Klarinet Archive - Posting 000300.txt from 1997/11

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Leblanc Throat mechanism
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 09:25:24 -0500

On Thu, 6 Nov 1997, ROBERT HOWE wrote:

> Roger Garrett wrote:
> > My throat Bb sounds as good as any other note on the horn....I just use
> > the appropriate color fingering and voice the note correctly.
>
> If the horn was built right, you would not have spent years learning how
> to make that Bb sound as good as any other note on the horn. You would
> just put down two fingers and there it would be!! My own R13 has a
> tolerable Bb, but it would be much much better without that damn tube in
> the bore, or if it were vented in the right location, all of which is a
> nickle and dime mechanical fix.
>
> Compromises *oui*, ridiculously out of color, out of strength notes
> *non*.

No offense meant here, but, if I read this correctly, you are saying that
no notes should need to be voiced or colored? Please forgive me for
thinking that perhaps you are not very advanced.....or, perhaps, you just
don't listen very carefully. No instrument built on the planet, including
the best string instruments, have perfect scales or perfect voicing on
every note. You add the SK mechanism to a horn....and solve one problem
but create others. Your posting assumes that it is the mechanism....I
assert that the length of the tube between the mouthpiece and the tone
holes that are commonly referred to as "throat tones" sound like the sound
because of the shortness of the clarinet at the point which those tones
sound. THAT is why we use color fingerings and learn to voice. The high
C will either be bright or slightly out of tune with the C below
it......that is why we learn to voice.....it is an integral part of
playing the clarinet, just as pressure, speed, location on the string are
all inherent in learning to draw a bow.

Your response, while probably quite sincere, is simply to simple and
elementary.

Roger Garrett