The Clarinet BBoard

Re: Inexpensive mouthpiuece for a darker warmer tone ?

Author: WhitePlainsDave  Date:   2015-03-24 17:55 Gerardo: Here's my 2 cents. At 6 months of playing, a darker and warmer tone is best derived from playing your existing Yamaha 4C mouthpiece, which is a good beginner mouthpiece, and developing your desired tone through subtle changes to your embouchure, and perhaps reed strength. Be very cautious of what improvements a mouthpiece will give you at this early stage of your play, especially since you seem to imply that around $40 is your price ceiling for the purchase of a replacement mouthpiece. I say save the money towards someday buying a professional mouthpiece. Now, I'm not saying that mouthpieces can't make a difference. They can, but the situation has to be right. What I am saying is that with 6 months in this craft, and $40 to spend, your best strategy is to practice: which only costs you your time. I know...that's not the answer you may want to hear, and yet I think it the most solid advice one can give you, sight unseen. Most new players look for hardware fixes to their problems. The lucky players are the ones with teachers who know when hardware is part of a solution--which often it is not--and the smart players listen to those instructors, who suggest they put their time into the etude books they've assigned. If you were playing a junky mouthpiece, perhaps my story would differ. But by no means is a 4C a bad mouthpiece as introductory ones go. There are no shortcuts in clarinet play, but there are direct routes to proficiency. Those direct routes are the solid use, of solid study guides (books.) I would suggest you listen to clarinet players whose sound you like, (youtube) and practice trying to copy their sound by experimental with subtle changes to your embouchure. Play long tones...experiment with double lip embouchure and see if you can incorporate into your single lip play (assuming you play single lip: with only the bottom lip covering the bottom teeth) some of the upper pallette expansion you get from double lip play. ==== But let me guess, I haven't convinced you. And meanwhile others will be quick to offer you mouthpiece suggestions...so I am going to cover that as well, only because if you take that route, and I suggest you don't, that you take the best path. The Yamaha 4C: http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical-instruments/winds/mouthpieces/woodwind/clarinets_series/?mode=series#tab=PD5115596 has a tip opening of 1.05mm, which is a relatively closed tip as mouthpieces go, on a 19mm (medium) http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=211304&t=210972 facing length. Note that there are many attributes that make for a mouthpiece design not covered here, like rail width/curvature, materials, bore, etc. Even then, what works for one player may not work for another. Meanwhile the Hite Premiere http://swanlakevillage.com/jdhite/mouthpieces/premiere.htm has a tip opening of .043" = 1.0922mm, which makes it slightly more than the 4C. I don't have specifications on this latter mouthpiece's facing but wish to make known that all other things equal, smaller tip and longer facing make for mouthpieces that normally require stronger reeds. ========= With this said, if you must try another mouthpiece, I would recommend you try a leading mouthpiece maker's introductory offerings, like Clark Fobes http://www.clarkwfobes.com/clarinet_mouthpieces.html Debut model. It has a facing smaller than either of the mouthpieces you mentioned http://www.clarkwfobes.com/mp-chart.html but on a shorter 17mm facing. Another brand to try would one of the mouthpieces from Brad Behn's Overture Collection: another student line of mouthpieces. http://www.clarinetmouthpiece.com/mouthpieces/overture/overture-collection/ =========== Gerardo...when people, particularly students, ask me what's the best ligature out there, I tell them "The Klose Studies Volume 1," a book. I take it that you can catch my drift here. Post Edited (2015-03-24 18:00)

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Re: Inexpensive mouthpiuece for a darker warmer tone ?

