Klarinet Archive - Posting 000193.txt from 2007/03

From: Juan Francisco Vicente Becerro <juanfran2@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Suspicious about an item proposed in Ebay...
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:35:03 -0400

I didn't intend to criticize plastic bodied clarinets, just the one my
pupil bought. At my "very beginning" I owned an Amati, and it did a good
work, and several of my pupils own a Buffet B12, also with good results.

When I wrote about "the chef's recommendation", I did it "the short
way". Let's please go with the full version: at my school pupils begin
at three, doing what we call "initiation on music", trying to develop
those skills needed to, in their future studies, learn and write music.
So they practice, -in a recreational but pedagogically studied way- ear
training, improvisation, movement, fine motor skill coordination, etc,
trying to find a natural way from life music to abstract music.

After that, and before beginning "music training", where they begin with
instrument, musical language, choir and orchestra, they last one year
doing monthly workshops. There, pupils, parents and teachers try to show
all the instrument we teach at our school, so that the teacher looks for
problems or advantages of each pupil, pupil choose the instrument they
want to play because they know the instrument, and parents are informed
about which skills are needed in each instrument, and so on. At the end
of that year they have to choose, and we talk to their fathers, among
other things, about "how to" buy the instrument.

Each instrument has advantages and disadvantages. Plastic ones are
cheaper, better for careless boys. Wood are "durable" if well cared for,
and better sound. Yes, at the beginning there is no difference between
wood an plastic in your pupil sound, but for me, maybe, it's better buy
a wood one that lasts seven, eight years, than a plastic that do it only
three or four and then another wood one. I don't push them, since I
don't care plastic or wood, but good tuning and keywork, so I have
several B12, several E11, and some Yamaha or Amati.

The subject of my previous email was in reply to another message about
an odd item in eBay, so all my comments about "plastic sound" where
about a particular pupil's clarinet, bought at eBay, for 120$ (new, not
second hand). Mouthpiece is Selmer C120 (not included, I told them to
buy it in a local store). The sound is poor. I know there isn't a lot of
difference between plastic and wood in a pupil, but, that third year
pupil plays his clarinet and really sounds "more" plastic than usual
(when he plays with his mouthpiece in other plastic clarinet it sounds
much better). Poor keywork (same length screws for different length
keys, for example, so if you want to unscrew it you have to make same
"speleology"), bad pads, bad springs, bad corks, with no brand, no
serial numbers, nothing. Believe me, it's a "piece of art".

Anyway, the point was not convincing anyone about plastic or wood, I
have a general rule, plastic is good at the beginning, but if you can
afford a wood one, do it. BUT, every pupil is different, and if
individual problems, or individual situations, individual solutions and
individual choices are needed. The point is that, even when you have to
buy with your incomes in mind, and you may not be able to choose a wood
one, there is a limit, in my opinion far way from "120$ including shipping".

Juanfran

Keith Bowen escribió:
> Juanfran,
>
> Exactly what make of instrument was it?
>
> I don't believe there is such a thing as "plastic sound" and I am sure Dan
> will back me up! There might possibly be a very small difference, but surely
> nothing indiscernible at the student level. Would you reject a Buffet
> Greenline? A plastic bodied clarinet can be an excellent student choice. You
> probably should consider recommending a new mouthpiece, though.
>
> There are some excellent inexpensive plastic-body instruments available in
> Europe. I have an Amati C clarinet, with plastic body. The keywork is very
> good, and though the tuning was poor when I got it, a couple of days work on
> regulating and tuning it made it very acceptable (no more than 10 cents
> deviation overall and <5 between adjacent notes). At our recent Kammermusik
> workshop, several people played both this and a Buffet E11 (quite hard, on
> works like Beethoven 7 for octet) and preferred the (tweaked) Amati - Joe
> Fasel can confirm. It was probably the cheapest horn in the room. Yamaha is
> also good at this level, I believe.
>
> And I am not just cheap; I own several very good and expensive horns
> (Leblanc, Fox and Wurlitzer).
>
> Keith Bowen
>
>

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