Klarinet Archive - Posting 000821.txt from 2002/03

From: "Don Hatfield" <dhatfield310@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: klarinet Digest 29 Mar 2002 09:15:01 -0000 Issue 3717
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 10:41:34 -0500

My two-cents worth-

Last week I had the opportunity to play, for the first time,one of each
model in the Buffet line while at our state Music Educator's conference. The
Boosey rep let me spend nearly an hour "entertaining" everyone in the
exhibitors hall. My store sells Leblanc clarinets, and I own both Selmer CT
and BT clarinets. The UMI rep was located next to the B&H booth, and he and
several others walked over and asked me to play one other clarinet. He
handed me an Artley student clarinet, and I played some of the same things
for a few minutes while they listened. Their comment: "Aside from some
intonation things with the Artley, you sound the same on them all." My
comment: "I had to fight the Artley more to overcome intonation and tuning
problems, but it's a $600.00 instrument and plays like one." I walked to our
booth, got a Leblanc Concerto model and went back to play again for them,
and the same remark- my tone and sound was pretty much the same regardless
of clarinet, brand, etc.

This is from a 45-year-old guy who spent the first thirty of his
thirty-seven years of clarinet playing trying to find "the sound" for me. I
was always complimented on my sound and the tonal colors I produced, but the
sound didn't have the "feel" I knew I could have. That's a pretty
un-scientific statement and perhaps vague. Maybe it's just voodoo. But one
afternoon seven years ago I was standing in our store talking to Larry
Combs, our native homeboy/hometown clarinet hero. He was back home to
perform in concert and a do master class for us with local high school
students. We were discussing the (then) new Leblancs, and he asked me to try
something. While watching me he asked me to move the mouthpiece to the left
in my mouth a little to compensate for a slight dental problem. I was hit in
the mouth with a baseball when I was twelve, and my right front tooth is a
little longer than the left. I moved the mouthpiece, and everything just
popped. It was like finding the sweet spot on a baseball bat, and I was
amazed. There was a definite, noticeable change in the sound to all present,
and I wondered why I had fought to keep that mouthpiece centered all those
years.

Someone can explain the science and physics involved in this regarding
muscles and dental structure and so forth and so on. I only know that since
that point my sound is more consistent and has the "pop" and "ring" (more
scientific jargon)regardless of instrument and most often mouthpiece setup.
I have two Ann Arbor Kaspars I can use to get the same sound on any clarinet
I try. The older Selmers DO play differently because of their sweet big
bores, but I still get pretty much the same sound and tonal colors from them
without trying. I will be in the market to buy a new set of clarinets this
summer, and unless I run into one that provides some different and quirky
problem in resistance or tuning, whatever I settle on will sound like what I
already play.

I'll bet Yogi Berra had a quote on this whole discussion.

Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like a banana. -- Groucho Marx

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