I also studied with David Weber. He played using a double lip, and I eventually played double lip. Never looked back. He told me one day that when starting as a beginning student, he allowed whatever came naturally. He only interjected if there was a problem. So, if a kid felt more comfortable with single lip and it worked, he left it alone. He was impressed with the fact that I could change from single to double in such a short time. My only regret was that I did not start with him earlier in my clarinet "career."
Ricardo, glad to see you advocating double-lip playing. I think if players try double-lip they'll see an immediate improvement in the tone and legato. Learning the feel of freeing up the reed and the proper mechanics being more natural is something that happens almost automatically with double-lip. The good news for a single lip player is this: the worst thing that can happen from working on double lip is transferring the "feel" playing double-lip will significantly improve one's single-lip playing. Thanks for sharing this. I wish more educators would begin their students double-lip. Their clarinet sections would sound much better, and play better in tune. Too bad, all too many band directors, especially in Texas, have their mind's poisoned against double-lip playing. Their unwarranted bias hurts no one but them and their students.
thanks for the description and open comments. I am an older person trying to go back to playing clarinet for my own entertainment and mental exercise. I grew up using single lip but I have tried double as an experiment when younger and liked the results. Now that I am starting over after more than 40 years, I will be able to start with double lip and strengthen my embouchure upper and lower lip at one time like a beginner.
I use double lip to warm up and I worked up to about an hour playing this way. When I switch to single lip, the sound doesn't change. I check myself by going back to double lip. You can still 'bite' using double lip but I always feel a better connection to the instrument; control if you will, when playing with a double lip embouchure. Thanks, Ricardo!!
I've been playing double lip for about four years out of the 6 that I have been playing clarinet. I can confirm that double lip is definitely better than single. It does become easier to play long periods of time as you continue using double lip. I play several hours a day and never get tired.
Many good comments and playing examples. One can especially pay attention to intonation while playing in a large ensemble: When a passage becomes intolerably loud, the clarinet can get lost in the sonority. Single lip allows for one's own sound to travel to the rest of the body through our bone structure and presents a more accurate picture of our pitch: A versatile player can switch embouchures quickly to make a better contribution to the performance. In the late 1970s Elsa Verdehr switched embouchures in a lecture-demonstration at the International Clarinet Society Festival in Denver, USA. Not one of the 300 or so present volunteered that they could hear a difference; however, knowing Mrs. Verdehr, one would expect that she had mastered each embouchure.
As an adult beginner i'm going w the 1950s style ie double-lip ... must admit i was talking about how i dont want to get teeth marks on a new clarinet's mouthpiece. And WOW is that a classy clarinet !!!
ruth WILLIAM, Just use a mouthpiece protector, which you find in good stores for musical instruments and your problem is over! Incidentally, mouthpiece protector is almost mandatory, to prevent from ruining the mouthpiece too soon!
If God had intended the clarinet to be played with a double lip embouchure, he would have given us two ... Whoops, never mind :-) Seriously, I appreciated the information in this video and value Mr. Morales' expertise as a musician and especially as an educator. I've been playing for 45 years and haven't been able to switch to double lip no matter how much time I put into it. I chalk it up to the shape of my upper teeth and possibly facial structure - there might be others that have difficulty adopting the double lip embouchure for these reasons.
That's an excuse only someone who's been playing for as long as you can make. If you received $1000 (or whatever thing you most value) every time you chose double lip I bet you'd learn it pretty quickly.
Thanks for this video. I'm an oboe player and I started this year with the clarinet. I use double lips are more confortable to me and more easy to get a good sound. Now I know that is good playing with double lips.
I've heard opinions from fine clarinetists going both ways on this one. I've met clarinetist that have seriously attempted to move to double lip, and although they report that the effort helped improve their single lip sound, they still concluded that they got the best sound from single. I think it might come down to physical differences between individuals -- the position of the teeth, the shape of the mouth cavity, the shape of the tongue, etc. all varying from individual to individual. I also play piano, and it's amazing to me how people with different types of hands and fingers actually have to alter their approach to the instrument to accommodate their individual physical characteristics. In conservatory, I actually progressed best under a teacher that hand hands very similar to my own and had spent a lifetime both leveraging the advantages and managing the disadvantages of hands like ours. Some of the greatest pianists ever had hands that would not be considered ideal for a piano keyboard. Rudolf Serkin is said to have had fingers that were too thick to fit between the black keys. It is also said that J. S. Bach -- primarily recognized as a great keyboard player during his lifetime -- had very thick fingers. Arthur Rubenstein had hand that were unusually small for a concert pianist, and had to compensate by developing extraordinary pedal technique. Personally, I play double lip for a while each day and have been doing so for years, but I still prefer single lip.
I started with double lip, but after about a year of playing, switched to single liop becasue of all the bias that has gone towards it. Now though, I have switched back to double, and I immediately heard a difference.
I've been doing single lip 6.5 years of the 7 years I've been playing. The first half I double lipped, but after a private teacher told me to single lip, I single lipped. I just tried playing double lipped, and HOLY COW does it change everything. I can notice that the tone just lit and sound so much for professional. This basically changes just about everything I was told. I want to encourage every beginning clarinetist to double lip. :D
Thank you Ricardo: This is an important subject to discuss as you can see by all the comments thus far. I have played "double-lip" perhaps longer than you have been alive but still don't sound as good as your "single-lip"! Anyway on a more serious note: I did hear Elsa Verdehr do an extended demonstration with both embouchures at a Clarinetfest back in the '70s to about 300 players and no one could say they heard a difference. Keith Stein (formerly principal in Chicago Symphony and author of "The Art of Clarinet Playing") explained in his lessons that just using two lips did not necessarily qualify as "good embouchure". He taught the proper advanced formation of the musculature needed for superior freedom from the restrictions of "single-lip" you demonstrated here. Keep the subject hot!
il ne faut pas confondre "démontrer" et "donner un avis" . On ne démontre rien en musique , on s'adapte......selon ses aptitudes et son "ressenti" C'est tout !!!
