Academic Major: Music Performance: Clarinet
Title: Visualizing the Clarinet Embouchure
The clarinet is kinesthetically difficult to grasp. My project aims to accelerate clarinet students' learning by allowing them to visualize the embouchure. Proper embouchure requires many muscles working at once to create a seal on a clarinet mouthpiece. As a Clarinet Performance Major, I have many questions about how my embouchure should feel and look. By measuring and categorizing an expansive array of players with differing skill levels, this project will create a large data set that will be useful for many pedagogues and students around the world to visualize their technique in a way that was not possible before.
The approach is to create a tool that will measure lip pressure around the circumference of a clarinet mouthpiece. By attaching very small pressure sensors around a clarinet mouthpiece, I will be able to create a visual model of a player's embouchure. I will compare the spread of pressure to see which embouchure is the most ideal for a clarinet player to have. There are many factors that influence a player's embouchure such as mouth shape, lip fullness, reed hardness, tooth alignment, and mouthpiece construction (Chamber, Bore and Facing).
The data for this project will be collected first amongst my peers here at The Crane School of Music including the Clarinet Faculty here at the school. I also plan on collecting data from grades 5-12 students that will help reveal the differences between experts and novices. Along with the data I will collect, a survey will be given to collect demographic information on the participants where they will also be able to list any notable variations in their playing that may be unique to them This project will require me to learn how to place sensors on a mouthpiece in a way that gives me an accurate data set. I will need to learn how to wire electronics and code to create a program capable of collecting the data.
I plan to present this information to my peers in studio class, apply to present at NYSSMA, and submit my findings to the ICA Research Competition once my project is complete.