Klarinet Archive - Posting 001505.txt from 1998/05

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Please help me / Chalumeau / clarion etc
Date: Sat, 30 May 1998 04:51:53 -0400

A brief comment on this - I suspect tooth marks on the top of the
mouthpiece are likely be a sign that one's thumbrest is in the wrong
place, probably too low. I've never had them, even with the soft cheapo B
& H mouthpiece I started playing on.
I'm only an amateur, by the way, though I've played in some
(over-?)ambitious concerts now and again.
ROger S.

On Fri, 29 May 1998, Lee Hickling wrote:

> Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 14:12:05
> From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: Re: [kl] Please help me / Chalumeau / clarion etc
>
> Roger Shilcock wrote:
> >There are plenty of orchestral 1st clar. parts going up to "top" g#
> >and/or
> >a - Delius and Britten wrote parts going up to the B flat. The Spohr first
> >concerto
> >actually has an arpeggio passage ending on a top c.
> >Whatever Klose wrote in 18??, plenty of players do have to learn to play
> >these notes.
>
> Can't argue with you, Roger, because you've been in places I never got to.
> But I do think one could amend "plenty of players" to "some players.". In
> 55 years of clarinet playing I've never seen that Bb or C in a score. Of
> course, I've never played in a symphony orchestra of any kind, although I
> have held down first desk in symphonic wind ensembles. I've to play A in
> altissimo in concert bands a couple of times, and I think I learned B and C
> as well, but I have never been asked to play them. Why, if a composer wants
> those notes, doesn't he score the part for an Eb sopranino?
>
> By the way, when I went back to my old Klose method book to check what he
> said about notes above F concert, I ran into something under Position of
> the Mouthpiece in the Mouth that made me think of all the recent posts by
> musicians whose teeth are cutting grooves in their mouthpieces: "The upper
> lip must be slightly pressed downwards to prevent the teeth biting the
> mouthpiece and damaging the quality of tone." When I read that, I picked up
> my horn to see what I do, because I had no conscious memory of how I form
> the embouchure. I found that my teeth do touch the mouthpiece, but only
> touch it, because my upper lip is slightly tensed and bears on the top of
> the mouthpiece clear across. I've never had a problem with teeth marks on a
> mouthpiece. Then again, I've never played on one of the mouthpieces they
> make now out of a softer material. Why do manufacturers do that? To sell at
> a lower price?
>
> Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.net>
>
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