Honks, Squeaks, and Proper Clarinet Voicing by Thomas Ridenour
Fine characteristic tone and good tuning are essential to the success of any clarinetist.
Reprinted from a spring 1991 edition of the LeBlanc Bell
Fine characteristic tone and good tuning are essential to the success of any clarinetist. Excellent equipment is necessary to facilitate the student's efforts in achieving these goals. The student, however, must also use the proper, most efficient techniques. And one of the most important of these techniques, which profoundly affects both tone and tuning, is that of "voicing" the clarinet sound.
"Voicing" is the term clarinetists use to describe the syllabic shaping of the air column. Correct syllabic shaping results in the clear, well-defined, focused tone that is characteristic of fine clarinet playing.
The voicing syllable that achieves these desired characteristics for the clarinet is that of "e" (as in "we"). The "e" shape causes the air column to become narrow and dense. This type of air is commonly referred to as "cold air."
As the student tries to voice the sound properly, he will need ways to evaluate his success. One of the best and most objective ways both to work and to evaluate success is to use a tool commonly found in band rooms all over the country-the tuner. The value of the tuner can be easily grasped when one understands that consistent voicing always results in a specific, stable pitch frequency. Once we learn the correct frequency for the optimum voicing of the clarinet tone, we have the key to evaluating and measuring success.
When an accomplished clarinetist plays into the mouthpiece alone at his usual "voicing frequency," he will probably play a somewhat flat concert C#. The flatness of this pitch will vary somewhat due to the individual mouthpiece and reed strength, typically between 15 and 40 cents below concert C#.
Those who experiment with the clarinet mouthpiece and a tuner will find that this optimum voicing frequency for fine tone virtually coincides with the highest possible frequency that can be played on the clarinet mouthpiece without biting or pinching the reed closed.
This coinciding of optimum voicing frequency and highest possible pitch frequency on the clarinet mouthpiece doesn't hold true for other instruments. The optimum voicing frequency for the saxophone, for instance, lies nearer the middle of the possible pitch frequency range that can be produced on the saxophone mouthpiece. This causes the saxophonist to shape the air stream very different from that of the clarinetist. The characteristic air stream for the sax is broader and less concentrated than the clarinet's (This actually holds true for all conical instruments.) Comparatively, we might call this type of stream "warm air."
The manifest difference in the optimum voicing of these two instruments provides a very strong argument for not allowing a young clarinetist to double on the saxophone before he had solidly mastered proper clarinet voicing. Invariably, the clarinet is the instrument that suffers most from this common, albeit difficult, doubling. Those few who achieve convincing results do so only with constant practice and discipline-being scrupulous not to mix the concepts. Those are the most successful at this doubling usually had many years of foundational development on the clarinet before venturing to the saxophone.
Once a clarinetist can comfortably and consistently sustain the optimum voicing frequency of our somewhat flat C#, the mouthpiece should then be placed on the clarinet and blown into (or "voiced") the same way.
If successful, the player will discover that the entire practical range of the clarinet, from low E to high G, can be playing in tune with no embouchure change. The sagging throat tones, flat high register and slack intervallic connections that characterize a poorly voiced clarinet tone should be largely corrected by maintaining the optimum voicing frequency of the C#. From such as experience we can learn a happy fact about proper voicing on any instrument: What sounds best also works best!
The saxophone, for example, is best voiced at a specific frequency (concert A for the alto), not just because it sounds best, but also because the first two octaves can be easily played at the voicing frequency-low notes included-with no change in embouchure. Similarly, when the clarinet is voiced properly, the entire practical range is instantly at the clarinetist's disposal with no embouchure change.
Of course, highly skilled clarinetists occasionally vary their voicing to achieve certain desired musical effects. But implicit in their voicing variations is the "set standard" from which they consciously choose to deviate for artistic purposes. Establishing that standard is the initial duty of anyone who is interested in producing a fine, consistent sound, reliable response and just intonation on the clarinet.
Some may argue that using a tuner in the way described here causes the student to "listen with his eyes instead of his ears." It has been my own experience, however, that it is beneficial initially to enlist as many of the senses as possible to help reinforce and deepen any learning experience. The tuner can literally be the "picture worth a thousand words" in the process of learning correct voicing for the clarinet.
This approach is one of several techniques in an obscure little corner of clarinet pedagogy that I have come to call "honks and squeaks." The process may be a bit hard on the ears (I am reluctant to recommend that the whole clarinet section try this at once), but the end result can be sweet music to a weary music educator's ears.