Great! Thanks so much, Ricardo. I used to play the clarinet many years ago and taught myself using double-lip. Later, I was told that was wrong! But now, when I hear you play using that, I can hear a slight difference. Yes, double-lip is very tiring, but my sound was better, now I come to think of it.
i always played with double lip for like 5 years without knowing that single lip even existed until a couple of months ago lmao, i thought i was playing wrong until now
My teacher Gino Cioffi played double lip. He started in Italy with the reed on the top. Growing up this way allowed his upper lip to grow longer. He told me he couldn't get work in US so he changed to reed on bottom. The most daring, charismatic, great, big tone clarinetists, like Roger Hiller, played single lip.
I was taught to play with a single lip but I naturally switched to double because I have sensitive teeth and it was painful with the vibration. Just another benefit :)
i go back and forth with double and single lip. i find for lyrical solos and etudes and such, my sound is smoother, but im still really slow with double lip for very articular passages, so i switch. i was never taught double but i was messing around and i found i liked it so it became a habit
Just flipped my mouth piece to top reed position. You have to hold nearly vertical but it makes for interesting practice. It is definitely double lip when in that position.
I was not taught much about embouchure when I first started playing in junior high school. The first time I put the mouthpiece in my mouth, I used a double lip. I thought double lip was just how you did it. I had no idea that all of the other clarinets were using single lip until one day six years later in high school. I tried single out of curiosity, (my friends were dumbfounded that I was using double, so they tried it) and I didn't like my sound. I recently started playing bass clarinet, and I was given more instruction this time with specific instructions to bite with my teeth and how I should feel my whole face vibrating. After that, I started trying single more often on my Bb, but it didn't feel comfortable until I added a cushion. I don't know. I still find myself going back and forth between single and double depending on the piece.
When my beginning band teacher taught me how to make an embouchure for the clarinet, he supposedly told me to do the single lip one, but idk how but i did double lip and from day 1 i only do double lip and single lip feels weird to me
Tengo una pregunta los vídeos no podrían tener subtitules al español, me intereso sus cursos pero lamentablemente no puedo entenderlos los vídeos en su totalidad..
Single lip is easier too learn .Alot depends on the genetics of your oral cavity and something everyone has left out how many non pros who play have perfectly straight and even teeth can you imagine playing double lip with one tooth longer than the other.I played double lip first 6 years gave it up cause my teeth got more uneven and the one tooth was puncturing the upper lip or was getting very painful
I was taught single lip. My mouthpiece had gouges from my teeth which I didn't see among my friends, so I started using double to prevent more damage (I didn't know it was an actual thing). I've used it ever since and now single lip is uncomfortable with the vibrations on my teeth.
I use double lip for a long time, because of circumstances I had to give playing for 20 years, eventually I was asked to joint two bands! But now I a full set of false teeth, I got hold of a clarinet from a friend and it was a disaster, because I used double embouchure my top lip wanted to push the mouthpiece out of my mouth, I was very depressed then I had a thought I would try single embouchure, it worked like a dream, because of the angle of the beak with my teeth on top of the mouthpiece it the problem was gone, that was in the early 1980’s and I’m still playing at age 79.
I started clarinet while still a school boy but with private lessons, using double lip in 1951. In 1959 still double, started also tenor sax...Of course I used double lip again. Never heard of single lip until somebody was amazed that used double on tenor. Tried single on both. At first, tone deteriorated on both but gradually recovered. Feeling of disloyalty to old teacher increased! Ever since, have played pro and semi, plus teaching, on single, Clrt, alto, tenor and Bari. Tried double 12 months ago and have lost it! BUT could hear that old purity of clrt. sound which I had in the first 8/9 years. Would need a lot of work to get those muscles back! Thank you for your fascinating video.. PS. What's your clari. with the bulging barrel?
I started Bb clarinet in high school of the Arts . No one told me how to form an embouchure so I actually started playing with a double lip naturally . My sound got me first chair over the experienced girls quickly .
Wow. Thank you for your testimony. This was an important comment. Personally, I think double-lip is more natural. Your instincts chose double-lip. Very interesting.
I found this interesting, I was taught what was called double embouchure when I first took up clarinet in the 1950's, I gave up playing when I was about twenty, when I was forty the old band leader decided to re-form the band, I was very excited about this, I'm a jazz musician, I dug out my clarinet and tried to give it a blow to see if it was OK, it was an absolute disaster, it was my set of upper false teeth I now had, when I pressed my lip onto the top of the mouthpiece my teeth came forward, I got very depressed about it and was about to phone the band leader to tell him I could not do it, then a thought struck me, I thought I would try the single embouchure, teeth on top of the mouthpiece, success, the mouthpiece now pushed my false teeth securely back, I have been playing ever since and have run my own band for over thirty years. also I now have full false teeth top and bottom and have no problems playing, but I knew my tone was not the same.
Pete Fountain played with a double lip - check out one of his videos. Contrast that with the embouchure used by Peanuts Hucko, looks like a duck-bill to me : ) I have been using double lip all my life, purely because I didn't like the vibrations on my teeth from the mouthpiece when I first started. I have been complimented on my tone several times and I think that's due to the embouchure. I used to tell people that Pete Fountain and I had three things in commons: 1. We both used double lip embouchure, 2. We both had lost our hair, and 3. No matter how much we practiced, neither one of us is going to get any better. Unfortunately, Pete passed a couple of years ago and I can't use that joke anymore. Still using double lip, though.
