Klarinet Archive - Posting 000086.txt from 1998/09

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Children and Clarinet Playing
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1998 18:48:47 -0400

At 08:30 AM 9/3/98 -0400, Kenneth Wolman wrote:
>>>I was surprised when I went into a music store in my work neighborhood and
>>>saw that the nameless They are still manufacturing the Flute-o-phone, the
>>>"instrument" that I learned to play when I was being given musical aptitude
>>>tests in the 1st or 2nd grade, somewhere around 1951. Those and the
>>>infamous Tonette. I don't remember what they sounded like.
>>>
>>Yes, they are still available, but they used to make them better. I still
>>have mine (c. 1960). It is basically a recorder designed not to blow an
>>octave.
>
>Maybe it was because kids my age back then had no sense of how to shape a
>tone or know what a good tone should sound like, but I remember stuff like
>Tonettes being real easy to play. When my younger son had to buy a
>recorder for some preparatory music classes in 1990 or 91, I joined him and
>got myself a Yamaha alto, a low-end Baroque system ABS body instrument. I
>still have it and fool around with it now and then. It is not at all easy
>to get a good tone out of the thing: you really need to develop a "touch"
>if not specifically an embouchure, just the right amount of pressure on the
>mouthpiece. And the art of half-covering toneholes is tricky. But if you
>get everything coordinated, it's a real nice sound. I can only imagine how
>much better real maple recorders sound, but I can't afford to find out:-).
>
Of course, many on the list would maintain that NO difference attributable
to MATERIAL would be noticeable.

By designing the Flute-o-phone NOT to overblow an octave, they eliminated
the pressure sensitivity, making for limited range but great ease of
playing within that range. The bottom hole (or two?) are actually two
holes, to ease the half-hole thing.

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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