Klarinet Archive - Posting 000339.txt from 2001/05

From: HatNYC62@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Reeds, who can tell?
Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 22:28:29 -0400

Tony Pay asks an excellent question about reeds. Namely, are we exaggerating
the importance of a good reed to the AUDIENCE? He may have a point here.
Likely, the lay audience person will only perceive a small difference in tone
quality between a good and a pretty bad reed.

However, the psychologial effect of a bad reed on the player cannot be
ignored. I know from experience that if I have a particularly bad reed, I
have to make certain adjustments in order to make it play. These certainly
detract from what I am able to do musically, since my mind is more occupied
with actually playing the instrument that it would normally be. This leaves
less gray matter to apply to the music itself.

On the other hand, as Clark Brody used to say, sometimes the perfect reed
allows you to relax too much and nothing happens. And sometimes you wonder
how you'll ever get through a concert on the reed you have and you play great
in spite of it.

But my general feeling is that the average listener probably doesn't hear
much difference between reeds, unless something obvious happens (squeeeks,
chirps, etc).

I do feel we as clarinetists are sometimes worrying about small differences
in tone quality that few if anyone outside ourselves will notice! If you
sacrifice dynamic range to get a 'better' sound, is that a fair trade off? If
a 'great old' mouthpiece has pitch problems, is it really worth it? We all
have to answer these questions for ourselves.

David Hattner, NYC

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