Ricardo, Nice presentation on double-lip playing. It is, by far, a superior and more artistic way to play the clarinet. Playing single lip is barbaric by comparison.
I wanted to play clarinet starting in the sixth grade but the teacher just taught double embouchure. At the time I had kind of buck teeth so it was very painful for me to even make a note, so I dropped out. Even now, 50 years later, I regret quiting band but I blame the teacher. The teacher told me it I wanted to stay in band I had to play the trombone, which I didn't have and couldn't afford and in fact at the time my arms were too short.
First of all, I'm sure you know about 1000 times more about clarinette than I do, but I still disagree. When I was going to enter music classes in the fifth grade I was going to start on clarinet, since they wouldn't let me play drums. So my mother played clarinet so she taught me the double lip embouchure. Same way, on my first lesson with the band director he taught the double lip. I thought that was the only way to play. The problem was that like many kids of that age, I was a little bit buck toothed. Trying to play with a double lip embouchure was painful and even got where I would bleed when trying to play. Turns out I quit and never played in band and never took up a woodwind instrument until I was an adult. I was playing flute in a community concert band when I saw somebody playing clarinet with a single lip embouchure. He was a good player and was a professor of clarinet. I talked to him about it and he said that either way was okay and since I played sax I was probably better off sticking with a single lip embouchure. So if I would have known I could use the single lip embouchure, I would have started playing at eleven years old. Might have gotten as good as you!!! So I do hope that young people starting out are told they can play either way. Sure would have helped me.
I play the clarinet and will start with the oboe. Anyone who has experience with both instruments? As you have to use double lip embouchure on the oboe anyway I think it would be reasonable to use this on the clarinet too?
I think one problem with comparing single and double lip is the way many have been taught to use single lip. If you learn to use single lip with someone who learned from Joe Allard and has a firm grasp of his method, you might very well find that you can come very close to or match the results from double lip, and without the discomfort that can come with double lip if you have sharp upper front teeth. However, Morales is an expert and I am not, so I would tend to defer to him if he is familiar with the results from using Allard's methods.
The main thing is to support the tone from the diaphram and not choke off the sound with the jaw, tongue and throat. Open up the oral cavity and don't let tension choke the sound. Then you don't need double embouchure.
"Ach du lieber, senor Ricardo"! I'm now 78! Not very exciting news to anyone! My last clarinet playing was in 1958 in my high school band. Music was my joy! But unfortunately now only as a listener. I used single lip as I never knew about double lipping. BUT my real comment is about your gorgeous brownish red clarinet! Never saw one like it. Sure would love to know more about what wood it is. I love to shoot the big bore black powder muzzle loading rifles, primarily because of the beautiful curly maple stocks & the browned barrels & brass trim. I wonder how such a clarinet would sound (& cost!!!). No doubt a custom made job for sure! I enjoy your accent too, in this "generic & sterile world" nowadays! Can you play your clarinet in Spanish as well as English??? A little "yoke" here! "Gesundheit"!!!
Hey ive never played single lip and prolly wont but can some one link a video or something about tounging cuz i still dont know how to do that and i stop and start the air flow ever time i play. I dont know if this is because i learned playing dobble lip.
LOL you mean Armenian Duduk a double reed instrument that is very hard to play. But I agree, his clarinet is beautiful and sweet sounding, I love it. I want one . . . .
Playing a saxophone is similar, and it can be played with double-lip technique. Tenor saxophonist Stan Getz played with double-lip embouchure, and his nickname in the world of jazz was "The Sound". His tone was incredible. Stan began as a bassoon player in the classical world, but then switched to jazz, but obviously kept the best techniques.
I've been playing only double lip for more than 25 years and I can't go back to single lip. Some times when you must practice a lot it could be tiring .. yes.. but for me now it's impossible to play single lip.. I don't know why..
@@MarilynCrosbie and Daniel Irilarry: Personally, I often go weeks without playing the clarinet. Double-lip benefits me in that I recover very quickly and don't get tired at all after the first day or two. ps: Harold Wright (National Symphony Orch and Boston Symphony Orch.) once mentioned that it took him 10 years to feel comfortable with double-lip.
Ni jass ni clásica, ya le respondí arriba. Esa técnica es del año de Maria Castaña. Con una goma suficientemente gorda pegada en la boquilla obtienes el mismo resultado y sin torturar al labio superior.
Actually, double-lip playing was always in the minority--significantly so, in the 1950s and any other time. It was originally called "French embouchure"--a term I still use---but in the past 40 or so years the French abandoned it--sad to say. The irony here is this: though a small percentage of the total number of clarinet players begin with and play double-lip, a significantly higher percentage of the finest players use it, either part or all of the time. Double and single-lip have their strengths and weaknesses, They can both be used in their proper place. There is no doubt legato and tone are much better double-lip, and air flow more fluid. This makes double-lip perfectly suited for most lyrical playing. I can play both, but everything is always more beautiful and fluid double-lip. I try to keep single-lip playing to an absolute minimum--limited to use for the most difficult technical passages.
Really annoying to play high C with both hands pushing up on the instrument. That's the problem I have anyway. I tend to slide into single lip somewhere above high G, at least for now.
