Klarinet Archive - Posting 000373.txt from 2001/02

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Swabbing
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2001 06:02:01 -0500

On Sun, 11 Feb 2001 00:09:12 -0600, jonnybravo17@-----.com said:

> When swabbing, is it better to pull the swab from bottom to top or the
> other way around?

I think we should have a pretend competition for the best answer to this
question -- 'pretend', in the sense that we don't actually have to
decide on a winner. There are obviously different categories: humorous,
ingenious, interesting and so on. (Pity we can't have Shadow Cat's
contribution.)

Here's my effort, an anecdotal one:

I say you should pull the swab from the top, because if you don't, and
you're playing the Schubert Octet live on Saint Paul Sunday (that's that
Minnesota radio show with the intimate announcer who sounds like he's
talking to you in your bed from the adjacent pillow), on period
instruments...

....then, what may happen is that your C clarinet behaves strangely when
you pick it up to play the variation movement. Nothing to be done about
it, though; it doesn't seem to be leaking, and period instruments
sometimes are a bit unpredictable. But the response is strange, and you
have to fight to play in tune much more than usual. Anyway, you get
through onto the Bb clarinet again, and complete the piece, not entirely
comfortably; but again that's not surprising, because it's always
difficult on period instruments, and the studio has an unusual feel to
it, with Bill McGlaughlin sitting in front of the octet among the
microphones being the audience/audient...

So then, the next day is a day off, and you decide to have a practice
in the hotel room, and find out what was wrong with the C clarinet. The
first thing is that you can't find the ring that goes between the
mouthpiece and the socket. (Such tuning rings are part of the equipment
on boxwood instruments, which change pitch much more in different
conditions than their modern descendants.) It must have fallen out. So
you search everywhere, and even revisit the studio, which is just over
the road, to no avail.

Then you decide to try playing the C clarinet, minus the ring. It still
feels strange, but you can't figure out why. So you try to swab it
through, but can't get the cord through, because...the tuning ring is
jammed up the bell. It must have been picked up at the top by the swab
on the first pass, and redeposited at the bottom on the second pass.

So you visit the (I-Max?) surround cinema instead, and try going over
Niagara Falls.

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

.... 1st we shoot all the lawyers, 2nd we strangle them, 3rd..

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