Klarinet Archive - Posting 000797.txt from 2004/10

From: "Ted Casher" <tedcasher@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] a question for doublers
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 14:01:09 -0400

Dear Ton,

Ted Casher here. I have been a clar/tenor/fl doubler most of my adult life,
and have made a living doing it. I played a lot of music theater--before
Andrew Lloyd F. Weber fouled up the industry with his one-tune shows!
I am a jazz player who does a lot of swing, trad, and bop.
Take your embouchure into account. Do you play with a "smile" embouchure?
Then you have to find a tenor mpce that will enchance the low end, to make
you sound tenorish. I recommend either an Otto Link metal or a Morgan
Excalibur hard rubber tenor mpce. I have played both for long periods of
time. My Morgan became warped, so I went back to a metal Link.

Note---when the late Henry Cuesta played section tenor on the later segments
of the Lawrence Welk show, he used a metal Link to make him sound tenorish.
Although he took Pete Fountain's place as featured clarinet soloist,
Lawrence pushed him into playing section tenor when Orie Amodeo retired from
the band---Lawrence was always looking for ways to save money!!!!!

I use an Eastman embouchure, as taught by the late Rufus Arey and handed
down to the late Bill Osseck, who also taught Chris Vadala and George
Marge. My main anchor is the top teeth, with my bottom lip as a cushion,
and the lips wrapped around the mpce like a rubber band. I don't smile at
all!

My buddy, Emilio Lyons, the famous "Sax Doctor" at Rayburn Music Co., uses a
lower lip cushion and wraps his lips, but then smiles, using his cheeks. He
gets a great sound on clarinet!

One disadvantage with my embouchure is that I have to use short
barrels---62mm. I have one barrel that fits both my Selmer10Gs, but I play
flat with 64mm barrels. However, I get a good clarinet sound; it retains
the quality of my legit training while affording me enough flexibility to
place the nuances of jazz in my performance practice. I can still go to a
quasi-legit sound for a show, if that situation comes up.

Re practice routine: I get the book of Pares scales---it's an El Cheapo! I
rack my clarinet, my tenor, and my flute on the sax stand, put my strap on,
and then practice each exercise on the 3 instruments in turn.

The fingering on tenor is easy--just remember that the tenor fingering is
just like the clarion register on clarinet. Keep your jaw loose in the
lower register of the tenor, and you will be OK.

Happy tenoring, my friend. Learn that instrument, and you could become the
President of the United States! You also meet more attractive members of
the opposite gender by playing tenor sax than by playing clarinet, although
both Benny Goodman and---especially---Artie Shaw, disprove my previous
statement. But, given the state of present-day music----remember one of the
strongest statements in the English language: "That was then, this is now!"

Happy doubling!
Ted Casher
The Master of Disaster

----- Original Message -----
From: "TON NGUYEN" <tonn_07@-----.com>
To: <klarinet@-----.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 12:32 PM
Subject: [kl] a question for doublers

> Hi everyone,
>
> I've played the clarinet for about a year now and thinking of learning
tenor
> saxophone as well. I'm a recreational player and have no real training or
> lessons. I only have about an hour everyday to practice. so my question
is
> what is a good way to balance the practice time for both instruments.
Also,
> is there some good method books for tenor sax that you recommend?
Something
> that would help a self teaching player like me. Thank you in advance.
>
> Ton
>
> Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE!
> http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
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>
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