Hi thank you for your video. The problem with the double lip is you are losing some of your effort frequencies from your mouthpiece your deadening the vibration of your mouthpiece.I can hear it maybe you think the lack of the higher frequencies is more desirable. But I try to let my horn sing. I use my mouth like it is a coin purse that is drawn together with a string. Your lips are are shaped like a circle.therefore you should squeeze the muscle like a circle no flat corners. That's how I was originally taught that was wrong. I closed my mouth and a tight circle touching my upper lip on my upper teeth to prevent the deadening of the vibrations that your mouthpiece and Reed are producing. you sound beautiful either way but I think I like the higher frequencies with the regular embouchure
Double lip is part of the clarinet lore. Benny Goodman switched to double lip and I think he sounded better. Richard Stoltzman plays double lip. IMHO the conventional wisdom is that the clarinet is meant to be played single lip. We are not talking about starting over here, after 40 years, and strengthening your embouchure, we are talking about, at tomorrow's rehearsal, and you are first chair, and you have a cadenza, how many lips will you be using.
Ricardo, esa técnica de doble labio está desechada desde hace por lo menos 90 años. Lo que ocurre es que abrimos mas la boca y parece favorecer la calidad del sonido, pero si quieres conseguir eso, solo tienes que pegarle una goma suficientemente gorda a la boquilla y tienes lo mismo sin la tortura del labio superior.
I often wonder why people always turn playing an instrument into "Rocket Science"? I know some really great clarinet players who started playing in a school band and went on to be professional without knowing any of this stuff, strange..... I have my teeth firmly on the mouthpiece as I learnt to play saxophone first and later went to clarinet. I´ve been a professional now for over 30 years and judging by my gig schedule I must be doing something right, or I wouldn´t be getting booked right?
Yeah, you're getting booked with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the MET, right? The fact is, people have been asking Ricardo for years how he does what he does, and he's sharing that. Why is that a problem? Some folks are actually not satisfied with their playing and want to constantly improve. Is that a foreign concept to you?
No difference if you hearing on youtube . intonition more difficult ... I use single lip technique all this 45 year my collor and intonition is perfect ! ! ! I think all is about individual perseption about embouchure. You must ballance every thing when you play clarinet from mouthpiece to the reed .
Mm.. i didnt find the demonstration convincing to be honest.. i'm sure some players can make this work..i have to say i dont know of any players using this technique in the uk..or not to my knowledge anyway..
J'ai toujours joué avec la technique double lèvre et je me suis toujours fait engueuler par tout le monde , hahahaha !!! C'est ENCORE comme ça que je joue aujourd'hui et je préfère toujours autant cette façon de jouer . Même probablement plus encore !!! Je maîtrise mieux ma sonorité et mon instrument .....
You're not going to find the answer by your own minimally informed experience. You're not going to find it by listening to a single player or teacher. (No matter how awesome.) You need to look at the reality going on among players and start asking yourself questions and looking for answers. Run for your life from rules of thumb and 'explanations' that don't hold up against facts such as the great tone achieved by so many players doing all sorts of things others say "don't do that". Learn how to hunt for essentials, that is, look for what is the common fact among all the different successful techniques.
To answer your list 1) You're biting 2) You need to build more strength, give it time. If you have to rest on your knee at first, do so. 3) Again, you're biting, and not using enough air support.
@Dan Lipman Saxophone / Flute / Clarinet: "from that example not nearly enough difference to justify basically starting from scratch . . . " You really think you can hear it properly via a microphone, upload to RUclips, download to your computer, then going through a tiny amp on a soundcard and finally through your earphones? Get REAL, mate! When I started playing baritone horn, from scratch, it only took me a matter of weeks to really build up the strength in both lips. "Life's too short", you say? Why? Do you only have six weeks to live?
![mgk - I Think I’m OKAY (with YUNGBLUD) (Sad Version) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7AC1uqQLIg4/mqdefault.jpg)
I also studied with David Weber. He played using a double lip, and I eventually played double lip. Never looked back. He told me one day that when starting as a beginning student, he allowed whatever came naturally. He only interjected if there was a problem. So, if a kid felt more comfortable with single lip and it worked, he left it alone. He was impressed with the fact that I could change from single to double in such a short time. My only regret was that I did not start with him earlier in my clarinet "career."
6:09 anyone else think he was gonna play brahms and get jebaited XD
Me haha
Ricardo, glad to see you advocating double-lip playing. I think if players try double-lip they'll see an immediate improvement in the tone and legato. Learning the feel of freeing up the reed and the proper mechanics being more natural is something that happens almost automatically with double-lip.
The good news for a single lip player is this: the worst thing that can happen from working on double lip is transferring the "feel" playing double-lip will significantly improve one's single-lip playing.
Thanks for sharing this. I wish more educators would begin their students double-lip. Their clarinet sections would sound much better, and play better in tune. Too bad, all too many band directors, especially in Texas, have their mind's poisoned against double-lip playing. Their unwarranted bias hurts no one but them and their students.
thanks for the description and open comments. I am an older person trying to go back to playing clarinet for my own entertainment and mental exercise. I grew up using single lip but I have tried double as an experiment when younger and liked the results. Now that I am starting over after more than 40 years, I will be able to start with double lip and strengthen my embouchure upper and lower lip at one time like a beginner.
I use double lip to warm up and I worked up to about an hour playing this way. When I switch to single lip, the sound doesn't change. I check myself by going back to double lip. You can still 'bite' using double lip but I always feel a better connection to the instrument; control if you will, when playing with a double lip embouchure. Thanks, Ricardo!!
I've been playing double lip for about four years out of the 6 that I have been playing clarinet. I can confirm that double lip is definitely better than single. It does become easier to play long periods of time as you continue using double lip. I play several hours a day and never get tired.
I loved hearing him play.
