Klarinet Archive - Posting 000359.txt from 1999/09

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Stupid Clarinet Tricks #1 (was: Re: More Stuffiness)
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 19:55:53 -0400

On Mon, 13 Sep 1999 19:55:45 EDT, CmdrHerel@-----.com said:

> Okay, okay, okay, I can't resist!
>
> Stupid Clarinet Trick # 1
>
> 1. Cover all the holes and keys for a middle-staff B. (Everything
> closed but the register key.)
>
> 2. Take your right ankle and put it on your left knee.
>
> 3. Stick the bell of the clarinet onto the fat part of your right
> calf. Wiggle around a bit until the bell is completely sealed and
> you can still get your mouth onto the mouthpiece... (might have to
> lean back a little if you're short like me.)
>
> 4. Blow.
>
> 5. Screw around with the blowing pressure and your tongue position
> and you'll find that you can get a whole overtone series of notes....
> (At least the first five.) Your fingers always stay on that B
> fingering.
>
> 6. Impress your friends with the multitude of songs you can play with
> this raunchy disgusting tone! (Taps, any bugle call.) May not want
> to show your students, though...

If you remove the bell first, then the series is almost exactly
harmonic. You'll find that, changing your mouth shape, embouchure and
air pressure, you can play a complete harmonic series, minus the
fundamental, starting on a sharpish E flat (top space of treble clef).
In other words, the next note is a sharpish B flat a fifth above, then E
flat again, then G, and so on.

The sound leaks out of the speaker hole, so it's rather weedy, as Teri
says. The quality is rather like that of a muted trumpet.

To obtain the low E flat, and thus get a complete series, you have to
let the sound out of the side (RH) E flat instead of the speaker key,
just for this note. The hole for the E flat is halfway down the tube as
opposed to a quarter of the way down, so you get the fundamental. (Keep
fingering low E as you open the side E flat!)

It's worth working out for yourself why this is. (Hint: think of the
harmonics on a cello.)

Once you've got the hang of it, you can experiment taking off, say, the
third RH finger when you're playing the B flat. This gives a C one tone
above. Then, with a bit of practice, adding these extra notes, you can
play little tunes.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

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