Klarinet Archive - Posting 000264.txt from 1996/07

From: Daniel Abramovich <dabramov@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Lips
Date: Sat, 13 Jul 1996 17:55:25 -0400

Though I admit I am almost certainly as unauthoritative source as
possible, I do indeed play bass clarinet with a single lip. I must admit
that this is as much out of ignorance as of style. I am in the Wind
Ensemble at Tufts University and they needed a bass clarinet player. I
"voluteered" on a temporary basis thinking it would be a fun change and
got the job (it seems) permanatly. Our director is a trumpet player and
of course our last bass clarinet player graduated, so I kind of combined
what I knew from playing b flat clarinet and sax. Though there was quite
a bit of adjustment I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. However,
as I said I'm doing this all on instinct. Are there definate advantages
to playing double lip on a bass clarinet? Especially with the upper
register? I've experimetned (briefly) with double lip on b flat and never
got passed the initial awkwardness.

As long as I'm coming out of my lurk here's some other stuff I'll throw
out.. When I was three(?) I managed to slice my bottom lip open with a
carrot peeler. There is a scar with apprximates a lump in the middle -
top portion of my bottom lip. I've always suspected that this was a
detriment to my playing at least in the fact that my bottom teeth tend to
bite into my bottome lip underneath the scar (I may be placing my teeth
lower as the don't comfortably lie flat against the scar tissue). Ideas?
Thoughts short of plastic surgery? (I'm not turning pro any time soon :)

Lastly, as I mentioned I am now playing bass clarinet and apparently will
be for the next two years (unless some one show up who actually play bass
clarinet). The only advice the outgoing bass clarinet player told me was
get a new mouthpiece. I am playing on a school instument with a school
mouth piece. THe instrument is supposedly passable (it's in good
condition at least) and I'm certainly not going to buy a new instrument
anyway. However if someone could suggest some models of decent bass
clarinet mouthpieces out there I'd appreciate it. I'm not sure I need the
best of the best but I *am* going to be playing it for a year or two..

Thanks..

On Sat, 13 Jul 1996, Roger Shilcock wrote:

> Does anyone play single-lip on the *bass* clarinet? I found the buzz
> through my teeth was more than I could bear, especially after I had my
> front upper teeth crowned, but maybe I should never have started off that
> way. If you have any transient tooth or gum problem, double-lip is more
> comfortable on any clarinet, though it can feel as if the instrument is
> falling out of your mouth after a long spell of playing. The point about
> the perception of one's own sound seems a good one - it means you get
> less feedback about your sound in bad playing acoustics, though; this may
> not mean bad *listening* acoustics for the audience, of course.
> Something quite different - has anyone views on the usefulness of
> electronic tuners? What features on such a device would be the most useful?
> Roger Shilcock
>

/// Daniel Jay Abramovich dabramov@-----.edu
. . Residential Computer Consultant @-----.edu
| http://www.tufts.edu/~dabramov @-----.edu