Wow! What a glorious sound!
Many good comments and playing examples. One can especially pay attention to intonation while playing in a large ensemble: When a passage becomes intolerably loud, the clarinet can get lost in the sonority. Single lip allows for one's own sound to travel to the rest of the body through our bone structure and presents a more accurate picture of our pitch: A versatile player can switch embouchures quickly to make a better contribution to the performance. In the late 1970s Elsa Verdehr switched embouchures in a lecture-demonstration at the International Clarinet Society Festival in Denver, USA. Not one of the 300 or so present volunteered that they could hear a difference; however, knowing Mrs. Verdehr, one would expect that she had mastered each embouchure.
As an adult beginner i'm going w the 1950s style ie double-lip ... must admit i was talking about how i dont want to get teeth marks on a new clarinet's mouthpiece. And WOW is that a classy clarinet !!!
ruth WILLIAM, Just use a mouthpiece protector, which you find in good stores for musical instruments and your problem is over! Incidentally, mouthpiece protector is almost mandatory, to prevent from ruining the mouthpiece too soon!
If God had intended the clarinet to be played with a double lip embouchure, he would have given us two ... Whoops, never mind :-) Seriously, I appreciated the information in this video and value Mr. Morales' expertise as a musician and especially as an educator. I've been playing for 45 years and haven't been able to switch to double lip no matter how much time I put into it. I chalk it up to the shape of my upper teeth and possibly facial structure - there might be others that have difficulty adopting the double lip embouchure for these reasons.
😂 Nice oboe joke
That's an excuse only someone who's been playing for as long as you can make. If you received $1000 (or whatever thing you most value) every time you chose double lip I bet you'd learn it pretty quickly.
Great video ! Thanks for sharing this !
Thanks for this video. I'm an oboe player and I started this year with the clarinet. I use double lips are more confortable to me and more easy to get a good sound. Now I know that is good playing with double lips.
I've heard opinions from fine clarinetists going both ways on this one. I've met clarinetist that have seriously attempted to move to double lip, and although they report that the effort helped improve their single lip sound, they still concluded that they got the best sound from single. I think it might come down to physical differences between individuals -- the position of the teeth, the shape of the mouth cavity, the shape of the tongue, etc. all varying from individual to individual. I also play piano, and it's amazing to me how people with different types of hands and fingers actually have to alter their approach to the instrument to accommodate their individual physical characteristics. In conservatory, I actually progressed best under a teacher that hand hands very similar to my own and had spent a lifetime both leveraging the advantages and managing the disadvantages of hands like ours. Some of the greatest pianists ever had hands that would not be considered ideal for a piano keyboard. Rudolf Serkin is said to have had fingers that were too thick to fit between the black keys. It is also said that J. S. Bach -- primarily recognized as a great keyboard player during his lifetime -- had very thick fingers. Arthur Rubenstein had hand that were unusually small for a concert pianist, and had to compensate by developing extraordinary pedal technique. Personally, I play double lip for a while each day and have been doing so for years, but I still prefer single lip.
I started with double lip, but after about a year of playing, switched to single liop becasue of all the bias that has gone towards it. Now though, I have switched back to double, and I immediately heard a difference.
BIEN SÛR , tu as bien fait de reprendre TA façon de jouer !!!
I had never heard of double lip. Glad I checked this video. I will give it a try. Thanks.
I am learning this now and it's better for me
thank you for this video
Tone quality and legato playing is definitely better double lip in the examples you played.
I must admit. When I was using single lip i was always biking. Now that's Why use only duble lib no more biting problems.
Tried double lip I loved it
I've been doing single lip 6.5 years of the 7 years I've been playing. The first half I double lipped, but after a private teacher told me to single lip, I single lipped. I just tried playing double lipped, and HOLY COW does it change everything. I can notice that the tone just lit and sound so much for professional. This basically changes just about everything I was told. I want to encourage every beginning clarinetist to double lip. :D
Thank you Ricardo: This is an important subject to discuss as you can see by all the comments thus far. I have played "double-lip" perhaps longer than you have been alive but still don't sound as good as your "single-lip"! Anyway on a more serious note: I did hear Elsa Verdehr do an extended demonstration with both embouchures at a Clarinetfest back in the '70s to about 300 players and no one could say they heard a difference. Keith Stein (formerly principal in Chicago Symphony and author of "The Art of Clarinet Playing") explained in his lessons that just using two lips did not necessarily qualify as "good embouchure". He taught the proper advanced formation of the musculature needed for superior freedom from the restrictions of "single-lip" you demonstrated here. Keep the subject hot!
il ne faut pas confondre "démontrer" et "donner un avis" . On ne démontre rien en musique , on s'adapte......selon ses aptitudes et son "ressenti" C'est tout !!!
Thank you.
Great! Thanks so much, Ricardo. I used to play the clarinet many years ago and taught myself using double-lip. Later, I was told that was wrong! But now, when I hear you play using that, I can hear a slight difference. Yes, double-lip is very tiring, but my sound was better, now I come to think of it.
hah, that's why I'm here. I learned double-lip, and then realized most people do it differently. Thought I was wrong until I came across this video.
Finally someone who agrees with me! I have been told that double lip is not as good but I always felt it sound better. I personally use both.
As did I. I always felt I have better control particularly over the subtle nuances in pitch and of sound.
☝🏽
i always played with double lip for like 5 years without knowing that single lip even existed until a couple of months ago lmao, i thought i was playing wrong until now
My teacher Gino Cioffi played double lip. He started in Italy with the reed on the top. Growing up this way allowed his upper lip to grow longer. He told me he couldn't get work in US so he changed to reed on bottom. The most daring, charismatic, great, big tone clarinetists, like Roger Hiller, played single lip.
