Klarinet Archive - Posting 000298.txt from 1997/03

From: Karl Krelove <kkrelove@-----.COM>
Subj: Hard/Close (was Re: Breathing on the clarinet)
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 1997 22:43:53 -0500

At 06:11 PM 3/9/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Jaime Love wrote:
>
>>On Fri, 7 Mar 1997, Jonathan Cohler wrote:
>>
>>> This of course relates to efficiency of your setup (and is another reason
>>> why the hard/close setups are not as good as soft/open setups). Any white
>>> noise you have in your sound is wasted air.
>>
>>I am getting a lot of "white noise" in playing softly in the lower
>>register. What can you recommend...?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Jaime
>
>"Hard/Close" is my own cryptic shorthand for a hard reed and a mouthpiece
>with a close facing.
>
>I consider Vandoren V12 4 and harder to be "hard".
>
>I consider any facing with an opening of less than 1.15 mm to be "close".
>
>Hard/Close combinations produce exactly the problem that you are describing.
>
>------------------------
>Jonathan Cohler
>cohler@-----.net
>
At the risk of sounding argumentative, I need to interject at this point
that I use (as do many of the clarinet players here in Philadelphia) a
Gigliotti P facing (around 1mm opening) with VanDoren V12 #4 or 4-1/2. I do
adjust the balance of most of the reeds I play on and am fairly selective
about which ones I actually use. I don't play with white noise at any
dynamic level, nor do any of the good players I know here. I never heard
white noise in Gigliotti's sound in all the years I studied with him. White
noise doesn't need to come from a hard/close setup. Some players who play
on those setups tolerate it because they just like the resistance they get
from a very stiff reed, but that can be gotten from an open facing as well
- just use stiffer reeds. White noise is more likely the result of
unbalanced reeds or reeds that are just too stiff for whatever mouthpiece
they're being used on. It isn't a necessary result of hard/close
combinations if you select/adjust your reeds to be responsive and don't
want the noise to be there.

Just my $.02 worth of point-counterpoint.

Karl