 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2018-07-01 20:52
Attachment: ligature.jpg (901k)
Hi,
I wondered if I might ask advice about getting used to a new metal ligature?
I just started playing the clarinet a few weeks ago, and I think my clarinet was made in about 1940. It plays very nicely, and I can easily play from the bottom note right up to c3 and back down.
However the old metal ligature is splitting and the split is spreading rapidly. I went to the shop today and bought a new metal one that looks very similar, but when I put it on, I find it much harder to make a good sound reliably, and often the clarinet makes a noise like a train whistle, where it didn't used to do that.
I wondered if I maybe need to leave the ligature on with a reed in place for a few days to let it mould to the shape of the mouthpiece, or something like that, or whether it is just a different kind of metal and will never be quite the same?
I have a friend who is a good welder and I'm also wondering if I should ask her if she could weld my old ligature.
My clarinet says that it was made by E.J. Albert in Bruxelles, and the mouthpiece says Boosey and Hawkes, London, Made in France.
I'd be very grateful for any advice. I don't have a teacher.
Thanks. :-)
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Author: Ken Lagace
Date: 2018-07-01 21:15
Try holding the reed with your right thumb, finger with the left hand, and see how the clarinet plays. Any ligature holds the reed and takes away something from the sound. Metal ligatures tend to clamp the reed stronger and leather or string type ligatures grip more gently. Possibly the broken ligature held the reed in a way that helped the sound and the new ligature clamped it in a way that distorted it?
Experimenting with the position and tightness would help you find a way that it works better. If there are lines around the middle of the mouthpiece, they are markers so to keep the ligature below them.
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2018-07-01 21:23
Attachment: line.jpg (885k)
Hi,
Thanks for that. My husband just looked at it and found that if the top of the ligature lines up with the top line then I can play the scale right from the bottom to the top just fine with the new ligature. That must be what it is. I attached a photo in case it's useful to others.
Thanks!
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Author: Matt74
Date: 2018-07-01 22:22
The table on some mpcs are not flat (either by design or accident), usually concave. If the table is concave ligature placement is more important because it changes how the reed interacts with the facing.
- Matthew Simington
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2018-07-02 02:05
This is a really great topic.
Actually the table of pretty much all commercial bought mouthpieces are not flat so they put on something called French curves. To prove this out you can take the backside of sandpaper such as 3M that has a wax coating and a glass surface to assure flatness and take a few swipes and then look at the table of the mouthpiece. You should see shinny marks and dull marks. The dull marks are a clear indication of where the table is not flat. This of course effects the the reeds play. You haven't damaged the mouthpiece as this was wax from the sandpaper. You can also use an index card too if you wish. The shinny spots only show where the high spots of the mouthpieces are high. the dull spots show where the mouthpiece is not level. I repeat, you can't hurt the mouthpiece. The table was already screwed up!
Fixing this should go to a very qualified refacer and or mouthpiece maker. There are a mess of mouthpiece refacers but only a few can make or put on a flat table. Most of the really good ones use special tools and techniques. I use parallel bars and 10,000 grit sandpaper sometimes. Yes most people have never heard of 10,000 grit sandpaper, but that's often what it takes. The bars let you see light through the holes in the table. This is surely why commercial mouthpieces don't work. No one is educated enough to know the needs and values of such details as a flat table. So if the table isn't flat the rails will have flat spots on them. This sucks because reeds have curves. So the rails should curve as well.
Ligatures are so important. Prices can cost from nothing to $900. What you are looking for is that ligature which allows the reed to speak in all of the registers, have a warm sound, lot's of freedom, it can be metal, it can be rubber, or a combination of both, which I use. I strongly feel the ligature should be light weight, the cost to satisfy your needs will probably cost under $75, maybe as little as $25. But maybe something around $200? We are all different. Mine cost pennies as I got a metal ligature and gutting out most of the metal and added some tiny rubber strips using contact cement. Total cost was about $3 including the contact cement. To get the German feel of string I glued pieces of shoelaces to the ligature, but I didn't like the sound and the articulation. The rubber was much harder, so I went with the hard rubber. I found that soft rubber deadens the sound. So there is this happy medium.
So not only is the mouthpiece table and facing critically important so is the ligature you decide on. It can really help with your sound and your articulation, as well as confidence when asked to play pieces such as Mendelsohn's 4th, and many other pieces.
To help find that great ligature practice the G scale or F scale (Major) and learn to play them 3 octaves slurring and articulating. When trying out mouthpieces and ligatures you should be able to feel the freedom of a good one and the stuffiness of another one. Also don't be shy to ask a fellow player in a band or orchestra to try their ligatures.
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2018-07-06 06:41
Thanks, that's really interesting. I've been trying my new ligature, which seems so extremely similar to the old one, but the effect of using it is amazingly different. The old ligature just seems to fit the mouthpiece perfectly and the new one, it seems like almost a fluke if I get it to work right.
It's odd because normally I play the violin, and it is not nearly as complex an instrument to get to work. I had no idea that the clarinet would need such engineering skills, as well as musical skills.
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Author: Ken Lagace
Date: 2018-07-06 17:37
The ligature should work the same most every time if the reed and ligature are in the same place every time. Check that the ligature is just below the top line on the mouthpiece (if it has one). If no line, pick a spot just below the first cut on the reed bark. Place the reed so the tip is even with the tip of the mouthpiece and it is centered correctly. Even the other end of the reed, the boot we call it, must be centered. later you may find that the reed's 'sweet spot' may be angled one way or other or off center in some way. But then always place the reed the same way for the best results.
BUT!!!
Day to day humidity changes also change the way reeds play.
My teacher, Kal Opperman, has a famous saying,
"Everyone chooses a way to destroy themselves, and some choose the clarinet.".
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