 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Aussie Nick
Date: 2004-03-13 08:54
Hey guys, for the past month or more I have been playing on a Greg Smith 1++ mouthpiece, after playing on a Viotto B3 for about 3 years. As my teacher and I have worked on adjusting to the mouthpieces tendancies (it is a relatively low resistance mouthpiece compared with the Viottos) my pitch on it has become better. I used to have to pull out my barrel a bit in order to get clarion D and upper clarion C in tune, but now (and this goes for my new Eb Greg Smith mouthpiece as well) I am only pulling out the tiniest bit if anything at all, and intonation is generally good. What I am concerned about is my concert next saturday which we are doing Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Daphnis and Chloe suite 2, and Fountains of Rome. In Fountains, there is a solo leading into the tempo primo at figure 3 - this begins on a Chalumeau C# and eventually gets down to Chalumeau A# G# and F# all of which are quite flat in context. I am pushed in, and biting like mad to try and bring it up but it is always at least slightly flat. My first question is, is this a tendancy of the Greg Smith mouthpieces, and secondly is there anything I can do about this other than play extremely softly and try to hide! Thanks
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2004-03-13 09:17
Hmmm. Make sure the clarinet and yourself are nice and warm beforehand? Angle the clarinet closer to your body? have you tried a different bell (a very drastic approach and major change RIGHT before a concert but it might help with a low F#)?
Are you sure this isn't an instrument issue? Greg Smith doesn't allow a mouthpiece to even be put up for sale unless he personally feels that HE would be comfortable playing and performing on it. I think he also takes the time TO play on it within a practice/performance in order to make sure that it is good enough. So I don't think that would cause a problem. Plus I really never heard of a mouthpiece affecting notes that far "down?" the clarinet from reading other posts on this board. I've heard it affects throat tones a great deal, but that the effect diminishes as you go farther away from it.
If you're really worried, you can always use some sort of adjustable barrel like a click barrel or something and use it for that solo, then click it or elongate it to where you would feel better for the rest of the piece.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: mw
Date: 2004-03-13 14:59
You are playing some NICE music, congratulations & have a great time.
Chalumeau flat ? - particularly lower chalumeau, YES. This is an attribute quite often found on Buffet Clarinets - we see it in the U.S. on the R13.
What instrument are you playing? Biting - you mean lipping UP? [ Of course, this can be a tougher subject when you have strings which are SHARP! ]
Take solace that if you are only a cent or 2 off that many (less-in-tune) clarinets are 15-20 cents off in the lower chalumeau!
Break a leg!
mw
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