Klarinet Archive - Posting 000773.txt from 1998/07

From: Kenneth Wolman <kwolman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] MY PERSONAL BEST
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 15:42:37 -0400

I USED to be experienced and am only getting back into the experience by
about 7 months, so the grain of salt (or salt-mine) is in order.

REEDS: When I was a kid I always played on Rico #2's. Worked for me. I
could hit high notes and everything on a no-name cheap-o mouthpiece that
came with the no-name horn. When I went back to playing in January, I
bought a box of Lurie #2's. Shrug. I guess it depends on the mouthpiece.
I'm learning a LOT depends on being willing to experiment with different
combinations of reed, mouthpiece, and ligature. So now I have the Luries
exclusively for a jazz mouthpiece, and Vandoren V12 #3's, Grand Concert
Thick #3's, and Vandoren #4's for everything else. The #4 is a real pain,
but I can see myself using it regularly if I play 6 hours a day for the
next two years :-). It also, for some reason, performs very nicely with a
Vandoren B45. Don't ask me why....

MOUTHPIECES: One came with the horn, a Selmer HS*. It's become my
favorite. The second favorite is a Hite Premiere: it's easy blowing but
gives me lots of control. I own a Vandoren 5JV which goes only with the
Lurie reeds. And a Vandoren B45, which was a mistake until I put the #4
reed on it. I do NOT know why this works.

LIGATURES: Slowly I'm getting accustomed to the "standard" Selmer ligature,
which I do NOT invert: it's good for the HS* and the B45. I've played with
the Rovner Eddie Daniels and the Dark. My first new ligature was the
Vandoren Premier, with the corrugated plate being most appropriate to
classical practice. Good on the HS*. The Rovner ED or Dark work very
nicely with the 5JV. I've also got a Brancher that I use only on the HS*.
It does not even fit some mouthpieces. Buy it does great things to a #3
reed and Selmer mouthpiece.

BOOKS: I have no formal teacher yet. As a kid I used to TRY to learn the
Rose Etudes. I generally buy music I've heard and like and try to play my
way into the pieces; though I'm getting braver about sight-reading stuff
I've never heard before, like some of Poulenc. This is another way of
saying I run into a technical problem and solve it as best I can by
repetition. I HOPE the technique carries over to the next piece, though I
recognize this is a very haphazard way to learn and will get me only so
far. I have Armato's Opera Clarinetist, which is great fun; some Ravel and
Debussy pieces; and just picked up the Cavallini Caprices (Ricordi
edition), the Weber Concertino (in my dreams:-), and a few other things.
The Caprices are MURDER but I can also see what he was doing.

AND THE HORN.... The Selmer Centered Tone. A wonderful instrument that
John Moses told me I could probably sell on the West Coast for about $3,000
because studio musicians love 'em out there. I recently tried out a couple
of horns of more recent vintage: a Selmer Recital, the thick-walled one,
and an R13. If called upon to choose, I would have a very hard time. I
could hear what I guess is a "Selmer Sound" in the Recital: but this one
was so powerful that it sounded like a Centered Tone on steroids. And I
ran into the same problem I have with the Centered Tone: a somewhat
muffled, "reedy" sound to the G#/A/Bb. This could easily be me: I'm making
up the embouchure rules as I go along based on what I hear, and am probably
developing or reinforcing some awful habits. But I did not run in into
this sound on the Buffet, which was (clich=E9 time) crystal clear, if a bit
thinner in tone.

My inclination is to stick with what I've got. I'm not turning pro, so I
doubt I'll need an A. I played the Eb in high school, but that was just to
get some solo work, and the bass clarinet was already taken:-).

Ken

Kenneth Wolman Information Technology Morgan Stanley Inc.
750 Seventh Avenue New York, NY 212-762-1685
My unpaid life: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/1649
"I only wish I could write with both hands, so as not to forget
one thing while I am saying another." -- St. Teresa of Avila

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