Klarinet Archive - Posting 000627.txt from 2000/01

From: Don Longacre <nw2v@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: FAQ Mouthpieces
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 01:47:46 -0500

Dan Leeson wrote:

>Hardly any at all. I have saved every note for about
>two months now that has to do with mouthpieces and there
>is simply no center to them. I will wait another full
>month and then evaluate what I have but right now it does
>not look promising

Dan:

Perhaps we're standing too close to the woods. The fact that you detect
no center and having canvassed the data base without detecting a central,
precise, dynamic mp architecture is,of itself, a worthwhile FAQ function;
with strong emphasis on the "to each his own" approach to mouthpiece selection.
It seems to me a wealth of understanding can be provided in the generalizations
that say in the main, mouthpieces provided by instrument manufacturers are
usually less than satisfactory, that production run mouthpieces are better
but as such lack the precision of hand finishing found in top of the line
quality. Stay away from a "one-ness" criteria for it tends to satisfy the
notion of those who ask the infernal question, "What's a good mouthpiece to buy?"
that there is indeed a holy grail in mouthpieces and that acquisition of an
ideal mouthpiece will be a shortcut to excellence. Isn't it true, Dan, what
you have emerging here is a strongly subjective analysis of mouthpiece preference?
All have to be qualified as to reed, lig, barrel, not to mention player's
blowing characteristics. The only objective analyses lie in the physics
of sound, taking from Benade: "A pressure-operated reed-valve will collaborate
with an air column to favor the maintenance of oscillation at frequencies
closely matching one or another of the natural frequencies characteristic of
the air column" etc. How *well* this is done is subject to a myriad of
variables. An FAQ discussion of mouthpiece surfaces i.e. facing, chamber,
tip, etc and their characteristic contribution to mouthpiece function, limited
as it is, may be as good as its gonna get.

Don Longacre

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