 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bill
Date: 2000-11-07 13:35
Occasionally I hear clarinet sounds that fill me with very uncomfortable envy (one such occasion was the first time I heard Pee Wee Russell in "Jazz Reunion," while I was browsing in a book store). Last night I was watching a video copy of Pedro Almodovar's "Live Flesh" (1997). At a point early in the film, he returns to his mother's destroyed neighborhood. The accompanying clarinet solo, about 45 seconds long, is heart stopping. I replayed the video again and again and asked my nonmusician friend what he thought of the tone ("Like the clarinet had one of those mutes that trumpets have" he said). After just about 10 years of playing, I had (finally) dropped my fascination/belief-system for using harder and ever harder reeds. I settled on a moderate set-up that emphasized clarity, flexibilty, and a "woody" tone production. Last night, hearing the sort of bugle quality of the tone, very full and velvety, I began to really regret not stocking more V12's and selling my Fobes with the foot-long lay and miniscule tip opening.
Any thoughts about hard reeds and tone? Who am I? Reginald Kell or Charles Draper? Pee Wee Russell or Thea King? Crisis! (Just kidding, folks!---sort of.)
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Author: Bill
Date: 2000-11-07 13:59
Ah! Replying to my post. When in doubt about reeds, I always bounce back with some wise words from J. Cohler, which I quote in full:
"As for different hardnesses exciting different harmonics at different
levels, I don't believe this is the case. Remember that the reed and the
air column are a coupled vibrating system. The reed excites the air column
and the air column controls the vibration of the reed. If you have a nice
flat piece of balanced wood being sucked in and out by the air column
against the mouthpiece opening, it should always vibrate in the same way
(given an even mouth pressure, i.e. good embouchure). That's why all
"good" reeds sound the same on a given setup (played by a given player)."
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2000-11-07 15:14
And how is a "good" reed defined? Probably as one that gives you the tone you desire. Which makes the above a circular argument.
If all reeds vibrated the same, there would be no "bad" reeds or "somewhat good" reeds. The shapes and material properties of reeds are going to affect their ability to vibrate at different frequencies. For example, a harder reed should prefer to vibrate at higher frequencies than a softer reed. And so, for a given mouthpiece, embouchure and clarinet, different reeds may produce somewhat different sounds.
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Author: Robert Gifford
Date: 2000-11-14 13:01
I remember when I used to play on 5s.... then I realized that was kind of a waste. Now I play on 3 1/2s and I play better than I did when I played of 5s.
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