Klarinet Archive - Posting 000201.txt from 2003/08

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Mouthpiece questions
Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 19:21:31 -0400

At 05:54 PM 8/8/2003 -0400, Erik Tkal wrote:
>First off, my instructor said I should play on stiffer reeds. Second, in
>experimenting with my friends M13 Lyre I discovered that I have a much
>better tone using that mouthpiece than my B45, but the more closed
>mouthpieces seem to work much better with a stiffer reed. So:
>
>B45 w/ 2.5 - ok sound
>B45 w/ 3+ - not as good sound
>M13 w/ 2.5 - not so good
>M13 w/ 3+ - much better
>
>So my goal for tomorrow is to go into Boston and try some more mouthpieces
>playing with 3+ reeds and see what works. When I bought the B45 I had just
>started (5 months ago) and I couldn't play 3s reliably on *anything*, so
>the best at that time seemed to be the B45 using 2.5 reeds. However now
>that my embouchure is developing, it seems that I can get a very good
>sound on the more closed mouthpieces with stronger reeds. So I'm going to
>experiment some and see what strikes me.

You are figuring out the trick. Disregarding facing length for the moment,
the more open the mouthpiece, the softer the reed it requires, and the more
close, the stiffer the reed required. It is as simple as that. Your
embouchure development will affect the exact strength you personally will
need, but within a fairly narrow range.

Facing length is the other major factor. A long facing uses a stiffer
reed, since the curve the reed must take to follow the curve of the
mouthpiece is more gentle. A shorter facing with the same tip opening
requires the reed tip to bend the same distance but more "suddenly," as it
were, so the reed must be softer. Thus you can have such interesting
hybrids as the B45 which has a long facing (hard reed) but relatively large
tip opening (soft reed) = medium reed required.

By all means go out and experiment!

Bill Hausmann

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

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is supported by Woodwind.Org, http://www.woodwind.org/