 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: kenyagal
Date: 2008-07-24 16:13
I have started back at the clarinet after a seriously long abscence.
the problem I am having is that after playing for a while, it just siezes up and will not play in the upper register. It'll give me an odd harmonic but not the note intended. One minute it is there, the next it is gone.
Similarly, somedays, it refuses to play at all. Right from the beginning.
I know. I make it sound posessed but it feels like it is.
Any sugestions?
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2008-07-24 16:58
Hi K G - A couple of thots, are you playing with a very soft reed?, my playing altissimo requires about a one-strength higher reed. More likely its a "water in tone holes/register tube" problem, so shake/swab/blow it out ! Others, partic. alt. players, please discuss fingerings etc . Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2008-07-24 21:10
After having used my stock Buffet mouthpiece for years, I went to a shop and tried a dozen mouthpieces, my first such visit. The one I selected was a Vandoren M13 Lyre. I felt my tone was improved, and there seemed to be a lot of flexibility available for colorings and further improvements.
However, once I began using it, after about 3/4 hour I would get the exact symptoms you describe. It was bafflling. I stuck with it, and finally discovered that stronger reeds tended to avoid this. However, I doubt that was the whole story. I tend toward what I suspect others would term "biting". After 3/4 hour, my embouchure was getting a little fatigued, and I think that led toward biting harder, which seemed to make the problem worse.
The M13 Lyre has significantly narrower side rails than my old mouthpiece, so I think the center of the reed was actually sort of folding longitudinally, with the consequence that a portion of the tip was contacting the end rail. That's my explanation for the seizing up that I experienced. Being not an expert, that may be hogwash, but there it is.
Incidentally, I advise you not to get mad enough to really bite the reed in an blood-lust attempt to destroy it, while it is attached to the mpc. Teeth are evidently quite harder than mouthpiece stuff, and they will leave tooth marks in one as deep as you wish - or deeper.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2008-07-25 05:16
I think it would help if you write what notes exactly (to and from, or if it skips some) because "upper register" could mean different things, and when you say "refuses to play at all" do you mean the entire instrument, or also the "upper register"?
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Author: kenyagal
Date: 2008-07-25 13:35
To confirm,
When I say it blocks I mena it will not play a note above B flat, Anything that involves the register key.
AS of yesterday a new phenom started. NOW it will not play anything on the lower half of the .....dang , the lower half of the instrument. upper or lower register. In fact when going from a mid F to a Mid C you can literally feel the quality of tone changing fast. By the time I get to a B in will not play.
I have headed a lot of info from you guys already and..... have cleaned the tone holes, changed to a harder reed ( now, my mind is blown, but that's another story lol) , and have gone over all the pads to ensure they were staus quo. I do think I may have found the problem. Please advise:
I believe the G flat key, nextto the A has a faulty spring and is not closing properly.
I should come clean and say this is a friend's clarinet and she bought it for her daughter and yes..... It is a (LORD help me ) First Class.
OK stop laughing at me. I am just getting back at it remember. I am looking to buy my own Really quickly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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