 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: OboeAtHeart
Date: 2003-10-14 00:21
Okay folks. I'm in dire need of advice.
*takes a deep breath* This will be lengthy. I need some advice.
I play just about everything anyone's ever thrown at me, including but not limited to Bb/Eb Clarinet, Oboe, Bari-Sax and various recorders and Baroque flutes. I also play regular flute and piano, but that's a different matter all together.
I dearly love playing three instruments in three different bands everyday in my school, but I've found I'm getting a very annoying squeak when I play clarinet. It's like I'm overblowing the clarion register up a fourth. I know it's nothing with my clarinet or my reeds because I do it on other horns and what not. It happens very randomly. When I lip up in the altissimo register, I'm missing the partials and it's almost always -way- too high. I didn't used to do this.
Is it because I'm playing oboe? I just started in our lower band at my High School about four weeks ago, and I love playing it, but it's a challenge to keep in tune and getting some of the lower notes out is a pain.
Or is it because I'm playing Bari-Sax, something I've played since 8th grade in Jazz band (about 2 years now), and I'm just getting used to the amount of air it takes to play such a large instrument?
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Next question.
I'm getting an edge on my tone, my reeds are well taken care of, not chipped or cracked (I throw them out if they even get a little bit cracked, or I trim them with my friend's reed trimmer). My overall tone is still the same, but there's a sort of reedy tone on it that I didn't used to have.
It's driving me up the wall because I'll have a good tone about an hour before my audition and then it'll be all buzzy and nasty when I audition. Gr.
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I've been playing clarinet for four years, and Oboe for about 4 or 5 weeks, Bari Sax was forced on me when I wouldn't play piano for Jazz band in 8th grade. I love playing clarinet, but I also play the Eb Clarinet, which my band directors seem to hate with a passion. I love that instrument. Any opinions on the Eb clarinet? It's a fun little instrument.
Thanks for you guyses advice, I appreciate it.
-Jenne.
*~"The clarinet, though appropriate to the expression of the most poetic ideas and sentiments, is really an epic instrument- the voice of heroic love."~*
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Author: krawfish3x
Date: 2003-10-14 02:10
sit down and play long tones on each instrument daily, with a tuner. from playing multiple i also get a little edge in my tone, so i cant answer this question for you.
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2003-10-14 02:26
Be aware that when you trim reeds with a trimmer, you significantly alter the characteristics of the reed. Most obviously, it becomes harder, but there are other, subtler differences. Try fooling with the position of the reed on the mouthpiece, and the height of the ligature. What kind of setup (clar/mpc/lig/reed) are you using?
As for the squeaks, you are most likely overblowing. Try this (and do it often)... play the note you are aiming for, perhaps starting at the C# above the staff. Then overblow the note to get the one above it. The go back to the C#, and repeat this procedure many times, at different speeds. Then go on to D, D#, and so on. Do this often, perhaps daily, until you get the feel of where the notes actually lie. Then do it some more. Try to hear the note in your head before you play it.
Fundamentally, it's an issue of air support, which often takes years to learn properly. Doubling on other instruments only makes it trickier, especially when you're just starting, because you tend to carry one instrument's technique to another.
As for the Eefer, it's an instrument that is painful to the ears unless played very well. Especially at the high school level, where ensemble-wide intonation is often less than pristine ("Hey, I'm in tune with the tuner, so I'm right!" I shamelessly proclaimed back in the day).
Good luck!
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: Fred
Date: 2003-10-14 11:20
Especially after playing bari, I wonder if you are putting too much mouthpiece in your mouth. That's a sure way to invite squeeks.
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2003-10-14 14:29
Like Fred said too much mouthpiece is one cause and as a double reed single reed doubler I have found that I need to be conscious of lip pressure on the single reeds after playing double. Not so much biting with the teeth but trying to hold the single reed with the same kind of pressure as needed for a double reed. Being unfamiliar with American school terminology I will guess that you are still a teenager and I would suggest that you are spreading yourself a bit thin at that age.
