Klarinet Archive - Posting 000554.txt from 2003/04

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] Different sorts of authority, and the 'barrell'.
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:38:10 -0400

On Tue, 15 Apr 2003 14:35:07 -0700 (PDT), b1rite@-----.net said:

> In my case, I have been told bluntly to "give up the idea" (relating
> to barrel bores), but I've plunged into it anyway. Even among the
> most flexible minds, there **is** inertia because, if for no other
> reason, considering an idea requires effort and nobody has unlimited
> mental (or physical or financial) resources. Thus sometimes
> 'survival instinct' urges us to ignore possibilities.

So, I was the one who told you to give up your idea that a significant
modification of barrel dimensions -- to the extent that the barrel might
internally be described, however loosely, as 'spherical' -- had any
chance whatever of working.

But, the reason I said that, and I pointed the reason out at the time,
is that I, unlike you until just recently, have experimented with larger
and smaller bore barrels, and know what the effect would be. In fact, I
several times urged you to find some way of trying it out for yourself.

*This* sort of 'authority' that I claim about a piece of physics, which
has it's roots in the fact that I've done the experiment and you
hadn't, is nothing like the other sort of authority, where someone tells
you 'what you must do in order to play the clarinet'. I don't know
enough about how you play to tell you what you have to change in order
to play better. But I do know something about how barrels work.

My complaint against you was that for almost a year, you *didn't* try
the experiment, yet nevertheless continued every now and then to post
nonsense about it.

Anyhow, just to show that trying it isn't all that difficult, I decided
to give myself half an hour to mock up a large barrel.

My first thought was to try a Bb barrel on an Eb clarinet. That's
easily done, either by sealing the connections with Blutak or by binding
mouthpiece and top tenon of the Eb with lots of silk thread. It
takes five minutes to set up, and shows unequivocally that the
'big resonating barrel' idea won't work. The effect is much greater
than that produced by a simply longer barrel of the same internal
diameter. (You get something like a minor third between throat Bb and
the long B just above, for example.)

But then I figured that perhaps you wouldn't have an Eb clarinet, so
that wasn't fair. I ought to use only stuff you would have available,
or could get easily.

So I thought, as per my previous suggestion to you, that one of those
35mm film canisters, or perhaps two taped together, would work well
enough; but as it happens, I don't have any of those around at the
moment.

Running out of time now, I fortunately hit on the idea of using the
*bell* of the A clarinet as a barrel (perhaps, a 'barrell':-). You wrap
Blutak around the top tenon of the Bb clarinet, plonk the end of the
bell over the top and push to create a good seal. Then you expand the
tenon of the mouthpiece as before by whichever means you fancy, put it
in the top end of the bell, et voila!

Results as obviously out of the question as before.

> Learning how to build 'quick and dirty' barrel bores has not only been
> fascinating for me, but it has shown me first hand what works and what
> doesn't. I am no longer confined by a paragraph in a book that says
> "reverse Moening bore will <...whatever...>". Reading the book is
> *more* meaningful to me now, rather than less, because I can actually
> try it and stumble onto related ideas by accident.

Good. But your 'rebellion against authority' had to be dragged out of
you kicking and screaming, I'd say;-)

> ....by the way, when I went to the duduk concert, the performer played
> four instruments including an old-fashioned beaten-up A clarinet with a
> wrap-around register key. He let me look at the barrel's bore in
> detail. I wish I had brought my measuring tools with me. The bore
> had curves in it.

Cylinders often do. What do you mean?

> He played in all sorts of weird scales, he bent notes effortlessly, he
> continuous breathed for 20 minutes at a time with no sign of fatigue,
> and so forth. So I have a huge amount of information to sort out.

Sounds to me like you have *no* information to sort out;-)

> The set-up accounted only part of his total performance, perhaps for
> only the smallest part.
>
> But now I have the confidence to try some of these "Give it up!"
> ideas. Many of them fail, but not all of them.......
>
> BOTTOM LINE, Sam: If you feel like trying double lip embouchure, DO
> SO !!

Absolutely.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

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