Klarinet Archive - Posting 000442.txt from 2004/06

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] switching between instruments
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 19:38:23 -0400


Bryan wrote:
> Saxophone is sooo much easier than
> clarinet!! ;)

I play both clarinets and saxophones, as an amateur. If I'm badly out of
practice, it's easier for me to start to get my chops back on sax, and I do
find it's easier to switch from clarinet to sax than the other way around.
Still, I don't think the sax is really easier to play. A beginner can get
some sort of note out of just about every key on the saxophone faster than
on the clarinet, but I think that playing *musically* on a saxophone takes
just as much work as playing musically on the clarinet.

For me, the thing that makes saxophone *seem* easier at first, and the
thing that makes sax-to-clarinet easier than vice-versa, is that the
clarinet requires a firmer and more controlled embouchure. That's true
even for the big clarinets. Playing contra-alto clarinet for the first
time during the past month, I started from No Chops purgatory, horrendously
out of practice after an attack of extreme stage fright that had lasted
several months. I thought I'd be able to get my lip back gradually by
starting on contra-alto. Wrong! The embouchure for contra-alto isn't much
looser than what I need for soprano clarinet. I had to do some genuine
work. On sax, the larger the sax, the sloppier the embouchure. On bass
sax, I have to remember to *forget* embouchure, and relax my mouth so that
I'm supporting the tone simply by not wobbling around, while barely putting
pressure on the reed, especially on the lowest notes. (The easiest way to
play altissimo on bass sax is to finger the notes an octave below and use
clarinet embouchure!) If I tried that bass sax non-embouchure on a
clarinet, I'd be squeaking like a rodent.

Also, on clarinet, we're conditioned to think of the highest notes as the
most difficult ones. We're proud of ourselves when we play way up into the
factory whistle range. Since it's the opposite on sax, I think an
experienced clarinet player who switches to sax (more common than the other
way round, since the alto or tenor sax is too big for a young kid to
handle) can get seduced by the comparative ease of getting the high notes
and not anticipate that the chuffy or honking low end is going to be harder
to correct.

Lelia Loban
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/LeliaLoban
Re-defeat Bush in 2004!

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