Klarinet Archive - Posting 000551.txt from 2002/10

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Re: Wacky reed problem
Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 20:45:15 -0400

At 08:20 AM 10/21/2002 -0400, Karl Krelove wrote:
>...When I was a very young player still studying at college, Gigliotti
>constantly harped at me about pinching the reed when I played. One day
>(initially unrelated to the pinching issue) he wanted me for some reason to
>feel how his reed responded and handed me his clarinet with his mouthpiece
>and the reed he had played (so he said, anyway) the night before in an
>orchestra performance at the Academy of Music. I played on it for a couple
>of minutes, was duly impressed with how responsive it was (it actually felt
>much too light for me - which as I remember was part of his point in having
>me play it), and handed it back to him. He tried to play something on it,
>looked at it in mild horror, and declared that I had "closed it."
>Apparently, in those couple of minutes I had put enough pressure against the
>reed to have bent it slightly inward. Could your student simply be pinching
>the reed and closing it consistently enough that it just isn't recovering?

I have found that you can make MASSIVE differences in the response of a
Legere reed by giving it a little flex inward or outward. I presume this
can also be done to cane reeds, and this is likely the sort of thing that
is happening. Either in the student's mouth during the wetting process, or
simply in playing a reed that is too soft and is being gradually more or
less permanently toward the tip. Try taking one of the "closed" reeds and
flexing it back outward with your fingers and try playing it.

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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