Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2008-07-21 12:24
I've looked at so many used clarinets that I wouldn't dare generalize about how long a clarinet lasts. The ones I've bought (some dating back to the late 19th century) have lasted just fine, although all of them except a couple of modern ones did need rehab with cleaning, new pads, new corks and so forth. Some of the clarinets I didn't buy looked unsalvageable or too beat-up to be worth salvaging.
I don't worry much about whether or not blow-out really happens because it's a moot point when I see so much wreckage that could have been prevented in the most obvious ways. I do think it's worthwhile to debate which types of swabs are best, but *some* type of swab is essential right from the start--refine the specifics later!
People rarely make a decision to quit, right? They just sort of stop practicing and the clarinet sits there in whatever condition it was in the last time it got played. That means one thing we can do to protect the instrument is put it away every day as carefully as if it's the last day anyone will play it for the next fifty years. You never know. In March, I fell on concrete and sprained my right wrist so badly that it was close to three months before I could play any musical instrument except piano for the left hand alone. (Okay, I guess it's time to quit calling that a sprain, since it healed somewhat crooked.) I've still got a slightly abnormal "buzzing" sensation in my middle and fourth right fingers. If that injury had been even slightly worse, my own clarinets might have ended up in storage for decades.
Putting a clarinet away wet leads to a mess, especially if, later, the heirs ignorantly store the instrument away in a damp basement as the case slowly deteriorates. That treatment can distort the wood and ruin the best clarinet in the world, even if the instrument has hardly been played.
Accidental damage from dropping a clarinet or trying to bend keys that were manufactured by casting instead of forging goes near the top of the list, too. Sometimes, when I open a case and find a wrecked pro-quality clarinet and a beginner book or other artifacts of childhood, I see the sad consequences of giving a fine clarinet to a child who's too young to appreciate it or care for it. While we're happily obsessing over the details (and I do that as much as the next person), we need to back off and look at the larger picture, too.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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