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Listening to the reed ... playing the clarinet

Author: Bill
Date: 2006-11-13 19:41

I'm shy about posting here because I have no credentials as a clarinetist beyond my enthusiasm. But what's wonderful about this forum is the opportunity to share.

Lately I've been thinking about and experimenting a great deal with the interaction between the reed, mouthpiece, and clarinet. Two things in my reading keep coming to mind:

1. Stories about Bonade and his facility with reed rush, turning students' reeds, however bad, into "perfect" ones; and
2. Pamela Weston's interview with Harold Wright, in which she said Wright sanded his reeds extensively "beginning at the top and working down."

Employing a single mouthpiece, I have been working hard adjusting reeds, testing different types of resistance (spring) and tone. I note that when beginning work, I hear the reed. I'm experiencing the reed itself. I listen for buzziness at the tip, lack of clarity in the fundamental notes ... trying to understand this feedback and diagnose changes that need to be made.

Using reed rush, there's a moment when the reed reaches an excellent equilibrium with the mouthpiece, and suddenly I'm playing the clarinet ... the reed is communicating the efforts of my embouchure perfectly, engaging the clarinet to produce a sound that seems to run the entire length of the scale as well as the instrument itself ... a good balance of edge and power. The reed becomes anonymous, only a link in a long chain.

As a private player, I don't need to worry about how an audience will experience the set-up I have achieved. And I often wonder how professionals cope with the need to arrive at a reed configuration that pleases an audience, a sound that really carries.

Bill.

Bill Fogle
Ellsworth, Maine
(formerly Washington, DC)

Post Edited (2006-11-13 19:49)

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