Klarinet Archive - Posting 000274.txt from 1998/01

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Mouthpiece Curvature/Tip Closing
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 08:19:18 -0500

Mea Culpa Mea Culpa

Roger Garrett
IWU

On Mon, 5 Jan 1998, Lane G White wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, 5 Jan 1998 20:27:46 -0600 (CST) Roger Garrett
> <rgarrett@-----.edu> writes:
>
> >Another thing.....I have an old Kasper that does not have the exact
> >same
> >curve on each rail....and this test has never worked....even for an
> >absolutely flat reed.....but the mouthpiece still plays great.
>
> I would "argue" :-) that your embouchure is compensating for the
> difference in this case. The elasticity of your lips would tend to push
> both sides of the reed to an equal distance from the rails.
>
> Just to trot out my own "expert" in this matter; I was recently reading
> "The Art of Saxophone Playing" (are those hisses I'm hearing?) by Larry
> Teal. He cites an April, 1941 article in "The Journal of the Acoustical
> Society of America" who "succeeded in photographing the time and motion
> of a single reed while in the process of tone production." Teal says the
> reed "forms an air tight seal during half of the time of each vibrating
> cycle"
>
> I really have no trouble believing this. The amount of back-pressure
> present when properly playing a clarinet, especially with a firm reed,
> compared with the ease one can blow air through the mouthpiece/reed with
> the reed relaxed or even slightly tensed would indicated air stoppage
> during the cycle. We just don't perceive the stoppage as such because of
> the speed involved.
>
> A demonstration, also from the Teal book, might also give food for
> thought. He asks the reader to take a saxophone neck, turn it upside down
> relative to the mouthpiece, then play a tone with a piece of tissue paper
> over the end. Surprisingly, the paper doesn't blow off when playing as it
> would if you blew through it. It floats above the opening. According to
> Teal, the air column has very little force when playing, and the sound
> waves are what suspends the paper.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> This account is primarily for use with the klarinet newsgroup.
> send urgent e-mail to garysmith@-----.com
>