Klarinet Archive - Posting 000100.txt from 2011/03

From: Tim Roberts <timr@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Reed adjustment
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:23:21 -0400

Rachel Roessel <gsurosey@-----.com> wrote:
>
> The first thing I do with my new reeds now is to seal them from absorbing too
> much moisture (by getting them wet and rubbing them; I described that horribly,
> but my teacher showed me).

Yep, in many cases that's all I do.

> This was part of my problem in college. I could never understand why the
> orchestra conductor was always telling me to play our more because he couldn't
> really hear me. I couldn't understand why he would say that; after all, I was
> blowing so hard I felt my face turn red (and I heard myself so I assumed he
> could, too). Turns out that my mouthpiece and reed combination weren't working
> well together (I played on reeds as hard as I'm using now (Rue LePic #4), but
> with a 5RV series 13 mouthpiece, so it was too open for that strength reed to
> work for me). My current combination works much better and my teacher notices a
> difference for the better.

This is a very important point, and one that seems to elude many of
school band and orchestra teachers (if they are not woodwind players
themselves). Many of them treat reed strength as a badge of courage,
more like karate belts then graded tools. A given mouthpiece is
designed to work best with a relatively narrow range of reed strengths
(like plus or minus 1/2). I've actually seen notes on a whiteboard at a
local high school giving "target" reed strengths for each grade,
increasing as they move on. That kind of thing can be damaging, in my
opinion. Most student mouthpieces seem to be targeted at a Vandoren 3
(+/- 0.5), or Rico 3.5. If you force them to use a 4 or 4.5, they will
hurt themselves trying to producing a good sound, with no discernible
benefit.

I see the opposite effect in my community band. Some of the players are
mating a nice intermediate mouthpiece with a 2 or 2.5 reed. It doesn't
take a lot of air to make a sound, but it means their altissimo is
hopelessly flat. Bumping up a notch or two often produces a huge
improvement in the altissimo, without take a lot of extra effort.

--
Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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