W.OOD\OIND NOTESSTRATEGIES FOR TEACrIIIUG

TIIE BASSOON EMBOfICIil.}REBy MICHAEL BURNS

This article is aimed at giving a fewsuggestions and strategies for teachingthe bassoon embouchure that I havelearned over the past several years ofteaching at the University level.

First, as with many of the woodwindinstruments, there have been changesand adaptations on what is consideredto the "norm" in embouchures on thebassoon. l will outline my own beliefs,which may or may not be the beliefs ofother bassoonists.

For a great many years i t wasthought that the bassoonist should cul-tivate a pronounced overbite (i.e. thelower jaw is noticeable further back thanthe upper jaw.) | do not advocate thistype of embouchure and the vast major-ity of professional players and teachersthat I know also do not.

Instead, we advocate a rather neu-tral lower jaw position with teeth alignedsuch that the lower teeth are only slightlybehind the upper, forming what lwil l calla "natural bite." The jaws wil l be opensomewhat to accommodate the reed butkeeping this natural and neutral position-ing. The lips are going to be coveringthe teeth and therefore need to be rolled-in s l ight ly, but not too much. Thereshould be some "pink" of the l ips show-ing - particularly on the lower l ip. A com-mon error in bassoon embouchures is tohave the lips - particularly the lower lip -- rolled in too much. The lips form a cush-ion for the blades of the reed and thecorners of the lips need to come inwardin a nice rounded shape. The essentialpurpose for the embouchure is to sealaround the reed. I have found two won-derful descriptions as analogies for theembouchure shape that work well withmy students, as they are shapes thatmost or all people already know:

1. The Drinking Straw Embou-chure. The shape our l ips makewhen we seal around a drinkingstraw is almost perfectforthe bas-soon embouchure: Round withjust a l itt le roll- in of the l ips orpucker, and relaxed. Of course,we wil l be blowing into a reedrather than drinking in a l iquid.

2. The Whistle Embouchure. Theother good analogy is the shapethatyour mouth makes when youwhistle. Again it is a round, Puck-ered, relaxed shape. Not every-one can whistle but they usually

MICHAELBURNS

understand the shape you wouldmake if you did.

Usually one or the other of theseanalogies wil l strike a chord with the stu-dent and help have them producing thecorrect type of shape for the embou-chure. Now it must be monitored to seehow much lip is rolled in and to ensurethat the student is not "biting" the reed.Biting is usually caused by too much ver-tical pressure from the upper and lowerjaws, often also accompanied by an over-tightening of the l ip muscles. This resultsin a more pinched tone, sharper pitch,and more embouchure fatigue for theplayer. Instead they need to concentrateon the roundness, making the l ips applyeven pressure from all points but concen-trating on the corners or sides so that thevertical is not exaggerated. Another anal-ogy that is used for many woodwind in-struments to combat biting is to describethe l ips as being l ike a "draw-string bag."

Additionally, I advocate developinga somewhat relaxed embouchure and de-veloping greater use of, and control with,the abdominal muscles and the supportmechanism (this was described in anearlier afticle I wrote on breathing.)

I would l ike to finish this article bygiving you two embouchure related ex-ercises that I employ frequently when giv-ing clinics and masterclasses:

1. Playing on the wrap of the reed.This is an exercise to i l lustrateand determine how much of anote's pitch is controlled by theairstream as opposed to the em-bouchure. Again, I advocatethatthe embouchure be relaxed andthat most of the pitch should beheld up by the air support. Theexercise is this:. Have the student play a C in

the bass clef staff (three fin-gers of the left hand and thewhisper key) with a full soundand good support.

. Next, have them move theirlips up over the wrap of thereed being careful to not jabthemselves with the reedwires! Now, have them try toplay the C again. l f theirbreath support is sufficientthen a C wil l come out (with asomewhat raucous tone butstill a C). However, it is quiteoossible that a C-flat or B-natural wil l come out instead.The student then needs to beencouraged to use more andmore air support and air pres-sure to try and get this noteup to the desired C. lf theycan easi[ obtain a C with theirnormal embouchure but can-not obtain one when playingon the wrap of the reed thisusually indicates to me thatthey are controll ing the pitchtoo much with l ip tension andnot enough with the abdomi-nal supporl.

The "Dying Cow" This exercisegets its name from the soundsthat may be made while doing itresembl ing a cow in distress!Similarly, the exercise is basedaround playing the C in the staffand is oerformed as follows:. Play the C normally with a full

sound and good support.. Next, have them relax both

their embouchure and their ab-dominal support but keepblowing. They should be ableto get the note to drop down tothe C-flat or B-natural with arather ugly sound (the dyingcow). lf they cannot get thepitch to drop despite relaxingtheir embouchure and suppoftas much as they can it is highlylikely that their lip muscles arestilltoo tight, or, perhaps thereis an issue with the reed.