I was taught to play with a single lip but I naturally switched to double because I have sensitive teeth and it was painful with the vibration. Just another benefit :)
i go back and forth with double and single lip. i find for lyrical solos and etudes and such, my sound is smoother, but im still really slow with double lip for very articular passages, so i switch. i was never taught double but i was messing around and i found i liked it so it became a habit
For those asking, almost certainly a Backun Cocobolo-wood clarinet.
I know, and I'm jelly.
Thanks
the face @7:32 'do as I say, not as I do' XD
Just flipped my mouth piece to top reed position.
You have to hold nearly vertical but it makes for interesting practice.
It is definitely double lip when in that position.
I was not taught much about embouchure when I first started playing in junior high school. The first time I put the mouthpiece in my mouth, I used a double lip. I thought double lip was just how you did it. I had no idea that all of the other clarinets were using single lip until one day six years later in high school. I tried single out of curiosity, (my friends were dumbfounded that I was using double, so they tried it) and I didn't like my sound. I recently started playing bass clarinet, and I was given more instruction this time with specific instructions to bite with my teeth and how I should feel my whole face vibrating. After that, I started trying single more often on my Bb, but it didn't feel comfortable until I added a cushion. I don't know. I still find myself going back and forth between single and double depending on the piece.
Same here and my teacher felt no need to stop me from doing double lip.
LE MIEUX EST DE JOUER DE LA FACON QUI TE CONVIENT LE MIEUX , SANS T'OCCUPER DES AUTRES !!!
When my beginning band teacher taught me how to make an embouchure for the clarinet, he supposedly told me to do the single lip one, but idk how but i did double lip and from day 1 i only do double lip and single lip feels weird to me
Justin Cheung Same here.
Tengo una pregunta los vídeos no podrían tener subtitules al español, me intereso sus cursos pero lamentablemente no puedo entenderlos los vídeos en su totalidad..
Thanks sir, you just debunked one of my ages old arguments. Too bad you didn't make this video when I was in high school.
Single lip is easier too learn .Alot depends on the genetics of your oral cavity and something everyone has left out how many non pros who play have perfectly straight and even teeth can you imagine playing double lip with one tooth longer than the other.I played double lip first 6 years gave it up cause my teeth got more uneven and the one tooth was puncturing the upper lip or was getting very painful
I was taught single lip. My mouthpiece had gouges from my teeth which I didn't see among my friends, so I started using double to prevent more damage (I didn't know it was an actual thing). I've used it ever since and now single lip is uncomfortable with the vibrations on my teeth.
Single lip was taught at my school as well. I always found using it most difficult.
I use double lip for a long time, because of circumstances I had to give playing for 20 years, eventually I was asked to joint two bands! But now I a full set of false teeth, I got hold of a clarinet from a friend and it was a disaster, because I used double embouchure my top lip wanted to push the mouthpiece out of my mouth, I was very depressed then I had a thought I would try single embouchure, it worked like a dream, because of the angle of the beak with my teeth on top of the mouthpiece it the problem was gone, that was in the early 1980’s and I’m still playing at age 79.
I started clarinet while still a school boy but with private lessons, using double lip in 1951. In 1959 still double, started also tenor sax...Of course I used double lip again. Never heard of single lip until somebody was amazed that used double on tenor. Tried single on both. At first, tone deteriorated on both but gradually recovered. Feeling of disloyalty to old teacher increased! Ever since, have played pro and semi, plus teaching, on single, Clrt, alto, tenor and Bari. Tried double 12 months ago and have lost it!
BUT could hear that old purity of clrt. sound which I had in the first 8/9 years.
Would need a lot of work to get those muscles back!
Thank you for your fascinating video..
PS. What's your clari. with the bulging barrel?
I started Bb clarinet in high school of the Arts . No one told me how to form an embouchure so I actually started playing with a double lip naturally . My sound got me first chair over the experienced girls quickly .
Wow. Thank you for your testimony.
This was an important comment. Personally, I think double-lip is more natural. Your instincts chose double-lip. Very interesting.
I found this interesting, I was taught what was called double embouchure when I first took up clarinet in the 1950's, I gave up playing when I was about twenty, when I was forty the old band leader decided to re-form the band, I was very excited about this, I'm a jazz musician, I dug out my clarinet and tried to give it a blow to see if it was OK, it was an absolute disaster, it was my set of upper false teeth I now had, when I pressed my lip onto the top of the mouthpiece my teeth came forward, I got very depressed about it and was about to phone the band leader to tell him I could not do it, then a thought struck me, I thought I would try the single embouchure, teeth on top of the mouthpiece, success, the mouthpiece now pushed my false teeth securely back, I have been playing ever since and have run my own band for over thirty years. also I now have full false teeth top and bottom and have no problems playing, but I knew my tone was not the same.
There is a reason why people are taught to do single lip. It is better!
I played double lip for over 15 years... Now I start do use single lip
Pete Fountain played with a double lip - check out one of his videos. Contrast that with the embouchure used by Peanuts Hucko, looks like a duck-bill to me : ) I have been using double lip all my life, purely because I didn't like the vibrations on my teeth from the mouthpiece when I first started. I have been complimented on my tone several times and I think that's due to the embouchure. I used to tell people that Pete Fountain and I had three things in commons: 1. We both used double lip embouchure, 2. We both had lost our hair, and 3. No matter how much we practiced, neither one of us is going to get any better. Unfortunately, Pete passed a couple of years ago and I can't use that joke anymore. Still using double lip, though.
