Klarinet Archive - Posting 000036.txt from 2003/05

From: "James Hobby" <jhobby@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] RE: hard reeds
Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 00:06:50 -0400

>From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
>For some reason, my students tend to favor reeds that are too hard,
>so when they play, only about half the note tends to speak, covered up
>mostly by the sound of rushing noise.>>>

This came up last summer. I agreed to work with the woodwinds for a week
prior to band camp. The first day, we started with simple scales for warmup
and I wondered if we had been moved into a wind tunnel to practice. I
checked each clarinet & sax, and the result was about the same (1/2 sound;
1/2 air). On further questioning, they said the band director (a low brass
major) told them that no one would be permitted to play on anything softer
than a 4! One first had a 5.5. Some of them might as well have been
playing on popcycle sticks. After further research, the strongest any one
of them could handle with a good tone was a 3.5 on a no-name mouthpiece.

Interestingly, the director had no problem understanding the need to adjust
shape and cup depth on brass mpcs for different players and different
effects. (This, BTW, is the same man who told two of my students -- one
flute; one clarinet -- that he had entered them as a duet in the solo &
ensemble festival in 14 days, didn't have the music list, or anything else.)
I got them music, borrowing the list from another director, put them
together, and worked them hard. And I pray for them tomorrow. We needed at
least a couple of more weeks work. Oh, and I had to call the school this
morning that's hosting the festival to find out when they're scheduled to
play. The director claimed he never got the list from the association.
(You can see he's not in my good book, right now, by any stretch of
imagination!)

Sorry for the griping. It just "flowed" out!

Jim

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