Klarinet Archive - Posting 000751.txt from 1999/03

From: "Karl Krelove" <kkrelove@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] My clarinet's resistant
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 18:04:43 -0500

>PSHIROM@-----.com wrote:
>
>> Lately, my clarinet has started to play really resistently. I feel like
>I'm
>> working too hard to produce sound, but I'm not out of practice. I know
>it's
>> not my reeds, but the clarinet is 20-25 years old. Would the age of the
>> clarinet have anything to do with it?
>

I'd second everything that has been said about leaky pads and other
mechanical problems. But you've anticipated and glossed over the reed
question so quickly. I have to ask, just to cover an obvious base, how you
are certain you aren't having reed problems. Sometimes the reeds in a
particular box are not like the last five (or fifty) boxes you've opened. Or
atmospheric conditions make ones you've been playing on feel different, or
age and the effects of repeated soakings and dryings change the reed's
response, especially if you aren't skilled at reed adjustment to compensate
for those effects. One or two practice sessions with an unresponsive reed
(or several if it's a new box or the dregs of an old one) can lead to
(destructive) embouchure accomodations that can indeed make it seem like
nothing responds anymore. The solution may be as simple as buying a new box
of whatever you've been using.

Just a thought.

Karl Krelove

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