Author: vjoet
Date: 2008-06-24 14:29
Hi Carl,
I commend you for taking up the clarinet. It is a wonderfully expressive instrument. :-)
I personally mentally divide the instrument into a pitch generating system, and a sound generating system. The embouchure-mouthpiece-reed constitutes the sound generating system.
The player's concept of his ideal tone comes much into play here. I feel too often young players strive for that Morales dark tone by playing on harder and harder reeds, to the detriment of tonal color and dynamic range.
For me, the sound of Harold Wright, Simeon Bellison, Stanley Drucker, Kathy Pope, Benny Goodman is the ideal. I hear it as mellow with an edge; whereas I hear Morales as more of a dead sound. (Others -- in this area of art -- will have other opinions, and that is as it should be.)
I personally play on Vandoren 3's or Zonda 2 1/2E, and adjust reeds with sandpaper and the Reed Wizard. I like free blowing reeds, with mellowness and an edge. Once adjusted I classify into practice reeds, and performance reeds.
Again congratulations on taking up the clarinet. You'll find that you will lament the time you spend working on reeds, but -- to my way of thinking -- it is the reed that imbues the clarinet with a human soul, something I don't find in the flute, for example.
Best wishes,
Vann Joe
(amateur)
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The Clarinet BBoard
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