I love Peanuts Hucko’s playing.
Ricardo, Nice presentation on double-lip playing. It is, by far, a superior and more artistic way to play the clarinet. Playing single lip is barbaric by comparison.
I wanted to play clarinet starting in the sixth grade but the teacher just taught double embouchure. At the time I had kind of buck teeth so it was very painful for me to even make a note, so I dropped out. Even now, 50 years later, I regret quiting band but I blame the teacher. The teacher told me it I wanted to stay in band I had to play the trombone, which I didn't have and couldn't afford and in fact at the time my arms were too short.
First of all, I'm sure you know about 1000 times more about clarinette than I do, but I still disagree. When I was going to enter music classes in the fifth grade I was going to start on clarinet, since they wouldn't let me play drums. So my mother played clarinet so she taught me the double lip embouchure. Same way, on my first lesson with the band director he taught the double lip. I thought that was the only way to play. The problem was that like many kids of that age, I was a little bit buck toothed. Trying to play with a double lip embouchure was painful and even got where I would bleed when trying to play. Turns out I quit and never played in band and never took up a woodwind instrument until I was an adult. I was playing flute in a community concert band when I saw somebody playing clarinet with a single lip embouchure. He was a good player and was a professor of clarinet. I talked to him about it and he said that either way was okay and since I played sax I was probably better off sticking with a single lip embouchure. So if I would have known I could use the single lip embouchure, I would have started playing at eleven years old. Might have gotten as good as you!!! So I do hope that young people starting out are told they can play either way. Sure would have helped me.
I play the clarinet and will start with the oboe. Anyone who has experience with both instruments? As you have to use double lip embouchure on the oboe anyway I think it would be reasonable to use this on the clarinet too?
Is that a custom clarinet? It is sweet and superb and looks wonderful too - If they are available I would love to have one of my own one day . . .
If you have approx. $9000 USD you too can have a Backun cocobolo clarinet.
I think one problem with comparing single and double lip is the way many have been taught to use single lip. If you learn to use single lip with someone who learned from Joe Allard and has a firm grasp of his method, you might very well find that you can come very close to or match the results from double lip, and without the discomfort that can come with double lip if you have sharp upper front teeth. However, Morales is an expert and I am not, so I would tend to defer to him if he is familiar with the results from using Allard's methods.
I always use double lip XD and every time I try to use single it feels weird
The main thing is to support the tone from the diaphram and not choke off the sound with the jaw, tongue and throat. Open up the oral cavity and don't let tension choke the sound. Then you don't need double embouchure.
You are right! I'm glad to see smart people making comments. Please drop by my channel and check it out!
"Ach du lieber, senor Ricardo"! I'm now 78! Not very exciting news to anyone! My last clarinet playing was in 1958 in my high school band. Music was my joy! But unfortunately now only as a listener. I used single lip as I never knew about double lipping. BUT my real comment is about your gorgeous brownish red clarinet! Never saw one like it. Sure would love to know more about what wood it is. I love to shoot the big bore black powder muzzle loading rifles, primarily because of the beautiful curly maple stocks & the browned barrels & brass trim. I wonder how such a clarinet would sound (& cost!!!). No doubt a custom made job for sure! I enjoy your accent too, in this "generic & sterile world" nowadays! Can you play your clarinet in Spanish as well as English??? A little "yoke" here! "Gesundheit"!!!
backunmusical.com/collections/custom
It's a cocobolo wood clarinet. I've always wanted one but they're way outside of my price range. They're really pretty
Hey ive never played single lip and prolly wont but can some one link a video or something about tounging cuz i still dont know how to do that and i stop and start the air flow ever time i play. I dont know if this is because i learned playing dobble lip.
I know right
whoa that clarinet though...
seriously what is that, it blows the russian duduk out of the water....
I don't even know what you just said, but I agree. FAMMOO
LOL you mean Armenian Duduk a double reed instrument that is very hard to play. But I agree, his clarinet is beautiful and sweet sounding, I love it. I want one . . . .
does this really apply for bass clarinet, because the mouthpiece is a lot larger and it hurts to stretch the lips that far.
Playing a saxophone is similar, and it can be played with double-lip technique. Tenor saxophonist Stan Getz played with double-lip embouchure, and his nickname in the world of jazz was "The Sound". His tone was incredible. Stan began as a bassoon player in the classical world, but then switched to jazz, but obviously kept the best techniques.
how can you tongue the notes
does triple lip work better than double lip?? more is better right??
you don't have three lips
udaya sandhya wow you're a fucking genius
Lol..are you taking the pi$%
@@vnkssandhya r/woooosh
Lmao
I've been playing only double lip for more than 25 years and I can't go back to single lip. Some times when you must practice a lot it could be tiring .. yes.. but for me now it's impossible to play single lip.. I don't know why..
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I have been doing double lip since I started to play.
@@MarilynCrosbie and Daniel Irilarry: Personally, I often go weeks without playing the clarinet. Double-lip benefits me in that I recover very quickly and don't get tired at all after the first day or two. ps: Harold Wright (National Symphony Orch and Boston Symphony Orch.) once mentioned that it took him 10 years to feel comfortable with double-lip.
What about double lips for Jazz?
Brando Miranda, very good question, LOL. Tomara que alguém responda.
Benny Goodman used double lip so its still good
Ni jass ni clásica, ya le respondí arriba. Esa técnica es del año de Maria Castaña. Con una goma suficientemente gorda pegada en la boquilla obtienes el mismo resultado y sin torturar al labio superior.
Double lip was very common around 1950 or so but not anymore I believe.
You are completely RIGHT!!! Thanks! Hey! Drop by my channel and check it out if you like.
