Klarinet Archive - Posting 000868.txt from 2000/12
From: Sterkel Terrance-W15462 <T.Sterkel@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] moving up a reed strength
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 13:40:36 -0500
thanks!
that was a great response, will start on it, piecemeal,
as it is very extensive.
best wishes!
terry
: -----Original Message-----
: From: Karl Krelove [mailto:kkrelove@-----.us]
: Sent: Friday, December 15, 2000 1:10 PM
: To: klarinet@-----.org
: Subject: Re: [kl] moving up a reed strength
:
:
: Terry,
:
: What follows hasn't been said explicitly on Klarinet for a
: long time (and
: generated some heat when last it came up). I will put it in
: "for the record"
: not to criticize you at all, but to put a little bit of
: perpective on the
: kind of situation presented by your post and others of the same sort.
:
: The kind of question you've asked may not be answerable by
: anyone on the
: list because we can't hear the problem that resulted when you
: made this most
: recent increase in your Legere reed strength. Or, at least,
: it can't be
: answered with any certainty, leaving you open to the
: possibility of great
: confusion as you consider and try different suggested
: solutions. It may be
: that the reed is too stiff for your mouthpiece. It may be that your
: embouchure approach needs some adjustment. It may be that you need to
: develop more strength in the facial muscles that form the
: embouchure. There
: may be a problem elsewhere in your instrument that can be
: easily overcome
: with a reed that's too soft, but when a more resistant reed
: is added to
: unwanted resistance in the instrument, the setup becomes unplayable.
:
: As you can see, there are several (and I haven't exausted the
: list by any
: means) possible reasons why this last 1/2 step increase is making you
: uncomfortable. The expedient of moving the reed down (did you
: really mean a
: couple of millimeters? - that sounds like a cavernous distance where
: mouthpiece measurements are concerned) works if you're making
: very small
: adjustments, but it quickly reaches the point where you're leaving a
: significant gap between the tip rail and the reed tip, which
: will allow a
: lot of unproductive air to "whoosh" past the reed, accounting
: for the "hiss"
: you mention.
:
: You don't say (maybe you did in an earlier introductory post)
: whether or not
: you are currently studying with a clarinet teacher. The
: bottom line of all
: this is that some questions can only be answered with any
: real reliability
: by a clarinet teacher who is physically listening to you and whose
: suggestions you can try immediately and hear a result,
: whether good or not.
: If the first suggestion doesn't work, the "onsight" teacher
: is in a better
: position than any of us to hear and see whether the fix
: didn't work because
: it didn't really get at the problem or because you didn't get the fix
: exactly right on the first try. A teacher can try your
: equipment to make
: sure you aren't wasting a lot of energy trying to do
: something that can't be
: done. If, for example, your method of increasing reed
: strength in stages
: could work indefinitely, we would all eventually be able to
: play on tree
: limbs. But there are practical limits to how stiff a reed we
: can play on
: _musically_, and part of that limit is set by the rest of the
: equipment,
: particularly the mouthpiece. Any of us on Klarinet, and there
: are some very
: accomplished players and teachers here, can make sugestions
: based on your
: description of any given problem, but nobody here can tell
: from an email
: with any certainty what the source of the problem you're
: describing is. Your
: premise that stiffer reeds will add "depth to my playing" is
: itself one that
: has only limited truth.
:
: There may well be no cure for the problem you've described
: because there may
: actually be no problem. It may very well be that you've
: simply reached the
: limit on reed strength imposed by your mouthpiece. If you
: want the best shot
: at a meaningful answer to your question, find someone near
: you who plays
: clarinet well and ask him or her. If the solution turns out
: to involve your
: learning a new way of doing things, a professional
: player/teacher might be
: able to guide you through it in a few sessions. If it's
: purely an equipment
: problem, it wouldn't take even an entire lesson to discover
: it, and you
: might pick up even more information than you were expecting.
: If it's some
: combination, a teacher can help sort it out and prevent a lot
: of frustration
: on your part that can come from trying a lot of partial
: solutions on your
: own and never really finding the result you want because you
: may not have
: put them together in the right combination.
:
: If you _are_ studying, give your teacher a chance to help.
:
: That's probably more than 2 cents worth. I hope ultimately
: it's helpful.
:
: Karl Krelove
:
:
: ----- Original Message -----
: From: Sterkel Terrance-W15462
:
:
: > Ok,
: > I just bought the Legere, and it works great.
: > here is my question:
: >
: > I purposefully went up 1/2 grade in stiffness to
: > get more depth in my playing. I have been doing this in 1/2
: steps every 3
: > weeks starting at 1 1/2 when I re-started the clarinet 2
: months ago. This
: > last step seems to be unusually problematic. What do I do
: to "fix" my
: > embouchure to compensate. As a temporary fix, I am moving
: the reed down
: > from the tip a couple mm. This
: > increases "hiss".
: >
: > Suggestions?
: > thanks,
: > terry
: >
:
:
:
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