Klarinet Archive - Posting 000043.txt from 2003/05

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] RE: hard reeds
Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 09:27:24 -0400

At 11:06 PM 5/2/2003 -0500, James Hobby wrote:
>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....

Curiously, there are also band directors out there who insist that all
trumpet players start with Bach 3C mouthpieces and trombones with 6 1/2 AL
mouthpieces, a highly analogous situation. Most of them, but not all (!),
are woodwind players.

Bill Hausmann

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

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