Klarinet Archive - Posting 000279.txt from 1994/04

From: Clark W Fobes <reedman@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Reed Physics
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 1994 02:21:20 -0400

In reply to David Ressler's plea for more information on reed Physics I
have the following to offer:

Disregard the information you have already listed. It is mainly BS
and , as you say, full of contradictions.

The best pamhlet I have read on no nonsense reed adjustment
is "The Reed Guide" by George T. Kirk (P.O. Box 1217, Westbrook, ME
04092)

As a physicist I am surprised that Mr. Ressler has not rooted
around in the library to discover the many articles in the "Journal of
the Acoustical Society of America~r. There are several articles written
by very prominent acousticians, particularly John Backus and Arthur Benade.
Both of these fellows were amateur clarinettists.

Benade wrote an excellent book on musical acoustics entitled,

"Fundamentals of Musical acoustics". This has been an excellent
resource for me due to the t{fact that this was used as a text book by
Benade for music students. It is very thorough and gets jusr technical
enough woithout requiring a lot of advanced math.

(Plt(ease excuse my spelling, my network is acting up right now!)

My best advice? Find a teacher you trust, have him/her check that
you are playing on a good mouthpiece. If you are truly playing just for
the love of it, you should not be getting so hung up on reeds. I made my
own reeds for about 3 years and was extremely meticulous about making
them and measuring them. 20 years later I slap a V-12 on and away I go. I
do very little to a reed except perhaps a little burnishing. Life is too
short!

If you are not playing on a good mouthiece that is not warped,
then you will never have a good reed. I find that a lot of people that
complain about reeds ignore the possibility that they may be using an
acoustically inefficient mouthpiece. It may have been made by the great

"Master of Rubber Magic" himself, but if it ain't got that rang
it don't mean a thang!!!!

Sleep Well !

Clark W Fobes reedman@-----.com