Author: WhitePlainsDave  Date:   2015-03-26 17:15 Gerardo: A couple of thoughts, perhaps [some] already known by you. 1) Many posters, you included, have suggested mouthpieces beyond the same price range of the Yamaha 4C and Hite Premiere you originally cited. 2) This price difference, all the more, has me standing by the idea that at this stage of the game, improvements will best come from you, not a mouthpiece change, although I do wish to concur with TomS that another place where money would be well spent is on a good private teacher: assuming you don't have one already. ===== But...I'm also a realist and know people will want to change gear in hopes of buying performance improvement...and sometimes it does, if only a bit. With that said, assuming you go out and buy a mouthpiece, and assuming further that you're new price ceiling is at around $100, not the original $40, based upon the mouthpieces you've been looking at, I would, in light of your current reed strength comfort range, buy 1 of 3 different Vandoren mouthpieces: an M13, M13 Lyre, or M15. These mouthpieces don't have tip openings that exceed your Yamaha 4C: a somewhat important point given that you are playing reeds at the lower end of the strength spectrum. This is NOT an insult. Abandon any notions you may have that reed strength is solely a product of mouth strength: a surrogate for clarinet experience. Reed strength by in large a product of what mouthpiece you are using. http://www.vandoren-en.com/file/162130/ "Thank you. I looked on line for the Vandoren M13 and I got completely confused. There is the Vandoren M13, the Vandoren M13 Lyre, and both come in two configurations: Traditional and 88.... so when you suggest the Vandoren M13, which of the many versions you suggest ? " I recommend a Traditional Beak M15 to students: Vandoren's CM317 product as per the link. As it regards the "configurations," (i.e. Traditional Beak, Profile 88, and 13 Series Profile 88) if you are buying either of the M13 (Lyre or not) mouthpieces, at least according to the above referenced chart, they only come in 13 Series Profile 88 configuration. The configurations here have to do with 2 mouthpiece attributes: the angle of the beak or top of the mouthpiece, and what pitch the mouthpiece is tuned to. Her in the U.S., when tend to tune to concert "A" at 440 hz, so I would shy away from mouthpieces tuned to "A" at 442 hz. Long story short, and "painting with broad strokes," European orchestras tend to play around A= 442, as some American orchestras have changed to as well. But something tells me that at 6 months into this, at 62, auditioning for and playing with [major] symphony orchestras is likely not on your event horizon. ===== The reason why I am siding with 1 of these 3 mouthpieces, assuming you find it best to purchase a mouthpiece despite my warnings, is that suggested mouthpieces like the M30 are just too open for you. You will find your existing reeds too strong, and there is no strength to go lower than what you play, short of learning to sand down reeds: a path you are not ready to travel on yet. With the 3 mouthpieces I suggest you will find your existing reeds either right in size, or slightly too weak, allowing you to purchase strengths more in the 3 range: giving you wiggle room in either direction on reed strength choices. (I'm neither knocking that mouthpiece or those who suggested it prior to knowing both your existing mouthpiece and favored reed strength. I happen to love the M30D, as in Deutch, which plays on Boehm (American) clarinets, but don't think you have the chops for it yet: it's too open at the tip, and I believe, it's rails too wide. (BTW: I did not mean to imply by sanding down reeds that stronger reeds are thicker. Manufacturers tend to cut a brand of reeds identically across all strengths, and then test a reed's resitance, assigning it a strength, based on the naturally variability found in cane. I did mean to imply that sanding a reed: a techinique that must be taught/learned, will make any given reed weaker.) Sanding is NOT by any means as simple as taking material off the flat side of a reed. As stated prior, many things go into what strength of reeds most players find appropriate on a mouthpiece brand and model, not just tip opening. There's facing length, the width of the rails, the material the mouthpiece is made of, and curvature of the rails just to name a few additional attributes. Some people find thicker rails to produce a darker sound. But thicker rails, all else equal (like I believe the M30D has) usually require weaker reeds, and we have no wiggle room to drop your reed strength. Someone also suggested the Ridenour Encore. I don't know its specs, although a call to Ridenour could probably answer that, and that IMHO, Tom Ridenour, on the whole, makes great products. http://www.ridenourclarinetproducts.com/mid-rangeclarinet.html Finally, there's where where to buy. I urge you if possible to try before you buy. Ideally if some store near you has these mouthpieces in stock, and lets you try them first, that is ideal. Short of that, allow me to suggest that you buy on the internet from sellers with mouthpiece trial policies like Weiner Music, http://shop.weinermusic.com/Returns.asp (half way down the page.) (I have no financial arrangements with any vendor or product discussed above.) I'll leave you with what I think is the best mouthpiece for the money for you at this stage of your play http://shop.weinermusic.com/KLOSE-CELEBRATED-METHOD-FOR-CLARINET-COMPLETE-3040/productinfo/PC3040/

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