My daughters clarinet & her teeth.?

My daughter is missing her teeth beside her front ones and here eye teeth are in that place.. they are pretty sharp and she plays clarinet. But you have to put your lip over your teeth and she says her two eye teeth cut her lip and it looks painful. She is only 11 and will be getting braces soon enough. What should we do for now?

My daughters clarinet %26amp; her teeth.?
Only the bottom lip goes over the bottom teeth, the top teeth rest directly on the mouthpiece. If it's the bottom of her mouth that she is having problems with it shouldn't take long for her to build up callouses on her lip.
Reply:would it help to move the reed?
Reply:I've been playing clarinet for about 4 years. At the beginning I did what your daughter did and put my lips over my teeth and played like that.





I found out, some 3 years later that your not supposed to play like that. You're supposed to put your teeth directed onto the mouthpiece (bite down on it as you play). Teach your daughter to play like that, it's the proper way, and it won't hurt her lip.
Reply:There are several solutions, all of them will require some amount of adjustment on her part.


The most common solution for students with braces is to get some wax from the orthodontist. This can be spread over the braces to avoid cutting into the lip. There are also small plastic things that act as a cover for the teeth while playing.


If you go with one of those two options, make sure to remind your daughter that it will affect her sound temporarily, but she will be able to overcome the obstacle.


Another option is to deal with the equipment she is using. You might enlist the help of a good clarinet teacher. When playing the clarinet, you really don't need that much pressure on the mouthpiece, and it should not hurt to play. If your daughter feels like she needs to "pinch" to get a sound out of her horn, try a better reed. Some people might say softer, but that is not the answer. Her tone quality would suffer. I reccommend Vandoren reeds. Make sure it's a good quality reed in good shape, and she should never need to apply that mich pressure on the mouthpiece. Good luck!



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