Klarinet Archive - Posting 000454.txt from 1998/07

From: Kenneth Wolman <kwolman@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Larry Combs (LC1) for beginners?
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 17:31:25 -0400

>> But
>> I'm not sacrificing dynamic range or my dark chalumeau just to impress=
the
>> player next to me with my #17 reed!
>
>#17 reed?! What whimp! I play on a #24!!
>
>Neil

Laugh if ye wish. I spent some time last week digging out the names of
prospective teachers for the fall, and talked to a guy named John Moses,
who lives in Leonia, NJ, home of half the clarinet players in the universe,
it seems. He told me he's sent students to Ricardo (do I really need to
use his last name here?:-), who was happy to work with them, except that
Ricardo seems to have some weird ideas about the proper setup for his
students. I don't think he insists that they go out and buy Opuses or
Opera or Opii, and I don't know about the specifics of the mouthpiece, but
he insists on them using 4=BD or 5 reed because that's what Moses told me
Ricardo uses himself. Yes, with fabulous results (his Koch CD of the
Archduke Rudolph Sonata and Trio are gorgeous), but a lot of his students
appear to quit after three lessons because it HURTS to play a 5.
Especially at a hundred bucks per lesson.

Ken

"The East River. But it was not a river at all. Merely a column of water
connecting the upper harbor to the Sound. Yet everyone called it a river.
They chose not to think about it. They clung to the surface of things."
--Peter Quinn, "Banished Children of Eve"
Ken Wolman kwolman@-----.com/SoHo/Gallery/1649

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