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Re: How to Tell if a Reed is Shrill/Too Soft opposed to Vibrant and Lively?

Author: kdk
Date: 2015-01-08 21:40

Sometimes someone else has to tell you. It's true that we don't hear ourselves as others hear us, to paraphrase Robert Burns and others. And we certainly don't hear ourselves as others hear us who are seated in an auditorium or concert hall some distance away.

But in the long term, you need to base your judgement on what your own ears tell you. The problem isn't just in the difference between what the player and others actually hear. A real issue is the difference between what the player and others expect and want to hear. One person's dull is another's dark. One person's bright is someone else's focused.

By all means, record yourself (on the best equipment you can borrow) and ask people to listen to you from a reasonable distance for the audience's perspective. But you need to be comfortable with what you hear coming from your clarinet. You need to develop a concept of sound to work toward, and that's the hardest part of the process of learning to play an instrument.

I tend to judge correct strength based more on response and intonation than tone quality. You can tell if a reed is truly too soft - it closes during normal play, especially in articulated passages, it tends to go flat (in pitch) as you go higher in the range, legato passages tend toward wildness of sound - some notes shouting and others sounding thin and brittle, and pianissimo is hard to do without losing the sound and response. Some of this is true also of reeds that are too hard, but with the added quality of breathiness and inflexibility of response especially through the throat notes and altissimo range and over both breaks. Reeds that are very hard tend to play sharp and pitch is less flexible. A reed within the right strength range will be easier to control in all of these areas.

Karl

Post Edited (2015-01-09 04:10)

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