Klarinet Archive - Posting 000451.txt from 2001/12

From: Kenneth Wolman <kenneth.wolman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Clarinet and Oboe
Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2001 14:13:28 -0500

At 11:49 AM 12/25/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>I have a friend who is an excellent clarinettist, and she is borrowing an
>oboe to teach herself.

>...I wouldn't say it "screwed up" her clarinet embouchure, but her chops
>were awfully tired after practicing oboe, and we cut our trio practice a
>little short. We, we were *all* tired, but she was the most tired!

Instrument switchies. Try teaching yourself the "simple system" (i.e.,
Irish and/or baroque) flute after you've played single reeds for years. I
started doing this over the summer. It's an adventure in discovery that
blowing into one of those things bears little or no resemblance to blowing
across the lip of a soda bottle. Soda bottles, for starts, have much
larger openings than most wooden flutes. They also don't have tone holes
or keys and you don't have to worry about fingering accidentals.

Warn your friend that the next step in her horrible quest of the double
reed is something I would not recommend to anyone (I know, because I've
been bitten and am fighting against the illness): bagpipes, a discovery
that follows hard upon discovering that these are a staple of ethnic music
worldwide, that most national cultures have one kind of another of either
mouth- or elbow-blown pipes, and that most if not all utilize a double reed
in the chanter AND drones that look exactly like oboe or bassoon
reeds. Most people I've met either love or hate bagpipes--there's no
middle ground about the sound of these instruments. The people who make
Irish uilleann elbow-pipes usually cut and tie their own reeds and teach
other players to do so. Sound familiar? Some players use cane, others use
elder. The reeds, because they're enclosed in an environment where they're
subject to constant pressure from blowing, moisture, and heat or cold, are
highly susceptible to taking the instrument out of tune: and you're working
with anywhere from one to four reeds at a time. You're also trying to
coordinate pressure from two leather bags at the same time you're fingering
a chanter that (you hope) plays the melody. It's not uncommon for Irish
pipers to spend half their time retuning. It makes a clarinetist's life
look easy.

Ken

---------------------
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
But it is a much more fearful thing to fall out of them.
D. H. Lawrence, "The Hands of God"

Kenneth Wolman http://www.kenwolman.com http://kenwolman.blogspot.com/

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