Klarinet Archive - Posting 000452.txt from 1996/05
From: Frank Madison <frankm2@-----.COM>
Subj: The Bridge, From Concept to Equipment
Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 12:09:11 -0400
Howdy! Partner...
Well now that you know what you want to sound like or don't want to
sound like we can go to the next step.
The tools of our trade have their own personalities and we need a way
to evalute them to see if they are what we need to match our (your)
Tonal Concept.
Here is the Formula.
1. You should have selected your favorite Tonal samples from your tapes
and have them handy.
2. Now record yourself with your current Clarinet setup playing a 30
measure exerpt on a cassette tape.
3. Take note of what mouthpiece, Ligature and reed you are using for
this recording. Make a note on the cassette with this information.
Now here are some ground rules to do this.
It would be ideal for you to record yourself using your computer and
saving your clarinet sound as a wav or au file. The playback on a
computer is digital as good as any classical cd. But if you don't have
a sound card on your computer then use a good casstte recorder. Always
remember to lable the wav file or cassette with the information about
what setup you were using. Reed, Mouthpiece, Ligature.
Make sure while you make any recording that you are in good health and
you are not under some cold or flu. Because when you are sick as you
know your nasal cavity becomes filled with lovely mucus. This shrinks
the size of your nasal cavity. Your nasal cavity acts as a resonace
chamber and influnces your clarinet tone. Ever played when you had a
cold you sound different than when you are in good health without mucus
inside your nasal cavity.
After listening to your recording you should compare it to those tonal
samples that you like and hear what sounds simlar or different. Now for
a quick experiment go to your cassette player or computer and play your
sample. Immediately step back about 20 feet if you can and you will
notice that your recording sounds better. With technology we can
finally do what we always wanted to do. That is to hear what we sound
like to others. I always noticed that other clarinet players sounded
better when they were inside a practice room or at a distance. I don't
hear the hissing or the airy sound.
If you are using your computer for your playback you are getting the
most realistic playback of what you sound like.
Now here are some distressing news, when you are ready to try out a new
mouthpiece, ligature or reed you should avoid this trap. It takes at
least 3-4 days of Regular playing before you really acclimate to the
new piece of equiptment. If you don't wait you will get a false
sense(False Positive) of the tone quality of the mouthpiece. This also
applies to the ligature and reed and clarinet. Your body needs time to
adjust to the new nuances created by a new mouthpiece with different
dimentions and blowing tendecies.
Bottom line for every change in your setup you must take 3-4 days to
get used to it. If you change a ligature wait 3-4 days, if you add a
mouthpiece teeth guard for the top of the moutpiece wait 3-4 days.
Think of your mouthpiece as a bassoon reed that the top and the bottom
of the bassoon reed vibrate when played. Your mouthpiece vibrates along
with the ligature and clarinet. If you add a teeth guard on top of the
mouthpiece it will change the tone quality that is generated.
Now lets say that you bought 3 mouthpieces and you want to check them
out, you take the first one and play it 3-4 days then record yourself
on the cassette or computer and make a note of the set up. Then goto
the next mouthpiece and do the same thing of 3-4 days then at the end
again record. After 12 days you should have 3 tonal samples of each of
the mouthpieces.Make sure that the only thing you changed was the
mouthpiece only. Try not to change the reed or ligature and clarinet
make one chage at a time per 3-4 days.
This may sound tedious but it is the logical way of trying out
equiptment to see if it produces what you want to sound like.With a
database of samples of what you sound like with certain equiptment you
are closer to what you are trying to accomplish. I giggle everytime I
see someone try out a mouthpiece and say wow this is great only the see
them a week later complaining and crying out, what happened!!!( by the
way that was me a long time ago. Hehehehe).
Well that's all the time we have for now, tune in next time...for
Mouthpieces the Final Frontier....
