 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: super20dan
Date: 2002-10-08 00:47
what do these play like? i just bought pne on ebay and wonder how they play. i bought a normandy. i plan on using it to teach my daughter to play on.
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Author: madvax
Date: 2002-10-08 01:09
super20dan wrote:
> what do these play like?
Did you buy the wooden or the plastic model?
Both play fine with a nice tone and reasonable intonation. As you would expect, the plastic model plays like a student model and the wooden one plays like an intermediate model.
The wooden model I had was a bit stuffy, but still a good player.
The plateau clarinets "feel funny" when you play on them. It's hard to get used to the buttons after playing on open holes. I suppose you could get used to them.
I started my child on an old plastic Evette clarinet at the age of eight. She seemed to adapt fine to the open holes.
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Author: super20dan
Date: 2002-10-08 11:36
igot the resonite .thanks for the info. i can always sell it to a sax player as a doubling clarinet
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2002-10-08 14:16
I overhauled a wooden Normandy plateau clarinet last year and it played remarkably well, I thought -- not at all stuffy, and intonation was good.
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Author: Terry Horlick
Date: 2002-10-08 14:56
Super20dan,
I wouldn't count on selling it to a sax player. Just because we play sax doesn't impair our thought processess. I like to play a top quality horn for doubling, mine is a 1925 full Boehm Buffet. After dumping over $3000 on a top notch sax do you really expect most players to go for a quirky compromise on their other horns?
At least in my experience folks who play sax and double want good sounding pro clarinets. But there are still some of us who do like to have a few unusual items around to fiddle with. My concern is that by teaching your daughter on a plateau horn she my never be able to move on to a standard Boehm horn and therefore her progress will be limited to that first clarinet. I hope I am wrong here.
Terry
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2002-10-08 15:14
Terry,
I think you're overreacting. Learning clarinet on a plateau instrument and then transitioning to a 'normal' open-hole/ring clarinet should be of no more concern than the transition many flautists make from closed-hole to open-hole flutes. And the Normandy clarinet should, if properly set up, be good enough for the vast majority of doublers. Not all of us are full-time professional performers, you know, and most of us have very limited budgets.
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Author: Wes
Date: 2002-10-08 17:48
The plateau clarinets of Leblanc seem to play ok. They are best used for people with too small hands and/or hands that cannot fit a normal clarinet. Overhaul of these clarinets is more costly and they can be more difficult to maintain. I worked on a Vito recently that had been poorly made in the factory and was hard to adjust. The pads were not properly set in the factory, also. Generally, I would try not to get involved with them unless absolutely necessary. Good luck!
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Author: super20dan
Date: 2002-10-08 21:59
terry-i didnot intend to offend. i am very much a sax player myself what i ment is some sax players who leared on sax first have a hard time learning to play clarinet. its a much harder insterment than sax and they might like the feel of a closed hole clarinet better (at least at first) dave- can you get pads for one of these ? there could be some work comming your way. and yes i do enjoy odd-ball insterments.
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2002-10-08 22:30
S20Dan,
Pads are sold in every size, regardless of application --- my preferred pads for all sizes of clarinets are leather (kid), but one can obtain just about any size in bladder ('fishskin') also, and the smaller sizes as used on soprano clarinets are readily available in cork -- not to mention specialty types such as Gore-Tex, Valentinos, etc. In other words, repadding a plateau soprano clarinet is not a problem. As I wrote above, I've already done one Normandy plateau soprano (in tan leather, by the way).
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Author: Terry Horlick
Date: 2002-10-09 03:35
David,
You don't have to be a full time professional or rich. I think most folks would prefer to start out on a horn they will stay with. Why intentionally start with something you will have to transition from when it is just as easy to start with the real deal. As for the budget I feel it is far more economical to start with a horn you can stay with rather than with one you will have to replace. In the same vein wouldn't it be easier to re-sell a standard Boehm horn if need be? As for transitioning from closed to open holes, my daughter started out with a closed hole flute, try as she might she couldn't transition to my open hole flute. Having been a clarinet player and having started out with the open holes it was never an issue. I think super20dan is just putting an obstacle in his daughters path unnecessarily.
super20dan,
Offense? Of course not. Yours was an interesting post with a real flaw in reasoning... I thought it would be interesting to discuss what I see as a logical flaw. You are a sax player... also clarinet? I think maybe not. You see the reason a clarinet is harder for a sax player to learn than sax is for a clarinet player lies with the bore of the horns. A sax has a conical bore which uses all the overtones in the series, so going over the break is an octave...SIMPLE. A clarinet is a cylinder stopped at one end... skips every other overtone so the break gives a 12th. The problem sax players have is that the same fingerings in the different registers do not give notes an octave apart. I have never heard a sax player complain about open holes. It really only takes a few minutes to learn the finger positions for the clarinet and the platten horn will act like the closed hole flute... allow sloppy finger position. So what happens is it lets you learn to play with less precision of technique. Then later you have to relearn your technique if you ever get serious about playing.
I guess it boils down to first you provide what you can and what you can afford for your child. If that means an unusual instrument then just make sure it plays easily enough so that she can learn. Also I hope it doesn't look different enough to embarrass her out of playing in band. I have heard of folks who develop arthritic joints as they age and they may find this type of instrument advantageous... that is probably the market for platten clarinets rather than us poor dumb sax doublers.
As an aside, last year the oboe player in orchestra turns around and says to me after a solo, "that was nice... for a doubler". I really didn't feel that was much of a compliment... however I am also sure it was as much of a compliment as she intended!
Just have fun, Terry
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Author: super20dan
Date: 2002-10-09 21:51
terry - i was a clarinet player first and strongly feel that all should start on clarinet and no one should even be allowed to play sax for at least the first year. i dont know a single sax player who ever succesfully learned clarinet later on. they all give up and complain that it is just too hard. my plan w/daughter is to teach her my self as soon as she is big enough to hold it and when she is old enough to start band she will have a good head start. she will then start band w /a regular open hole clarinet.i will use the closed hole my self as i said i enjoy odd insterments. i will give my r13 to my daughter when i think she is ready for it. i agree students should have the best horns they can afford.
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Author: Terry Horlick
Date: 2002-10-10 02:14
You win, If she is too small to hold a standard clarinet then I agree a platten system is a good idea. At this stage beautiful sounds and lasting tachnique are one or two notches down from having a pleasant introduction to playing. I think your way is way better than starting her out on a recorder!
If it works out will you post your resuslts here then pass the clarinet on to some other beginning children?
TH
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