 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: paul
Date: 1999-11-11 20:27
I've noticed on even the pro grade clarinets that there are some traditionally weak notes. Almost everyone knows of the very weak "throat tones", especially the throat Bb. I've noticed a fairly weak chalemeau E and F. I've found that my clarion A is almost always weak, even after the entire horn was scrutinized for correct pads, proper fingerings in tone holes, etc. The low altissimo D is also pretty weak. Stepping up and down across the register breaks seems to bring out the worst behavior of these weak notes. Okay, that's the list of what I consider to be weak notes that take a lot more work to get to speak properly. I'm sure there are a bunch more.
Now that I know the problem, what are some of the good ways to work around these weak notes to get them to speak better?
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Author: Mario
Date: 1999-11-11 21:17
Yes, there are response, color and intonation problems in the clarinet that requie a life time of passionate work to solve. By tuning the air column, the embouchure and the fingering in real-time, one can achieve an amazing homogeneity from an mperfect instrument.
Howver, your horn might need regulating. Essentially, pads might be raised (to raise the pitch, remove pressure and add brightness) or loweres (for the reverse effect). A competent clarinet technician will make minute adjustements here and there that will take away some of these problems. Some claim that by reworking some of the tone hole, addition issues can be solved.
I play with a pair of Rossi (Bb and A). Even these exceptional instruments remain a little bit temperamental and needs special techniques to play perfectly "in real-time".
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Author: Kevin Bowman
Date: 1999-11-11 21:58
You consider the altissimo D to be weak? I disagree.
That note is one of the ugliest notes on the clarinet -- it's out of tune, it's brash, and it sticks out like a sore thumb. It's also one of the least resistive notes on the clarinet. All the problems with this single note seem strange (to me) because it's a harmonic of the very _best_ notes on the clarinet (chalemeau Bb and clarion F). I find myself holding back on alt. D when it is in a position to be easily heard. Even when it appears in a run, I'm especially careful to work hard to make it blend. Not much more you can do with alt. D except focus the airstream, and make a conscious effort blend the tone (and intonation) with the surrounding notes.
As for the other notes:
Chalemeau E & F (as well as clarion B & C) use the entire length of the clarinet. Some clarinets have a "vent" in the bell to help these speak more easily (and in tune). Again, the only thing you can do with these notes is focus the airstream and really concentrate on getting a good tone - no "tricks".
Clarion A - this note tends to "break" on some clarinets. Some mouthpieces "hold" better in this range. My advice would be to try a variety of mpc/lig/reed combo's to get the best response. Other than that - more breath support will help the note "hold" better.
And finally, throat Bb. Probably, more words have been written about this single note than about any other note on the clarinet. Here's my 2 cents: 1st, use the side fingering whenever possible. The side fingering is the A key plus the RH trill key #3 (3rd from the bottom or 2nd from the top). 2nd, learn and use the best "shading" fingerings. On R13's the best combination on a well adjusted horn is to add LH 2 & 3 the the RH F/C key. This lowers the pitch and makes the note more resonant. There are similar shading fingerings for A as well:
A -23|--3 F/C (best)
or A ---|12- (good in many situations)
The last one also works for Ab:
Ab ---|12-
As far as your comment about crossing registers bringing out the worst behavior, this is true of all woodwinds. The behavior is observerd because of the large change in acoustic properties involved (going from short to long tube, and from one harmonic to the next, less resistance to more, etc.) Some of the woodwinds have much more complicated register mechanisms than the clarinet to handle these changes more or less evenly (witness the double, and even triple, venting mechanism on saxophones and bass/contrabass clarinets).
Kevin Bowman
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Author: paul
Date: 1999-11-11 23:18
Excellent feedback on a common problem! Wow! I look forward to reading even more views on this subject.
My Bb Soprano Buffet Festival (1994 vintage, according to Mark's database) was regulated in a series of very careful and minute adjustments by an accomplished and very experienced professional clarinetist who plays a Buffet R-13. But it's been at least a year ago since he last adjusted my horn. Could my horn have "drifted" out of regulation since then? I can only get about an hour a day of practice time in as an adult novice, so the horn hasn't been played all that hard or for very long during that time. Is this particular horn that sensitive to very small changes?
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Author: paul
Date: 1999-11-11 23:24
With my mp/lig/reed setup, the clarion A "breaks" a lot. I blow the note and it stops speaking or sounds more like a wounded duck than a good sweet A. I'll try stepping up to at least a 2.75 or so equivalent reed strength to see if the A stabilizes. Of course, I'll need to step up the air support, too.
