Klarinet Archive - Posting 000351.txt from 2000/08

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Fw: [kl] Unloading.....
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 20:48:28 -0400

On Mon, 14 Aug 2000 20:21:06 +0100, tony-wakefield@-----.net said:

> Joking apart, I am sill unsure as to whether it is BOTH the "dropping
> out of the lower partials" when trying to hear one`s own high note,
> AND the additional hassle of reeds/mouthpiece/embouchure control etc
> which makes the acquisition of "good" tone more difficult than the low
> register.

Well....

Suppose there is such a thing as a 'good' tone. Then it's necessarily
characterised by a relationship between the strength of the partials,
because that's what tone *is*, for a given pitch. Then, other things
being equal, it should be *easier* to learn to establish such a
relationship between fewer partials (higher notes) than it is to
establish such a relationship between more partials (lower notes).

You have to satisfy fewer constraints.

What seems however to be the case is that the choice of tongue position
to determine 'good' tone in the upper registers is less natural, and
therefore less immediately accessible to a beginner, than the choice of
tongue position to determine 'good' tone in the lower registers. Of
course, it's not immediately accessible in the lower registers either,
but it's *more* immediately accessible.

The added complication of reed choice and change of reed response over
time makes our mastery of these matters more difficult.

It's probably best to leave detailed discussion of these matters to
other posts, though an old one of mine called, "Hippopotami blowing
clarinets" might be relevant:

http://www.sneezy.org/Databases/Logs/1998/12/000764.txt

And Abe Galper (Happy Birthday, Abe!) kindly sent me an article a couple
of months back that fits in with the ideas in my post. It describes
research claiming that the back of the tongue *invariably* goes down as
we go higher on the instrument, and that we have to *learn* that without
any sensory feedback other than the sound we make. Otherwise, we can't
play.

However, I'd want to separate all this from the much more (musically)
fundamental notion of what is 'interesting'.

The answer to the question, "What sound is interesting?" is highly
context dependent. It can't be reduced to things like 'numbers of
partials'. (If it could, I suppose you might argue that 'white noise',
being a mixture of all frequencies, is the most 'interesting' sound
there is.)

What we humans find 'interesting' is significant variation.

Now, I know that just passes the buck onto 'significant'.

But, come on, did you think there was going to be an *answer*?

> My question might indeed be, according to scientific logic, illogical.
> Being a layman in such matters, it seems to me that we do need to
> consider, that if the ear is of such enormous importance during the
> "construction" of acquiring good tone, then no matter how much we
> spend on mouthpieces/reeds etc, or how long we practise for, it is our
> ear which will "tell" in the end.

Yup, I'd say you're right.

> In which case, is it possible to find a process to "discover" how
> efficient an ear is, thus helping the process of acquiring good tone
> along.

The process of imitation, involving error-correction by the imitator
through listening, is essential in the exquisitely delicate skill of
acquiring language, including pronunciation and accent.

Given that, it might be worth taking seriously in music;-)

What you have to imitate is what's already 'good' in the context, so
this leads to a 'contextual' definition of 'good' tone. (It's a
recursive definition, naturally because what's 'good' in one context
isn't necessarily 'good' in another. Think of different languages and
different regional accents.)

Before I try to make it explicit, anyone else want to have a go, for
classical music?

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

... The universe is laughing behind your back

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org