Klarinet Archive - Posting 000076.txt from 1998/07

From: "Dee Hays" <deerich@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Reeds for Beginners
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 1998 11:15:06 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: thomas@-----.com>
Date: Sunday, July 05, 1998 8:50 AM
Subject: [kl] Re: Reeds for Beginners

>......
>Most kids, when they start, are in group lessons. Taking the time to work
>on reeds is not an option. Ricos are not that bad for beginners. I know
of
>one former clarinet teacher in my school who insisted the clarinets use
>Mitchell Luries. When I got there, the kids all had fuzzy tones, I
switched
>them over to the Ricos and voila, no more tone fuzz.
>

The brand should have had nothing to do with the "fuzziness." Perhaps the
strength selected in that brand was inappropriate. As you state, it is true
that group lessons may not afford the luxury of working on reeds but that
makes *plain* Ricos an even poorer choice. Both the backs and fronts of
these reeds are extremely rough and unpleasant and they need a lot of
polishing before they are acceptable (or am I the only one that notices this
roughness? And can't anyone else taste the chemical residue in these?).
However, when I was in school group lessons (back in the dark ages), we
spent one session as a group going over breaking in reeds and that included
polishing the backs and fronts. It was well worth the time.

Unless the child is the "break a reed a day" type, the cost of good reeds is
insignificant. I don't advocate any specific brand or type but it should be
of good quality. Even though I use Vandorens for myself, I selected
Mitchell Luries for my daughter. Her tone is excellent but the reed
strength is selected based on her development level not what I as an adult
player might use.

>I would be more concerned with the mouthpiece - and even then I wouldn't
>*make any student buy a good mouthpiece (or VanDoren reeds) until they
>reached a certain level of ability or maturity (physical and playing). The
>school district in which I live rents Armstrong instruments, the clarinets
>come with H-Couf mouthpieces. These are pieces of junk, no kid can play on
>anything higher than a 2 or 2-1/2 reed on them, therefore they all play
>flat. So I convinced their teacher to tell them right off, go get the Hite
>Premiere. That is a really great mouthpiece for the money, great for kids,
>you really can't beat it. And that's what I mean about proper for a
child.

You are correct. It is better to suggest not *make* them do something.
Parents will respond much better to logical, well presented reasons. There
is a lot of good intermediate grade equipment out there like the Hites.

Dee Hays
Canton, SD

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