notated in concert pitch or transposed pitch? Thanks for the excellent resource.
Concert pitch. Thanks!