Klarinet Archive - Posting 000046.txt from 1996/10

From: Roger Shilcock
Subj: Re: odd comment (acoustics) (fwd)
Date: Thu, 3 Oct 1996 04:29:04 -0400

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 1996 10:13:30 -0400
From: Jonathan Cohler <cohler%SHORE.NET@-----.UK>
Subject: Re: odd comment (acoustics)

Gary,

This is a big problem with many clarinet players and underscores why hard
reeds and close mouthpieces are not a good combination.

First, the myth that the "air rushing noises" will only be heard from 10
feet away is not true. In any decent concert hall, they will be heard from
the front or the back of the hall. It is true, however, that in most
orchestral environments, those noises (basically white noise) will be
masked by the sound of other instruments in the orchestra playing
simultaneously.

That's why many orchestral players "get away" with playing with such a
noisy inefficient sound. Play a solo sonata or piece of chamber music, and
you can forget about it, however. Everyone will hear the air noise.

The best set up to play on is one which is optimally efficient. In other
words, for the least effort in blowing and in embouchure muscles one
achieves the most sound. This can be achieved only with a relatively light
reed, and a relatively open mouthpiece (the more open the mouthpiece, the
greater the range of control one has over the sound, because the reed has
greater room to travel before hitting the mouthpiece).

A "pure", "ringing" sound, can be defined objectively as one in which there
is very little non-harmonic content, and natural clarinet overtone peaks
are well defined. When you have a sound with lots of air rushing/reed
noise, there is lots of non-harmonic content at virtually all frequencies.

Some people mistakenly think this makes their sound "darker". As I have
pointed out in previous messages, the "darkness" of a clarinet, or any wind
instrument for that matter, is basically determined by cutoff frequency.
Fuzzy reeds/mouthpieces are not dark, they are just fuzzy.

Furthermore, because they require so much energy on the part of the player
to produce so little real sound, players on these setups have very limited
breath capabilities. In other words, they can't go very long without a
breath, and they can't play very loud or very soft (lots of mezzo forte,
though).

----------------------
Jonathan Cohler
cohler@-----.net

At 11:27 AM 10/1/96, Gary Van Cott wrote:
> It raises the question
> about extraneous clarinet noises (reed buzzes, soft undertones,
> air sounds, key clicks, etc.) and how much we should be
> concerned about them.
>
> I find that when I have a harder (for me) reed on the
> instrument, I have annoying air rushing noises on the lower
> register, C, C#, etc. Should I be concerned or figure no one
> will ever hear them unless they are within 10 feet of me when I
> am playing alone?
>
> Gary Van Cott
> Las Vegas, NV
> Gary_VanCott@-----.com

I wouldn't want to contradict Jonathan C., who is much more experienced
than I am. However, an advantage of using a hard reed seems to me to be
that adjustment of intonation is much easier - it's easier to hit the
right degree of adjustment because less physical movement is needed.
If Gary changes to a hard reed using the *same mouthpiece*, then he has a
fair chance of having air noise, shortness of breath, restricted dynamic
range, etc., etc. I would be interested to know what players in the States
consider to be a hard reed. Various contributors to this list have
reported playing on strength "4" or "5" reeds as a maatter of course -
over here, they would be considered as ultra-hard reeds. As an aside,
I've been trying to get to grips with a "4" currently, which gives a
considerable tonal improvement compared with the previous reed I was
using, but takes rather too much effort on the B flat or the A; however,
it was amazingly easy to blow on a Noblet C.
(I don't know anything about the mouthpiece which was on it, though). I
haven't been getting air noise - presumably the (Hite) mouthpiece I
usually use is reasonably compatible with a hard (?) reed.
Roger Shilcock