 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Aussie Nick
Date: 2004-09-18 14:39
Hi all. Yes I am still fussing around with new Bb clarinets, trying various ones out. Have found a very nice RC Prestige in my city. As well as this, a Melbourne woodwind store and sending me an RC and RC prestige to try (that they have apparently picked out), and I am going to Sydney this week where I will be trying another 3 RC's and 2 RC prestiges.
My question is - how far are professional players willing to go in terms of adjusting these instruments. I have had an appointment with the technician and owner of the store and they have (using blue-tac temporarily) adjusted tone holes for throat A, Ab, G, clarion B (throat E), and the clarion C (chalemeau F). I wouldn't mind having something done about the clarion Eb also which is very sharp. It is playing quite well on the whole and I think I am on a winner, however I question whether it is acceptable that a new instrument should need these things done to it or not. If it has all those noticeably sharp notes is it infact a bad instrument, and do most professionals make this number of adjustments? Or should I keep hunting for something with less quirks? Thanks guys - hope I made sense here.
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Author: msloss
Date: 2004-09-18 19:44
AN -- You really have to allow for the fact part of the "problem" is you. If you have any sense of pitch at all, you learned to adjust for the variability of the instruments on which you have been playing. In all likelihood, you are continuing to compensate as though you were still on old instruments and forcing the new ones out of tune.
As I said in a previous post, get to know the instruments naked before you start messing with them. If you were my student, I would check them myself, or ask a trusted colleague to do so to be sure the instruments are indeed good, and then have you play on them for 3 - 6 months before any tweaking was done. Get out Baermann or Klose and do the scales and interval studies with a tuner. No amount of bluetac will compensate for hours of practice.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2004-09-18 20:06
I'll borrow a few lines from David Hattner, whose thoughts on tuning are better than anyone else that I've read:
"...Clarinets don't play in tune, great musicians who play the clarinet play in tune.
Anyone who thinks there is any such thing as "set it and forget it" in terms of clarinet equipment and playing in tune have no idea what it means to play in tune.
No one "plays in tune" just like that. Anyone who is in tune all the time is working hard at it every second he or she is playing.
If you aren't concentrating on intonation DURING EVERY NOTE YOU PLAY, I'll bet big money you play out of tune a lot of the time. Probably way way out of tune..."
Spend less time looking for the magic bullet - whether it be mouthpiece, barrel or clarinet - and more time using the equipment you already have - your ears ...GBK
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Author: Ed
Date: 2004-09-18 20:54
I second the notion of finding spending serious time with a tuner before adjusting the instrument. Be absolutely 100+% positive that you are not doing any internal adjustments with throat, embouchure, air. Have time to get new reeds settled in and adjusted to the new instruments. Have others who you trust and admire listen and also play them and give their impressions. I am always suspect of a new Buffet that is supposedly that bad, unless there are some real problems with the set up of pad heights. I recall a story my repairman told me where he had someone who bought a used horn. The seller bought a new one because it was lousy- stuffy, poor intonation. He was setting up the horn for the buyer of the horn and found lots of tape, etc in the tone holes and asked what to do. Together they decided that they should remove it all and see what the horn was like. Guess what? It ended up being a great horn!
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Author: Aussie Nick
Date: 2004-09-19 01:03
You guys all make some good points in that I most probably am still accustomed to my old pair and making compensations. However I do infact use my ears 100% of the time - sometimes I think they are too critical for my own good. To my origial question - a senior lecturer at my university (Floyd Williams) uses tape in some of his tone holes, and I know of other professional players who have had to do it.... So I know it is done. I realise time and practice is required for really adjusting to new instruments, however surely in the selecting process the idea is to find the nicest instrument possible (pitch, evenness, sound etc). On this instrument a few notes really do stick out as being sharp and require of embouchure/air adjustment to bring them down. Am I supposed to just ignore that and try and get used to it?
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Author: Ed
Date: 2004-09-19 04:31
Try other players instruments as well as some other new instruments and find if you have the same tuning tendencies on those instruments as well. This will give you the idea if it is you or the instrument. If you don't have that problem on any other instruments, it may not be you. If you do find it exists, you may have other issues. If you determine that it is that particular instrument, see how far out it is and if it is workable. Again, get a second and third opinion from some of those pros you mention. We all have to adjust to some degree, but not to go through contortions. Good luck.
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Author: Aussie Nick
Date: 2004-09-19 04:52
THanks Ed, will do. My old Festivals had typical tuning tendancies (sharp clarion E, D and C, sharp clarion Eb) and I got by with them and learned to play in tune 99% of the time. Some of the new ones have and haven't had the sharp clarion E and D and C, but have had really out throat tones and upper clarion notes. Other new ones have had nice upper clarion notes and really sharp clarion D etc etc. So I do know how to deal with such problems and bring them down, its just a matter of finding something without anything too extreme.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2004-09-19 09:54
To Hat's comment - I know some clarinetists that play in tune all the time, but I really wouldn't consider them 'great musicians' at all. Still HAT usually gives great advice and htis time is no different.
Anyway, Ed said it all. If only this specific clarinet has these problems maybe someone can fix it.
Good luck.
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