Klarinet Archive - Posting 000066.txt from 2004/09

From: "Shaw, Kenneth R." <krshaw@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Selecting a clarinet
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 11:57:04 -0400

In answer to John O'Neill's questions:

(1) SELECTING AN INSTRUMENT

The best way is to try out a bunch of instruments for yourself, or with
your teacher or a professional player you have hired for the day. If you
don't live close to a store with substantial stock, it's worth making a
special trip. A good instrument will last you the rest of your life, and
you'll soon forget about the trip cost.

(2) WHAT TO LOOK FOR, AND IN WHAT ORDER

When you evaluate an instrument, you have to go in a certain order.

(a) Intonation. This is by far more important than everything
else combined. A clarinet that plays out of tune is useless, no matter
how fine its other characteristics. While intonation is of course
affected by mouthpieces and reeds, and slight errors can be adjusted,
the intonation of an instrument has to be very nearly perfect to begin
with. Bring an electronic tuner and a friend to watch it, so you won't
make adjustments to accommodate flaws in the instrument. Be ruthless. If
you have a dozen new clarinets in front of you, you can probably
eliminate half of them on this criterion alone.

(b) Evenness of Scale. Each note must be just as loud and have
the same color as the ones on either side of it. You must be able to
play without notes popping out or being dull. Test by slowly playing
small segments of a chromatic scale -- 4 or 5 notes at a time. Again,
after-market tweaks can make small improvements, but it has to be right
at the outset.

(c) Quick Response -- the ability to make wide slurs without
blips, begin any note cleanly and move from note to note quickly and
seamlessly.

(d) Other Qualities. Only when you eliminate instruments that
don't have the first three qualities can you go on to the rest. In no
particular order, I think of beauty of tone, flexibility of tone (i.e.,
the ability to make many good tones), a comfortable amount of resistance
and physical ergonomics.

(e) Final Decision. Finally, you depend on gestalt -- how well
the instrument accommodates to how you play -- how much it lets you find
new ways to play. An instrument can have every quality described above
and still not reach out and embrace you. You need to feel good when you
play it. It needs to feel like an extension of your body and breath.

(3) TONE -- EFFECT OF VARIOUS PARTS OF THE INSTRUMENT

While a professional player will sound good on any instrument, and will
adjust to make his/her preferred tone on any instrument, a good setup
will make the process easier, and the lower the player's level of
accomplishment, the more difference the instrument makes. On a
perfectly adjusted reed, even a beginner can sound quite good, while an
advanced player can adjust to sound good on almost anything.

The closer something is to your body, the more important it is. Most
important, by far, is you -- your breath, your mouth cavity, your soft
palate, your tongue and your lips. After that comes the reed. It's what
makes the tone. Then the mouthpiece, then the barrel, the upper joint,
the lower joint and the bell.

So -- you spend most of the time working on yourself. Unfortunately,
this is slow work, and people are always looking for something magic to
make them sound better.

You should also learn at least the basics of working on reeds -- making
the bottom flat, balancing the strength from side to side and making the
right taper from shoulder to tip.

A good mouthpiece can make a dramatic improvement in ease of playing, as
can a custom-made barrel, particularly when it's matched to the
mouthpiece.

Even changes in the bell can make a difference, but it's much more
subtle than changing mouthpieces. See the comments on bells by Morrie
Backun on the Clarinet board and the Klarinet list.

(4) RESISTANCE

Blowing without some sort of resistance can be disconcerting and
difficult. You've probably had a lung capacity test during a doctor's
physical examination. You blow into a large tube, the size of a vacuum
cleaner hose, and all your air is gone in an instant. It's hard to blow
at a moderate, controlled rate with nothing to blow against.

The opposite feeling is blowing into a tiny tube -- a thin soda straw or
an oboe reed, where the opening at the top of the staple is smaller than
a pencil lead. This air stream is also difficult to modulate, since
higher pressure makes little difference.

There are several factors that create resistance in clarinet playing.
=46irst, there is what your body does. See the thread at
<http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html=3Ff=3D1&i=3D32180&t=3D32149>
and material by and about Arnold Jacobs,
<http://euph.pair.com/jacobs.html>,
<http://www.windsongpress.com/tributes/NYCBS.htm>,
<http://web.missouri.edu/> and
<http://www.windsongpress.com/tributes/scarlett.htm>.

Second, there is the reed, which can have more or less blowing
resistance based on its taper and relative thickness from side to side.
Adjustment of the reed can compensate for other factors in the
mouthpiece and elsewhere.

Third, there is the curve and shape of the lay of the mouthpiece. A
small tip opening will have higher resistance than a larger one, but the
shape of the curve also makes a difference, and mouthpiece makers can
adjust this to give the amount of resistance you prefer. I like a lay
that is medium open, with an easy-blowing curve, so that I can make the
adjustments with the reed. Other people prefer more resistance built
in. The baffle and chamber of the mouthpiece also affect resistance,
and, again, mouthpiece makers can adjust this.

=46ourth, the barrel and the bore shape of the instrument affect
resistance. The German clarinet has a narrower and stiffer reed than
the French. If you pick one up and play it like a French instrument, it
=66eels like you're blowing like crazy and not getting anything out. It
takes a while to adjust to letting the instrument do more of the work.

This sort of resistance merges into the fifth sort, which I think of as
"substance" in the sound. That is, in the setup I prefer, there is a
point at which the tone gains resonance or "ping," and there is a
related, small increase in blowing resistance that I can "lean" against.
See
<http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html=3Ff=3D1&i=3D113147&t=3D11314
7>,
<http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html=3Ff=3D1&i=3D43807&t=3D43777>
,
<http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html=3Ff=3D1&i=3D59103&t=3D58998>
and
<http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html=3Ff=3D1&i=3D113837&t=3D11376
2>. I've found that a custom barrel can create this good kind of
resistance. The one I use has a slight hour-glass shape in the bore,
which focuses the sound. A similar contraction at the top of the bell
does the same.

(5) PLAYING WHAT YOU ENDORSE

You're correct in your suspicion that some (but not all) well known
players sometimes endorse clarinets (mouthpieces, ligatures, reeds,
etc.) they don't play. Larry Combs really does play a Leblanc Opus, but
those of us who go back a few years remember an ad featuring Tony Scott
saying "I only play Vibrator reeds -- they're the best." Vibrators were
the worst reeds ever made.

Let's just say that some players use a particular instrument for a while
and then to on to another, while the manufacturers continue to run the
old ads. This merges into the final question.

(6) BUFFET VS. LEBLANC VS. ROSSI VS. PATRICOLA VS. YAMAHA, ETC.

If you play 15 examples of any top brand, there's at least as much
variation as you would find playing 15 different brands. However, there
are noticeable differences, on average, among the brands. I have played
a customized Buffet R-13 forever, since it plays very well in a general
sense and lets me sound like I want to. Others (and far better players
than I could ever be) prefer something else. You have to play as many
instruments as you can and choose the one you prefer.

Hand-finished instruments, such as Rossi, Chadash and Wurlitzer, will be
more reliably good than other brands, but a charefully chosen Buffet
will be just as good. I'm not sure whether Greg Smith,
<http://www.gregory-smith.com/>, still offers hand-picked, Brannenized
Buffets with matched mouthpieces and barrels, but if so, these would be
worth trying.

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This message and its attachments are sent by a lawyer and may contain information that is confidential and protected by privilege from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, you are prohibited from printing, copying, forwarding or saving them. Please delete the message and attachments without printing, copying, forwarding or saving them, and notify the sender immediately.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org