Having just returned from another day of teaching, I have been noticing a couple of the beginner clarinets have the continual problem of blowing the cheeks out when playing. I seem to have sorted this with all but one, who after begin told last week to try not doing so, is still doing it. I know this is something that has to be corrected now, not later, but I can't think what else to suggest.
Has anyone experienced this a lot? Are there any good ways to stop this happening? I suggest looking in a mirror, stopping air going sideways, the obvious things.
Full Version: Puffing Cheeks
Get the child to stuck up on a straw like they are drinking a thick milkshake, then blow out down it - use the analogy to playing the clarinet. I've normally had pupils do this for a couple of lessons and then they stop. Some children never puff their cheeks - not sure why some do and others don't! 
I seemed to have cured one beginner 'cheek puffer' flautist by suggesting she blows into the flute as if she's blowing out a candle-filled birthday cake. 
I've been puffing my cheeks out too - I find it easier to produce sound that way! I'm trying to stop though, before it becomes a habit, but I'm just not always aware of it!
Hmmm... not a teacher myself, and do not play clarinet - so I am not sure of the embouchure, but would it help if I said maybe telling them not to relax their cheeks would help? You may have told them this already, or I may be totally wrong! 
Get them to suck a lemon before playing? 
I know lots of people that puff out their cheeks when playing the clarinet. I have tried many a time to tell them this is something they shouldn't do, but, they think they know best 
QUOTE(neil.clarinet @ Nov 14 2006, 06:13 PM) 
Having just returned from another day of teaching, I have been noticing a couple of the beginner clarinets have the continual problem of blowing the cheeks out when playing. I seem to have sorted this with all but one, who after begin told last week to try not doing so, is still doing it. I know this is something that has to be corrected now, not later, but I can't think what else to suggest.
Has anyone experienced this a lot? Are there any good ways to stop this happening? I suggest looking in a mirror, stopping air going sideways, the obvious things.
I have inherited 'cheek-puffing' pupils before Neil. It's, in my experience, far, far more common with single-reed players than with flautists. It is all allied to correct breathing technique - and Appassionata and Andante have pretty much beaten me to it with good cures - my ideas are very, very similar, only adding that the mirror is, as you say, a very useful tool.
We have a lady in our wind band who resembles a hamster when she plays. I have never heard her play individually so have no idea what she sounds like as she sits too far away to distinguish her sound from every one elses but I'm told she has done Gr 8!
I always tell my 'cheek puffers' to iagine chewing the inside fo their cheeks...................also tell them to try and smile when they are playing. It's hard to puff cheeks and smile!!!!
QUOTE(neil.clarinet @ Nov 14 2006, 06:13 PM)
Having just returned from another day of teaching, I have been noticing a couple of the beginner clarinets have the continual problem of blowing the cheeks out when playing. I seem to have sorted this with all but one, who after begin told last week to try not doing so, is still doing it. I know this is something that has to be corrected now, not later, but I can't think what else to suggest.
Save this image of Dizzy Gillespie and ask them if they want to look like this when they grow up. You don't have to tell them he was a great player!
http://www.jazzvisionsphotos.com/contact/diz-blowing.htm
QUOTE(andante_in_c @ Nov 14 2006, 07:35 PM)
I seemed to have cured one beginner 'cheek puffer' flautist by suggesting she blows into the flute as if she's blowing out a candle-filled birthday cake.
My daughter and I have tried to play with puffed cheeks and can't do it!
Beverley.
QUOTE(anacrusis @ Nov 14 2006, 11:10 PM)
Get them to suck a lemon before playing?
does it actually work?
Might do interestng things to the clarinet.....
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