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2003-10-14 18:21
Another source of random squeaks is to inadvertently hit other keys or to not simultaneously move all the fingers that need to be moved when changing notes, either of which is equivalent to applying some weird, unintentional fingering for a small fraction of a second, often resulting in a squeak.
As far as eefers are concerned, there is some literature with important eefer parts, including solos, although, I suspect (Someone correct me if I'm wrong.) that they are frequently cued in the b-flat clarinet or piccolo parts. Then again, there are many more pieces where the eefer part is just a duplication of the first clarinet or some other part. In other words, sometimes they're valuable, many times they can be disposed of without problem.
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Author: OboeAtHeart
Date: 2003-10-16 01:49
Wyroo! Answers. ^_^ So happy. Just so you know, I'm a Freshman in High School, but I've been playing various amounts of woodwinds and piano since I was about 4. I was told I played pennywhistle before I could read.
Okay.. I'm using a B45/Rovner setup, Mitchell Lurie reeds, size 4. On the Bb Clarinet. (Anything else, and I mean anything else smaller squeaks to all heck.) I'll try the partial reccomendation, it seemed to help when I was doing it at school. My Bari reeds are 3s, and Vandorens, for the most part. Er.. My Oboe reeds are Martin Lesher Mediums.
My horns are a Grassia Baritone Saxophone, (school's), a Yamaha wood Oboe, I'm not sure of the model, and my own personal two clarinets are a Bundy-Selmer Eb Clarinet with a Vito MP and 3 1/2 reeds. It's a very nice horn which responds wonderfully for being a resonite/plastic horn. My Bb is an older Leblanc Concerto which I love to death.
(First good horn was a Pete Fountain Dynamic-H Leblanc, extra G#/C# trill key. Gold plated. It looked -weird- at All-County.)
I've had other folks tell me I'm spreading myself too thin, but unfortunately, my schedual doesn't work for Symphonic band (In which I play Bb and very rarely Eb clarinet in), so I go to rehersal during lunch and about 10 minutes after the bell rings for my PIB World History class... so I need an actual band credit, and apparently that one is it. (Lower Concert band, in which I play oboe.)
My director won't let me off of Bari-sax, and I've been told by a few other people that I highly respect that I need to learn to play Oboe.. I'm learning a few things off of my director about switching instruments around, and I learned that I have the wackiest hand postition ever known to mankind on clarinet, since I had to teach myself how to play in 6th grade. That wasn't cool, I'm still getting over some really bad habits that I developed on my own.
(My first band was 23 people at a private school with a woman as director who couldn't play clarinet; she played flute.)
As for the eefer, I truely do love that instrument, and I'm working on getting on being able to play it at our last football game out on the field. Without the consent of my band director, because he hates the instrument weither I'm sounding good on it or not. He doesn't even consider it an option, unfortunately.
There is however, a young man with a soprano saxophone out there, and they haven't (our band directors) said a word about it. Makes me wonder. It's a great sounding little horn too, and easier for me to play since it's a lot smaller, and I'm not exactly all that big myself.
The Bari comes up to just a little above my elbow, and is about as tall as I am when I'm sitting. It's a little larger than average, being that it's got the extra A key though (HONK!) Evidently my Middle school director told my now HS director I needed to be on Bari.
Okay. I'm rambling now, I'll get off this board and check in tomorrow! Cheers.
-Jenne.
*~"The clarinet, though appropriate to the expression of the most poetic ideas and sentiments, is really an epic instrument- the voice of heroic love."~*
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Author: cujo
Date: 2003-10-16 03:23
This might seem like a simple solution but will probably help at least. Right before I play with reed all set-up I press it on the mouthpiece rails till it just touches the tips. You will see through the reed to the MP on tip. MAke sure the tips are EXACTLY matching. A milimeter off and it changes the way the reed reacts. A reed a tiny bit long will play harder and squeak sometimes. IF I get quick sqeaks I adjust my reed down more and they clear up(mostly).
On my reeds a bit too soft and I dont have time to clip I just push them up a little on the MP. They still play fine but harden up.
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