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Author: Gary Van Cott
Date: 1999-11-11 23:41
I find the middle line B the worst note on the clarinet. There isn't any alternate fingering for it either. The problem is due to the location of the register key opening. It needs to be lower on the instrument and larger to get a good sound on this note.
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Author: STuart
Date: 1999-11-12 00:15
Paul, I responding befoe reading the other posts so excuse me.
I have these problems on base clarinet as well. I made a list of these notes and praticed very slowly playing them from other notes and also just articulating the notes themselves. Slow, getting my mind into the sound and listening, never judging.
I reccomend you rethink your approach and try instead to celebrate these weaker notes. With a full air column DIG IN and really put your ears on the tones. Meditate on them. Then put them together with other notes.
After years I still hear huge "uneveness" but most aren't drawn to it, and I have decided to enjoy the differences in timbre my clarinet has. g
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Author: Katrina
Date: 1999-11-12 01:26
Could someone please explain the term throat notes to me? I think I know but am not sure as I do not hear any of these terms except on message boards.
Thanks!
Katrina
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-11-12 01:46
Katrina,
Throat tones are those notes that are in the "throat" (upper part of the upper joint) of the clarinet - G, G#, A, and Bb.
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Author: Rick2
Date: 1999-11-12 04:52
I'm glad that I'm not the only one that doesn't like altissimo D. I thought it was just me (and it still may be) but at least there's a known quantity there like throat Bb.
I have noticed that you tend to work your way up the scale a note at a time, gradually the next one starts to sound good and you have command, but go up a half tone and you lose it. Eventually we push that half tone up out of the range that is used.
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Author: Graham Elliott
Date: 1999-11-12 11:27
Altissimo D. At the risk of stating the obvious, some clarinets work best with the A flat/E flat key open (brighter and sharper with more scope to relax into the pitch) whilst some work better without (taughter but more controlled and a little darker).
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Author: Kevin Bowman
Date: 1999-11-12 15:16
Graham Elliott wrote:
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Altissimo D. At the risk of stating the obvious, some clarinets work best with the A flat/E flat key open (brighter and sharper with more scope to relax into the pitch) whilst some work better without (taughter but more controlled and a little darker).
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And extremely flat!
Sorry to differ with you Graham, but I have not played a boehm system clarinet yet that does not require the Ab/Eb key to bring this note into a workable range.
However, you may wish to experiment with a fingering borrowed from the german system which uses the thumb hole as a vent instead of the first finger. I can't remember the exact fingering but you can check the "Cambridge companion to the Clarinet". I tried it once and gave up on it because the thumb hole is too large on boehm clarinets, requiring a finger "shading" technique to really adjust the intonation.
Kevin Bowman
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Author: Kevin Bowman
Date: 1999-11-12 15:24
Rick2 wrote:
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[clip]
I have noticed that you tend to work your way up the scale a note at a time, gradually the next one starts to sound good and you have command, but go up a half tone and you lose it. Eventually we push that half tone up out of the range that is used.
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I'm not quite sure what you are indicating here Rick. Are you suggesting a practice technique? I work on tone and intonation of all notes during my long tone warmup. I use William Stubbins' method of playing increasingly wider intervals based on a major scale followed by intervals of a harmonic series. This allows you to concentrate on keeping and even tone accross the entire range of the clarinet. The high notes should have the same timbre as the low notes. Also, because most musicians ears "hear" major scales and harmonic series very well, it's easy to listen to intonation.
However, I've also seen the long tone exercises proposed by (I think) Bonade - where you start on a pitch (say top line F) then increase by half step then another half step and hold. Perhaps this is what you were referring to?
Kevin Bowman
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Author: William
Date: 1999-11-12 16:01
Paul--When I first played on my new LeBlanc Concertos, each horn had a couple of notes that were a bit on the "weak" side--notable clarion D and E. Tome Ridenour, after checking pad heights, did some undercutting of the tone holes to correct a slight tuning problem. Then he rounded off the inner edges of the chimmney tops with a small rat-tail file (an old Bonade thing) and that seemed to help even the sound of those tones with the rest of the scale. For throat tones G, G#, A and A#, normally weak and out of tune notes, I just do a lot of "venting" to improve things. Tom has a great book of alternate and vented fingerings for clarinet available through LeBlanc which should be in everyones library for reference. Have fun.
