Klarinet Archive - Posting 000542.txt from 1998/03

From: david rothbaum <dmr@-----.com>
Subj: reed dilemma
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 1998 23:27:45 -0500

since there has been an ongoing discussion of reeds lately ive lost my
inhibition to ask a reed question as i was fearful it might be to
rudimentary to post. anyway here goes.

i have been using v12 4/5s for some time now. and for the most part im
able to produce an acceptable tone, however there are a number of
problems. 1 being i am working very hard via my embouchure. 2) b an c
right at the break are very difficult to produce particularly b and when
they do come out there are very out of tune. so i tried to find the
problem, is it a leak?, the reed? etc. i had an old v12 2/5 and tried
that. now with this reed my tone was horrible, imagine a clarinet
being played through ones nose, but the b c problem was gone! but the
tone was horrible. then i decided to try a different brand of reed. i
bought some mitchell lurie 3s. and at first i found them much to soft.
but after some attention to adjusting my embouchure and placing the reed
slightly above the tip of the mouthpiece i found all my problems
solved. my question is this, i saw in a video performance by buddy
defranco that he placed his reed slightly above the tip of the
mouthpiece (where i got the idea) is this a bad habit waiting to be
formed? also any suggestions related to this would be great. im not in
a position to take lessons at the moment and ive searched the web
extensively for advice about this and have come up with nothing directly
related. and more tips on preferred reeds, strengths etc. would be
great.

thanks in advance,

david

   
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