Klarinet Archive - Posting 000026.txt from 1996/03

From: Karl Krelove <KClarinet@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Teaching students to play in tune
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 18:33:22 -0500

In a message dated 96-03-02 01:57:21 EST, Tom Labadorf writes:

>...The clarinetist should have a sense
>of going down to meet the pitch. If s/he has to pinch up to meet the pitch
>from the tuner, then pull out. Always think "centered and down" and pay
>particular attention to tone quality.

If s/he has to pinch up, then s/he is flat and needs to push the barrel
in, not out (or did I misunderstand what was being pulled out?). Probably a
typo, unless I misunderstood.
I have an uncomfortable reaction, though, to the notion of "going down to
meet the pitch." Of course, pinching up to meet it isn't good, either. But
how much of the complaining other instrumentalists do about clarinets tending
always to be sharp (already brought up recently here in a different thread)
has some basis in this approach to pitch? A great many clarinetists
(including some international names) sound as though they are tuning this way
all the time. Their attacks sound high and the pitch settles only after the
tone has begun, however quickly. I find it disconcerting to listen to. It's
only a quick thought about something that's always bothered me, and Tom's
comment, which might have been intended to convey something completely
different, struck a nerve.

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org