Klarinet Archive - Posting 000539.txt from 2000/10

From: rgarrett@-----.edu
Subj: Re: [kl] Mouthpieces - resistant or free blowing
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 16:08:33 -0400

At 02:12 PM 10/10/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>Fun stuff:

(responding to myself......geez).....

Ok....results:

Student sat across the room while I played the reeds. I didn't see which
reed was sanded or not - as I kept the labeled/sanded sides away:

With Pyne Open/asymetrical:

#1 (ended up being the unsanded reed) blew nicely right away. Typical out
of the box fuzzies, but the resistance felt pretty good - nicely flexible.
Mozart Concerto went fine. Student noticed the fuzzies.......but otherwise
not a problem.

#2 (sanded reed) - much harder than the unsanded - I assumed at first it
was the unsanded reed. However, after 1 minute of playing, it started to
soften slightly. By the end, it felt about the same as #1. Student
thought the first reed had more fuzzies than #2 - which definitely surpised
me - as the reed "felt" harder and more resistant. She liked #2 more in
terms of sound.

With My own brand mouthpiece: Open/symetrical:

#2 (ended up first this time) - really played free and clear. Student's
comment was that it was a really nice sound. I was less comfortable with
the free-blowing quality of the mouthpiece/reed combination - something a
struggle with and why I still do not play my own brand mouthpieces. Even
though students report a good sound, the feel is not what I want compared
to the feel of the Pyne open/asymetrical.

#1 (unsanded) - more fuzzy and unresponsive than the first time through.
Very problematic.

With my own brand: medium/symetrical

The results were the same as second the example only worse for the unsanded
and more spread tone in the sanded.

Well - this was unscientific because we still don't know how Greg seals the
back of the reed without sanding and we couldn't simulate that. Still -
the unsanded warped, and the sanded did not. And one other interesting
thing - neither of us noticed any loss of vibrancy, life, etc. as described
by Walter, Greg, and Susan in the sanded reed. The warping of unsanded
reed made the response/vibrancy quality drop very quickly. Note: if .04
mm is all that came off the back of the sanded reed (the label was still
slightly visible!) - turning a 3.06 into a 3.02 (identical to the
unsanded), I am wondering how the character of the reed was altered so
much? The sanding didn't seem to impact on that at all.

Additionally, Mohler used to require that the finished blank (five days of
sanding) be at 3.28 or slightly higher at the shoulder of the reed.
Interesting that the homemade reeds begin thicker than the Grand Concert
Select size 4s.

Sincerely,
Roger Garrett

Roger Garrett
Professor of Clarinet
Director, Symphonic Winds
Head, Recording Studio
Illinois Wesleyan University
School of Music
Bloomington, IL 61702-2900
(309) 556-3268

"A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes
another's."
Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825)

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