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Author: paul
Date: 1999-11-12 19:05
I have Ridenour's Fingering Book. A very interesting work, especially for the altissimo. Nice price, too.
The E and F notes I referred to above were upper chalemeau (i.e. near the throat). The very low chalemeau E and F have always spoken well for me on any clarinet I play.
The very low chalemeau E and F are the first warm-up notes I play every time. I use the low chalemeau E to blow warm air into the horn as my very first step in my warm-up drill. Then, I gradually go up with the chromatic scale in long tones and back down in long tones. I then work the chromatic up and down several times with as many different fingering strategies as I can remember, even using my 18th (left hand Ab/Eb) key. All of this is slurred and played as fast as I can accurately finger. I then play at least one major scale with quarter, eighth, triplet, and 16th staccato notes, both up and down.
Should I clean out the tone holes with a dry Q tip and clean out the register tube? This seems a bit obvious, but I have to ask the question to get answers for the rest of the clarinet playing crowd out there.
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Author: Brent
Date: 1999-11-12 20:49
Graham Elliott wrote:
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Altissimo D. At the risk of stating the obvious, some clarinets work best with the A flat/E flat key open (brighter and sharper with more scope to relax into the pitch) whilst some work better without (taughter but more controlled and a little darker).
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Whereupon Kevin Bowman wrote:
And extremely flat!
Sorry to differ with you Graham, but I have not played a boehm system clarinet yet that does not require the Ab/Eb key to bring this note into a workable range.
And now i add:
My Selmer 10Gs are actually quite in-tune on these notes. Adding the Ab/Eb key makes them unbearably sharp.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-11-12 21:28
Brent wrote:
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My Selmer 10Gs are actually quite in-tune on these notes. Adding the Ab/Eb key makes them unbearably sharp.
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But not my 10G ... the Ab/Eb is a real necessity on it.
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Author: paul
Date: 1999-11-12 23:15
For altissimo D, I need the Ab/Eb key on my own Buffet, too. Using a tuning meter, the difference is quite easy to see. Without the Ab/Eb key, it's way off flat. With the key, it's pretty close to the center of the meter. Of course, I could "lip up or lip down" the note, but it's better to do it right the first time with the proper and most common fingering.
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-11-12 23:47
paul wrote:
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... Should I clean out the tone holes with a dry Q tip and clean out the register tube? This seems a bit obvious, but I have to ask the question to get answers for the rest of the clarinet playing crowd out there.
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I have to keep my register tube scrupulously clean so I do this whenever the throat Bb seems to be deteriorating.
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-11-12 23:51
I find my altissimo notes D, Eb, and E typically tend to run sharp borderline sharp with the Ab/Eb lever and borderline line flat without. The pitches are very close. So on any given day, conditions will favor one approach over the other. In very fast runs, I will usually opt to not use the Ab/Eb lever.
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-11-13 00:01
paul wrote:
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For altissimo D, I need the Ab/Eb key on my own Buffet, too. Using a tuning meter, the difference is quite easy to see. Without the Ab/Eb key, it's way off flat. With the key, it's pretty close to the center of the meter. Of course, I could "lip up or lip down" the note, but it's better to do it right the first time with the proper and most common fingering.
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Yes it is the most common fingering but that does not mean that it is always right. The fingering charts that I own (including the one from the Klose method) all indicate that the Ab/Eb key may or may not be required on your individual horn.
To blend well with some of the players who use R-13s, I find that it is best not to use it. To blend with flutes, it works better if I add this lever.
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Author: paul
Date: 1999-11-15 14:28
Dee has a good point. Fingering strategies are very important for the clarinet. Think about what you must do and what you can do. Then, make it happen. Let me explain.
As Dee mentioned above, the perfect fingering for you and your horn may or may not be what the textbook recommends. Take the time to experiment and learn what works best for you. Few people will notice a cowboy's wrinkled shirt on a galloping horse. If you have a fast run, hit the closest and most accurate fingering that you can and move on. Note, I didn't say that you must use the textbook's version of the most perfect fingering. Just do the best you can and keep up. If it's a three finger clarion Bb, an altissimo D without the "whisper key" (Ab/Eb key), the typical "throat" fingering for high chalemeau Bb, etc., just do what you have to do and keep going.
Now, on slow passages or long tones, make sure you play the fingering that is the most in tune and blends the best with your ensemble.
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