Actually, double-lip playing was always in the minority--significantly so, in the 1950s and any other time. It was originally called "French embouchure"--a term I still use---but in the past 40 or so years the French abandoned it--sad to say.
The irony here is this: though a small percentage of the total number of clarinet players begin with and play double-lip, a significantly higher percentage of the finest players use it, either part or all of the time.
Double and single-lip have their strengths and weaknesses, They can both be used in their proper place. There is no doubt legato and tone are much better double-lip, and air flow more fluid. This makes double-lip perfectly suited for most lyrical playing. I can play both, but everything is always more beautiful and fluid double-lip. I try to keep single-lip playing to an absolute minimum--limited to use for the most difficult technical passages.
Stefan Sigfinnsson do you know some artist that play double lips. .Thx
Really annoying to play high C with both hands pushing up on the instrument. That's the problem I have anyway. I tend to slide into single lip somewhere above high G, at least for now.
i think it's harder for me because i have braces
Illustrating the weakness of the argument that "well, EVERYONE does it this way!"
Maybe they do - but that doesn't mean they're all right.
Hi thank you for your video. The problem with the double lip is you are losing some of your effort frequencies from your mouthpiece your deadening the vibration of your mouthpiece.I can hear it maybe you think the lack of the higher frequencies is more desirable. But I try to let my horn sing. I use my mouth like it is a coin purse that is drawn together with a string. Your lips are are shaped like a circle.therefore you should squeeze the muscle like a circle no flat corners. That's how I was originally taught that was wrong. I closed my mouth and a tight circle touching my upper lip on my upper teeth to prevent the deadening of the vibrations that your mouthpiece and Reed are producing. you sound beautiful either way but I think I like the higher frequencies with the regular embouchure
Double lip is part of the clarinet lore. Benny Goodman switched to double lip and I think he sounded better. Richard Stoltzman plays double lip. IMHO the conventional wisdom is that the clarinet is meant to be played single lip. We are not talking about starting over here, after 40 years, and strengthening your embouchure, we are talking about, at tomorrow's rehearsal, and you are first chair, and you have a cadenza, how many lips will you be using.
Ricardo, esa técnica de doble labio está desechada desde hace por lo menos 90 años. Lo que ocurre es que abrimos mas la boca y parece favorecer la calidad del sonido, pero si quieres conseguir eso, solo tienes que pegarle una goma suficientemente gorda a la boquilla y tienes lo mismo sin la tortura del labio superior.
I always thought double lip was normal for the first four years I played
I often wonder why people always turn playing an instrument into "Rocket Science"? I know some really great clarinet players who started playing in a school band and went on to be professional without knowing any of this stuff, strange..... I have my teeth firmly on the mouthpiece as I learnt to play saxophone first and later went to clarinet. I´ve been a professional now for over 30 years and judging by my gig schedule I must be doing something right, or I wouldn´t be getting booked right?
Yeah, you're getting booked with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the MET, right? The fact is, people have been asking Ricardo for years how he does what he does, and he's sharing that. Why is that a problem? Some folks are actually not satisfied with their playing and want to constantly improve. Is that a foreign concept to you?
There's a reason people don't play double lip. This guy didn't convince me.
No difference if you hearing on youtube .
intonition more difficult ...
I use single lip technique all this 45 year my collor and intonition is perfect ! ! !
I think all is about individual perseption about embouchure.
You must ballance every thing when you play clarinet from mouthpiece to the reed .
Mm.. i didnt find the demonstration convincing to be honest.. i'm sure some players can make this work..i have to say i dont know of any players using this technique in the uk..or not to my knowledge anyway..
heretic! : )
J'ai toujours joué avec la technique double lèvre et je me suis toujours fait engueuler par tout le monde , hahahaha !!! C'est ENCORE comme ça que je joue aujourd'hui et je préfère toujours autant cette façon de jouer . Même probablement plus encore !!! Je maîtrise mieux ma sonorité et mon instrument .....
You're not going to find the answer by your own minimally informed experience. You're not going to find it by listening to a single player or teacher. (No matter how awesome.) You need to look at the reality going on among players and start asking yourself questions and looking for answers. Run for your life from rules of thumb and 'explanations' that don't hold up against facts such as the great tone achieved by so many players doing all sorts of things others say "don't do that". Learn how to hunt for essentials, that is, look for what is the common fact among all the different successful techniques.
Double lipped embouchure isn't really the best.
1) It hurts
2) Your range is limited
3) The tone isn't the greatest
SuperDave61164 This list has no justification
To answer your list
1) You're biting
2) You need to build more strength, give it time. If you have to rest on your knee at first, do so.
3) Again, you're biting, and not using enough air support.
Double lip makes you flat
the fact is ...buddy wright is the only reason double lip is even considered today
The FACT is - given the choice of taking the opinion of Ricardo Morales, or 'some guy posting on RUclips' - I'll take his word against yours.
from that example not nearly enough difference to justify basically starting from scratch..life's too short!
@Dan Lipman Saxophone / Flute / Clarinet:
"from that example not nearly enough difference to justify basically starting from scratch . . . "
You really think you can hear it properly via a microphone, upload to RUclips, download to your computer, then going through a tiny amp on a soundcard and finally through your earphones? Get REAL, mate!
When I started playing baritone horn, from scratch, it only took me a matter of weeks to really build up the strength in both lips. "Life's too short", you say? Why? Do you only have six weeks to live?
Bullocks. The best sounding clarinetists play single lip. Stanley Drucker plays single lip.
This guy is decent,,, but not sure about a decent player telling me how to do an embouchure.