Klarinet Archive - Posting 000698.txt from 1995/12

From: Douglas Sears <dsears@-----.ORG>
Subj: Re: Re Tammi Spencer's comment on uniformity
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 13:28:05 -0500

On Thu, 21 Dec 1995, Bill Page wrote:

> recommended (not insisted) that all of us use VanDoren 2RV mouthpieces with
> number two-and-a-half reeds. His argument was not one of sound, so much as
> it was of more efficient learning. He believed that with rented student
> clarinets of varying quality, the use of a more professional level mouthpiece
> with standard reeds would make it easier to learn to get a good sound.

I think there is an incorrect assumption involved in that argument: that
a good mouthpiece is a good mouthpiece, independent of the clarinet.
In fact, mouthpieces and barrels must be matched to the clarinet. All good
clarinets use variations in the bore diameter to affect the tuning, so that
an enlargement of the bore in one place will affect the pitch of a small
range of notes, and differently in different registers. This is also true
of the bore in the barrel and mouthpiece regions, and since different models
of clarinet are tapered differently, the same mouthpiece can make one model
of clarinet play in tune, and another model not so well in tune. I think
this effect is greater than the smaller (but not negligible) effects of
variations from one clarinet to the next within a model line, and variations
from one person's mouth to the next (which can be compensated for with
practice).

--Doug

-----------------
Doug Sears dsears@-----.org (541)343-8943

   
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