Klarinet Archive - Posting 000389.txt from 1998/09

From: "Karl Krelove" <kkrelove@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] breaking in my R13
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1998 17:07:48 -0400

I've never heard of "training" the horn for pitch. But Hans Moennig always
recommended slowly "breaking in" a new clarinet, mostly because the wood was
still fresh and there would presumably be more pronounced expansion during
the first few weeks you play it. If the expansion in one sitting were very
great, the contraction that would occur when you packed the instrument up
for the day would also be that much greater. The advice, particularly
applicable to instruments bought new in the colder months, was meant to
allow for a more gradual process of general expansion without the relatively
violent swings that might follow long practice sessions with a new
instrument.

There's a lot of witchcraft in music, and this may be no more than folklore
passed down from maker to maker and teacher to student. But much of what
looks like witchcraft has a basis in someone's first-hand experience before
science had the tools to test the conclusions people based on those
experiences. Absent any modern scientific proof, you can "blow off" the
warnings, as GTGallant suggests, but you do so at the peril of cracking the
instrument if the theory is actually sound.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Stutzman <benstutzman@-----.net>
Date: Sunday, September 13, 1998 3:10 PM
Subject: [kl] breaking in my R13

>... She
>told me to start at 5 minutes, playing only low register to throat
>tones. Each week I will add 5 minutes. She also says I need to "train"
>the horn. So as I slowly play notes I adjust the tuning to be right on
>pitch. I don't quite understand why I have to do this. Is there a
>scientific reason, or is this a new concept? Any explanation would be
>helpful.
>
>

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