Klarinet Archive - Posting 000628.txt from 1995/06

From: "Sydney R. Polk" <jazzman@-----.NET>
Subj: Starting on sax vs clarinet
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 1995 13:21:40 -0400

I started on sax, and learned flute and clarinet later. My experience
is that embouchure is by far the hardest thing to develop on any instrument.
Clarinet requires a tighter embouchure, in general, than saxophone.
Flute is completely different. Another barrier to learning flute
is the amount of air it requires.

>From what I have seen, clarinet players that switch to saxophone play
alto sax fairly well, but really struggle on the bigger tenor and
bari. It seems to be difficult to loosen the embouchure enough for
bari if you are a clarinet player.

I would still say starting on clarinet is easier, but if the kid is about
to quit music unless he plays saxophone, let him play sax. If he
is serious, he will have to learn clarinet anyway.

On another related note, most of my favorite bass clarinet players
started on saxophone (at least the ones I have met). I really love
playing bass clarinet, and feel that I have an affinity for it.
I seem to have developed a rather different embouchure on clarinet
and bass clarinet than is usually recommended, but at least on bass
it appears to work for me. I play open mouthpieces with relatively
soft reeds on all of my reed instruments, and I like the sound this
gets on bass.

Syd Polk