Klarinet Archive - Posting 000727.txt from 1997/09

From: SGordon688@-----.com
Subj: Let us settle this mouthpiece question
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 1997 13:34:41 -0400

The mouthpiece swabbing question is similar to many others concerning the
"science" of owning/playing a clarinet that have been addressed on the list.
Interestingly, answers to these questions often boil down to the experiences
(idiosyncrasies?) of our revered teachers, past and present. This makes
sense for subjective questions concerning musical interpretation etc. But it
does not make sense for questions such as whether or not to swab your
mouthpiece.

I believe it would be valuable (and fun) to try to settle this question and
propose the following single blinded study:

A high level clarinet technician who has the expertise to accurately measure
mouthpieces needs to volunteer his/her time to perform measurements.

A supplier will need to lend 10 mouthpieces for the study.

The mouthpieces will initially be sent to our technician, who will take an
average of several measurements of each mouthpiece.

The mouthpieces are then sent to me (no measurements attached).

My daughter, Allegra, whose only reward will be name recognition in the
clarinet world early in her clarinet career (she just started clarinet one
month ago) will randomly choose two mouthpieces. She will pull a silk swab
through one mouthpiece and a cotton swab through another 5000 times
(equivalent to swabbing more than once daily for 10 years). - the
mouthpieces, of course need an identifying mark.

I will then send the mouthpieces back to the technician for remeasurement
without informing him/her of which 2 mouthpieces were swabbed.

The numbers will then be sent to a statistician (list member or perhaps
spouse) who will come up with p values for whether differences are
significant or not.

The results will then be presented with great fanfare to the list (and
perhaps published in The Clarinet?

What does everyone think?

Needed:
Volunteer to temporarily donate 10 mouthpieces, identical brand, hard rubber.
Volunteer clarinet technician to donate time and expertise.
If one of the supply houses would be willing to supply 2 free cotton swabs
and 2 silk swabs, it would be greatly appreciated.
Volunteer statistician to crunch the numbers (and also to provide input on
study design - eg., is 10 a good number?)
Input (serious - no jokes) from teachers/perfomers on list concerning other
aspects of study design, eg., is it necessary to dip the mouthpiece in water
between each swabbing to more approximate real conditions? Is this a fair 10
year approximation? Is 10 years a reasonable goal or do people think a
mouthpiece should last 30 years?

Thanks in advance

Steve Gordon, M.D.
Beaverton, OR