Klarinet Archive - Posting 000169.txt from 1998/08

From: "Mark A. Bradley" <markb@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Clarinet dislikes hot summer?
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 00:24:23 -0400

Wow I have exactly the same sort of problems during the summer. I, too,
practice 1-3 hrs a day during the year then after a music camp with 5-7
hrs of playing I return home to terrible problems during the middle of
the day. The blessed evening or passing thunderstorm usually solves
that, like you said.
My problems may not be as severe as what you have described but I think
enough for my family to get sick of my bird noises...
It is most likely the falut of the reed and not the clarinet itself. As
I understand it reeds are very susceptible to climate and humidity
changes. I have had little experience with this stuff but maybe if it
gets humid you use a harder reed and when it gets cooler you go back to
your normal ones. Please, those on the list, share your tips for this.
But, again, it's probably your reed and, not the clarinet.

Salut!
Mark Bradley, Chazy NY
markb@-----.com

Martin Pergler wrote:

>>>This repeats itself year after year. I happily play my clarinet
1-3 hrs a day all year. No trouble. Then I go to a music
camp over the summer and play 6-8 hours a day for 2 weeks.
A heat wave comes along (upper 90s, humid). My clarinet
becomes very stuffy, hard to articulate in the clarion
register, very sharp in the high B and C range, and the
altissimo next to impossible to produce. No obvious leaks,
pads appear reasonably well seated, the pinned crack does not
appear to be opening up (all just layman's observations).
Then a cold front goes through (with a doozy of a thunderstorm)
and everything is marvelous again.

Now if it were *I* (the human being) having trouble playing
under these conditions, I'd say "no wonder". But since it's
the clarinet (an inanimate object) I wonder why and what I can
do to fix it. Other people have trouble with their instruments too,
but not *nearly* as much...I can play their clarinets (and even
sometimes
end up borrowing their instr for performances) and they can't
play mine.

Any ideas? Thanks, Martin

Once I took the instr to a repair tech once I got back. It worked
wonderfully in the shop and we didn't figure anything out.
It's a 10 year old Buffet R13 Bb. My A is fine.<<<

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