Klarinet Archive - Posting 000030.txt from 1996/03

From: Tom Labadorf <Labadorf@-----.COM>
Subj:
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 20:57:06 -0500

arl Krelove wrote in response to my original post:
--------
"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. "
---------

Yes, of course, you are quite correct. My mistake. (Writing messages like
this at 1:30 a.m. is a bit risky.) However, the point still stands. I
learned a valuable lesson from my teacher, Stanley Hasty, about focus of
tone. Focus is the correct word since too much tension and too little
tension is not good. As you said yourself, pinching up isn't good, and *that*
is the tendency to avoid. It is my experience that clarinetists will have a
desire to control tone with the embouchure which implies tension - hence
pinching up. That is why you need to think down to meet the pitch, while
(and I repeat) paying particular attention to tone quality.

-----(snip back to Karl's message)
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?

------(snip)
I believe that discussion is about how the performer matches the pitch heard.
i.e. does he conciously "ride" the pitch as I mentioned before or is the
tendency to play high a natural one that is not noticed by the performer? It
is a question of what the performer hears, and how he responds to that pitch.
A question of semantics maybe. My exersize with the tuner is to teach
playing *with* the pitch. Not high nor low.

Without question, tone does have something to do with matching pitch. I have
a theory that pressure on the reed has a greater effect on overtones than on
the fundamental. In other words, when you pinch up on a given note, the
pitch of the upper harmonics of that note rises sharper to more of a degree
than does the fundamental. That is why the issue of focus is so essential.
If there is some study that either confirms or denies my theory, I would
like to know about it.

-----(snip to Karl again)
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.
-----
This does not have as much to do with tone or intonations as it has with a
natural phenomena of the clarinet. Try this with the tuner set on meter.
Attack a note, any note, and watch the meter. It will *always* start sharp
and settle no matter how hard you try to keep it level . . . unless, you move
the air column through the instrument before you attack the note. Only then
will the attack be the same as the sustain.

-----(snip to Karl)
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.
-----

We may not be thinking on the same wave length, but with such a concern, I
felt I had to explain myself. Thank you for questioning it. Hope I was
clear.

Tom Labadorf
Clarinetist, U.S. Coast Guard Band
Labadorf@-----.com

   
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