 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bartmann
Date: 2009-03-19 20:39
One time during prolonged practice on my flute when I was playing the highest register at fortissimo, I noticed a ringing in my ears. So the next time I did a similar practice session with the flute I wore ear plugs. These ear plugs seemed to take away the edge from the highest end of the flute range. I could still hear the flute and most everything else, but the earplugs seem to soften the high notes, so they're not as piercing. These are not heavy duty earplugs for blocking sound. But for practicing altissimo flute at fortissimo, they are great.
But when I picked up my clarinet to play, the sound seemed fundamentally altered, as if the reed was wet and soggy. My curiosity sparked, I tried different reeds but was unable to distinguish between my performance quality reed and a dead reed. I could never practice clarinet and wear earplugs; the sound is too altered and ill sounding.
Perhaps this has something to do with old idea that a clarinet has mostly odd partials. And as a result, the earplugs softens the few remaining even partials and this is enough to significantly alter the sound. Or perhaps because the clarinet reed also vibrates inside the mouth, it made me the sound inside the mouth more pronounced and that added to the strangeness of the sound.
It was a fascinating experiment.
Bartmann
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-03-19 20:45
I think it may have to do with the fact that with the clarinet, your teeth are in contact with the instrument, so you pick up the sound through bone conduction (which changes the quality of the sound). This is less of a factor with flute.
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