. Assuming that they are suc-cessful jn getting the pitch todrop, then have them try toraise the note uo to the cor-rect pitch by adding in suffi-cient abdominal support NOTby t ightening the embou-chure. I wil l frequently teachthem right from wrong by do-ing this exercise as describedand comparing it to a delib-erately pinching with the l ipsto get the note back up topitch. This waythey can iden-tify if they are slipping into theincorrect way of supportingthe pitch (i.e. using a tight em-

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22 NORTH CAROLINA MUSIC EDUCATOR/Spring 2004

bouchure and biting it up), orif they are doing the way I ad-vocate - using a relaxed em-bouchure and increased airsuppon.

I hope that some of the above strat-egies prove use{ul in getting your bas-soon students to play with a good em-bouchure. As with all aspects of playing,I believe it is always best if they can dothis under the guidance of a bassoonspecialist and they should be encouragedto take private lessons if possible.

lf you would like to submit an articlefor publication in Woodwind Notesp/easecontact Michael Burns at the followingaddress: Dr. Michael Burns, AssocrafeProfessor of Bassoon, School of Music,University of North Carolina at Greens-boro, P. O. Box 26170, Greensboro, NC27402-61 70; (336)ffia-5970; e-mail :mjburns@uncg.edu

PERCUSSION IN NORTH CAROLINA (continued)

performance site with the exact same in-struments you wil l be uslng for your re-cital. Your brain gets accustomed to cer-tain stimuli such as the room lighting, tem-perature, acoustics, ambience, and ex-traneous noises. Even though you mayknow your piece "backwards and for-wards," your brain can often becomeconfused when suddenly put into astrange pedorming environment. Percus-sionists in particular have this problemwhen performing on "strange" instru-ments. Even subtle differences in drum-head tension and tone, keyboard size,bar colors, etc. can confuse even the fin-est percussionist. Practice as often asyou can in the performance hall with ex-actly the same lighting, instruments, mal-lets, stage set up, room temperature andambience that you wil l encounter duringyour solo performance.

Good luck and happy practicing!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Mario Gaetano is currentlya Professor of Music at WesternCarolina University, and is currentlypr incipal percussionist of theAshevil le Symphony.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Burns (bassoon) is As-sociate Professor of bassoon at theUniversi ty of North Carol ina atGreensboro, and is a Yamaha per-forming Art ist . He holds the B.M.degree from the Victoria University ofWellington, New Zealand, the M.M.from the New England Conservatory,and the D.M.A. from the University ofCincinnati College-Conservatory ofMusic. Burns has performed in nu-merous professional orchestras in-cluding the Cincinnati and the NewZealand Symphony Orchestras andplayed Pr incipal in the Midland/Odessa, Richmond and Abi leneSymphonies, and the Cincinnat iChamber Orchestra. Currenily heis in demand as a performer wi ththe North Carol ina, Char leston,Greensboro, and Charlot te Sym-phony Orchestras. He is also bas-soonist in the Easfuzrnd Ensembleand the Cascade Quintet. Burnshas taught at the Cincinnat i Col-lege-Conservatory, Indiana StateUniversi ty, and Midland Col lege. Inaddition he remains active as a soloand chamber performer wi th nu-merous performances at Interna-tional Double Reed Society conven-t ions, reci ta ls and masterclasses

throughout North America and theSouth Pacific, and at several lead-ing Universit ies and Conservatoriesinternationally. He has recorded forthe Centaur, CAP, Telarc, EMl,Klavier, and Mark labels. In sum-mer, Burns is associated with theEastern Music Fest ival and theBands of America Summer Sympo-sium. He is also an act ive com-poser with many of his pieces be-ing publ ished by BOCAL Music andfrequent ly performed throughoutthe country. Burns has publ ishedarticles and reviews in the Doubler9eed ( the journal of the Interna-t ional Double Reed Society) , theTBA Journal (Texas Bandmasters'Association), the NC Music Edu-cator for which he serves as Wood-wind Notes Editor, Nofes (the jour-nal of the Music Library Association)and on the Yamaha Educator Seriesonl ine < ht tp: / /www.gi les.com/ed u catorforu m/P DFs/b n o/Wind/t ips/Burns.pdf>. His mentors in-c lude Wil l iam Winstead, ShermanWalt, Leonard Sharrow, and ColinHemmingsen. He is archivist for theInternational Double Reed Societyand was co-host for the IDRS 2003Conference in Greensboro, NC.

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