Klarinet Archive - Posting 000280.txt from 2004/11
From: kurtheisig@-----.net
Subj: RE: [kl] Clarinets
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 02:31:16 -0500
Of my dozens of clarinets, I think my 2 C clarinets are the easiest (a 1976 Buffet R 13 and an old Amelotte)---also my Selmer 9 alto clarinet. I don't think that is a function of any key as much as it is qaulity of instrument, over-haul, mouthpiece and reeds. Since I am a repairman, and mouthpiece maker, I have huge control over those factors. I also have thousands of great aged reeds stashed away, and learned reed-making from Steve Adelstein. So I have been able to equalize the variables!!!! Still I think the C and Eb alto are easier. The BEST clarinet I ever played in any key, however, was Danny Leeson's old Selmer Basset horn!!! ---DANNY, WAS THAT YOUR ORIGINAL BASSETT, OR WAS IT MAZZEO'S OLD BASSET?????
Kurt
-----Original Message-----
From: Karl Krelove <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Sent: Nov 4, 2004 7:55 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] Clarinets
> -----Original Message-----
> From: kimi [mailto:kimi_kimy@-----.com]
> Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2004 10:08 PM
>
> --- Karl Krelove <karlkrelove@-----.net> wrote:
>
> > The most usual, from highest-pitched to lowest
> > (shorter to longest):
> >
> > Eb = piccolo clarinet (small)
> > C = highest-pitched of the soprano clarinets
> > Bb = next highest soprano (the one used in bands and
> > played by beginners in
> > the U.S.)
> > A = lowest of the standard sopranos
>
> Out of the above soprano's not counting the Bb, which
> is hardest in your opinion and which one is more
> enjoyable to learn?
> K
>
Can't really do that one simply (if at all). You're asking me of the C or
the A clarinet which is the harder and/or the more enjoyable to learn. First
of all, most students in the U.S. first learn to play on a Bb soprano (as I
did). Secondly, playing the other two soprano instruments isn't a separate
learning process, more an accommodation of their individual acoustical
quirks. Since no one I know has "learned" to play clarinet using anything
but a Bb, I'd have no basis for an answer. It may be that the Bb is easiest
to play, at least among the mass-produced brands, maybe because they sell in
so much more volume that manufacturers can afford more research and
development.
Between the A and the C, I'm not sure one is easier than the other, though
they are different. Music tends to be easier on the clarinet for which the
composer wrote it, because simplicity of key was generally an important
consideration in the choice of instrument, at least for composers of the
mid-nineteenth century and earlier. But I couldn't say that either the A or
the C clarinet is inherently harder than the other or more difficult (or
unenjoyable) to get used to.
Karl Krelove
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