Brought to you this hour by

Advertising and Web Hosting on Woodwind.Org!

Klarinet Archive - Posting 000013.txt from 1995/10

From: Lisa Clayton <clayton@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: A clarinet by any other name is not the same??
Date: Mon, 2 Oct 1995 14:00:13 -0400

> Sean made some statements that brought some questions to mind which I hope
> haven't been discussed at length yet. He mentioned some bass players being
> able to play bass that sounded like a soprano; what do you bass players try
> to sound like?

Being an amatuer, I usually try to sound like in tune. ;-)

Actually, I *don't* necessarily want to sound like a soprano. The
lowest registers on the bass have a nice growl to them that is just
plain muddy on a soprano. The upper register, including the altissimo,
have a more "plaintive" (and sorry for such a subjective word, I'm
trying to figure out a better one) than the soprano, within the
same range AND fingering. Perhaps it is because the upper ranges on the bass
seem to have less overtones than a soprano in that range, or because the
lower tone is less brilliant within the same fingerings.

However, I'm trying to explain something that I don't really understand.
All I *can* really say, based on my experience, is that I tend to play
the bass clarinet "meaner"-- more growls, more whininess in the upper
tones. On the soprano, I try to have purer, cleaner sounds, ones that
are "prettier" (again, a subjective, sorry) to me. Of course, all
this depends on the music. I should add I mainly use my soprano for
Dixieland/swing music and my bass is used more with classical and bebob
music, so the approaches are so different.

Anyway, this question is an interesting one-- there are going to be
different answers for each bass player on here, I bet.

____ Lisa K. Canjura-Clayton The obligatory homepage:
/ clayton@-----.edu/~clayton
/ Band=Life COMING SOON: Virtual Barstow!
"There is nothing more onanistic than playing the bass clarinet by yourself"
-Steve Trier