Klarinet Archive - Posting 000860.txt from 2003/03

From: Kenneth Wolman <kenneth.wolman@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] newbie questions about restarting Clarinet playing
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2003 22:34:45 -0500

>>
>>They (B-45 included) squeak too easily for me. I had a B-45
>>resurfaced, and this did not solve the problem for me.
>
>I like the sound but can't deal with the intonation problems. Although I
>do have a B-46 that works great to counteract a bad intonation problem
>(very sharp altissimo) on one clarinet I own.

Well, the Noblet 40 showed up a week ago and I've been back at it hot and
heavy. If this is LeBlanc's intermediate-grade instrument, I'd hate to try
one of their more expensive clarinets. I love the thing.

That said, mouthpieces...and me offering opinions I don't have:-). After
reading some of the stuff about mouthpieces that has been on here, I got
the instrument out and ran through several of the mouthpieces. No one is
the same. For me at this point in my redevelopment, the medium-faced Pyne
requires much more skill than I have most days--but I've lately discovered
that it sounds wonderfully with a No. 2 reed and will probably accept 3 or
harder when my mouth is properly vulcanized. The Pomarico Diamond and
Vandoren 5JB I got specifically for popular music--now I need really soft
reeds below No. 2. I own a Hite Premiere I bought in a Just Because moment
some years ago and I love the thing. I don't know why. It seems like an
excellent all-purpose mouthpiece. It is...here I get into trouble...what
the B45 would like to be. When I sold my Selmer Centered Tone back in
December, I had enough foresight ("Do not despair, you WILL get another
clarinet") to bundle the B45--and not because I think the B45 is terrible,
just that I could never find its true identity. That's a strange way of
saying it seemed to be a hybrid somewhere between a classical/chamber and
jazz mouthpiece. And I was not especially comfortable with it. At one
time or another it fought me in every register, and I was never quite sure
which reed was best for it or my evolution as a player.

Selling it was easy. Selling the clarinet ate me alive. BUT there too...a
discovery. The Noblet doesn't SEEM to play the same way as the Selmer. In
some ways I like the tone better, but I am an amateur moved closer to an
amateur instrument: the CT may just have been too much horn for me. It
appears from first playings to have an easier lower and middle register--as
it goes up top, more strain gets in there along with a need to control the
intonation. This in turn might affect how the mouthpieces play.

A lot of questions, no answers.

Ken

----------------------------------------
Kenneth
Wolman http://www.kenwolman.com http://kenwolman.blogspot.com
If we all carry a little of the burden, it will be lightened. If we share
in the suffering of the world, then some will not have to endure so heavy
an affliction. It evens out.
-- Dorothy Day

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