Klarinet Archive - Posting 000519.txt from 2004/11

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Embrouchure/reed-strength/clarinet question.
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 09:14:48 -0500


Daniel Fairhead wrote,
>>My teacher says I need to buy a new clarinet, that my old plastic Boosey
& Hawkes
Regent is the problem. >>

Do you know for sure it's a B&H Regent? -- because at least two other
companies made a model called Regent, and one of them is an absolute hunger
honker. If it's an old (pre-1950) clarinet with no B&H logo on it but it
does have the stamp, "Made in Cleveland," then it's a student model from
the H. N. White Co.. The H. N. White clarinets are all student quality,
even when they're branded with the White logo, and none are in the same
(high) class with the best of the H. N. White saxophones (some of which are
terrific). The metal Regents were made in Cleveland, but I've heard that
the wooden clarinet bodies were imported, then stamped as they were because
the keys were made and the assembly done in the USA. If the clarinet says,
"Made in Cleveland," then I'd replace it. If it says nothing at all except
"Regent," and there's no B&H logo on the case or any of the other
equipment, either, then it's that other one, the no-name honker, otherwise
known as a lamp.

Bill Hausmann wrote,
>I find that the airy sound is a common result of
>using a too-hard reed.

That sound (which reminds me of Dolby 1 hiss) was much in evidence during
the finals of the high school student competition at ClarinetFest last
summer. I thought that two of these excellent players used very hard reeds
and sacrificed some tone quality in order to be sure they didn't play flat
in the altissimo. That type of airy sound can happen to anybody, even a
very advanced player, who's using a hard reed. When it happens to me
(mediocre amateur), the hiss seems to result from air escaping at the
corners of my mouth because I'm trying to blow a hurricane to get a tone
out of that reed, and my embouchure isn't strong enough to keep my lips
sealed tightly. That sound is separate from the tone quality of the note
itself. It can be a good, supported tone in clarino and altissimo, but
sounds too thin to me in chalumeau. When I hear that type of hiss, I
change to a softer reed. I'd rather forget about trying to match pitch
with the whistling teakettle than mess up the best part of the clarinet's
range.

But there's a different type of hissy or airy sound that I associate only
with beginners or people who rarely practice. Usually the pitch of the
chalumeau notes is flat but also bends up and down uncontrollably (from
beginners, they're "notey notes," too, with an unsteady unh-unh-unh sound
in them as the student counts the beat by nodding or by pausing the
breath), while the clarion, if the student can reach up there at all,
sounds screechy. It's the typical sound of the first-year clarinet players
in the third section of a beginner band.

That airy sound in a beginner's chalumeau -- I think of it as "furry" tone
-- is part of the tone quality of the note itself, not an extra noise on
top of the note (although there may *also* be the separate hiss that sounds
like Dolby). Maybe that furry tone is the best that most people can get
out of the no. 1 or 1-1/2 reed sometimes recommended to beginners (by crazy
people...), but it's also what teachers refer to as an "unsupported" tone.
It seems to come not only from a reed that's too soft for the mouthpiece
but also from just blowing, blaaaaaah, into the mouthpiece, instead of
forming a firm embouchure and directing the air stream. It's worst when
someone plays with the cheeks puffed up full of air. Except when it isn't
-- Robert Springs takes in such a mouthful of air when he's circular
breathing that even his neck bulges out, but his tone quality stays
excellent. Good circular breathers must have muscles of iron in there.
Never understood how Louis Armstrong got away with playing the trumpet so
superbly with that chipmunk-cheeked embouchure of his -- although I don't
imagine anybody tried to lecture him to change it, given his results...!

But that "furry" tone can also come from a crummy mouthpiece. I sound like
that on some of the low-end student mouthpieces I find with clarinets from
the flea market. It's heartening that often there's a second, better
mouthpiece in the case, too: Someone gave the original owner good advice
to upgrade. I wish somebody had recommended I lose the mouthpiece that
came as original equipment with my 1958 Conn Director! I played on
that...thing from age nine to age 18. All along, I blamed myself and the
clarinet. I had no idea that people upgraded their mouthpieces.

A few years ago, when I tried out a Hite Premiere on my old Conn, which
I've kept for sentimental reasons, it sounded like a different, much better
clarinet (though it'll never be a *good* clarinet, because there's nothing
a mouthpiece can do about the extremely wide twelfths). Switching back and
forth between the original Conn mouthpiece and the Hite made an amazing
difference in tone quality. The Hite Premiere and the Fobes Debut are both
good, reliable choices for a student who wants to upgrade without spending
a ton of money obsessing over the options (yet...).

Lelia Loban
Cthulhu cultists support school prayer!

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