 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: DLE
Date: 2000-09-05 12:49
Hi, it's me. I'm about to beg my clarinet teacher to help me start on a bass clarinet, 'cause it might benefit me in the future in orchestra and band work if I'm their handy bass player. Also, I'm interested. Anyway, I don't know much at all about this instrument, and how it is different to the B-Flat. Can I get an opinion of things to do, or not to do when starting this instrument?
Is it more difficult than B-Flat, or easier since you can play B-Flat? Is it anything like the B-Flat clarinet at all?
Thanks in advance for the input - Dave.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2000-09-05 14:47
Hi Dave, you are in for a pleasant, if humbling experience on bass cl! They can be great in the chalemaux and frustrating in the clarion [at least for me!]. Playing one a lot has seemed to improve my sop. cl playing, I'm still learning, I guess. See the thread [New bass ---] below and ask specific questions, we can have a good round-table discussion. Don
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Author: SusieQ
Date: 2000-09-05 19:30
Dave,
The bass clarinet is one octave lower than the Bb and uses the same fingering, however the embochure is different. When playing the bass clarinet you need to loosen you embochure a little, more like a sax embochure. Other than that your clarinet playing will carry over to bass. If you get a good instrument bass is a lot of fun. They can be very touchy though. Keep up on the Bb soprano even if you play bass. I don't play soprano enough and my tone isn't nearly as good as it used to be.
Have Fun!
SusieQ
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Author: Robert Small
Date: 2000-09-06 05:14
My experience with bass is similar to Don's in that I find the chalumeau very responsive and free blowing while the clarion tends to be stuffy and unresponsive. The altissimo on my horn (recent vintage Selmer 35) is pretty responsive. I recently acquired a Charles Bay mouthpiece with a .100" tip opening and this has greatly improved and opened up the clarion although I still have to be careful to maintain a loose embouchure (SusieQ is right). So what works for me is a large tip mouthpiece (.100" might be too much at first but I would recommend at least an .080"), a soft reed, and a loose embouchure. Also care must be taken to keep the half-hole covered when not playing in the altissimo. Failure to keep the half-hole covered is the cause of many squeaks, I believe.
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2000-09-06 16:39
<trying again, without the premature send!>
Dave,
Hi, it is I, Also Dave!
I sympathize with you. Keep plugging, it's worth the pain. I switched to bass clarinet in the 8th grade and never looked back --- it's been my main instrument for 20+ years now. I'm so comfortable on the bass clarinet that I actually find it harder to play regular soprano clarinet, but believe me, it wasn't always that way! Despite the identical fingerings, the bass clarinet is an ENTIRELY different beast than the B-flat soprano clarinet. The bass responds differently in every register than the soprano; the embouchure is a bit different, the whole attitude is different! I used to laugh whenever my clarinet teacher (a very fine soprano player) tried to play my bass clarinet --- he could never get more than a squeak out of it, and he was a professional clarinetist. So hang in there, and don't try too hard to relate the bass clarinet to the soprano clarinet, because it is SO different. Treat it as an entirely new instrument (though with the same fingerings), and enjoy!
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Author: DLE
Date: 2000-09-15 14:30
Thanks Dave2, I'll do that. I'm having a few problems finding one at the moment but when I do, I'll start a new topic on what I think, since this topic will probably be long gone. It semms that the BBoard has finally got the level of popularity it deserves!
Congratulations everybody involved!
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The Clarinet Pages
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