Klarinet Archive - Posting 000458.txt from 1996/11

From: Roger Shilcock
Subj: Reed on top (fwd)
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 15:55:33 -0500

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 12:18:27 -0800
From: Lisa Gartrell Yeo <ux403%freenet.victoria.bc.ca@-----.UK>
Subject: Reed on top

I thought that articulation was achieved with the throat or
diaphragm somehow rather than the tongue when the reed is "on top."

Lisa Gartrell Yeo

I suspect that what is required is a long, narrow mouthpiece, with a
long lay and a long window, and a hard reed with a long scrape; lots of
reed would go in the mouth. This is just deduction plus speculation, however.
One of the reasons for the difficulty in playing reed-on-top on a modern
instrument is the way a modern mouthpiece fills up the mouth orifice so
there is no room to tongue - and the slope is then on the bottom of the
mouthpiece, which doesn't help.
Roger Shilcock