 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: superson
Date: 2009-11-22 19:54
bass clarinets just look so...cool, wondered if i'd be able to play one?
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2009-11-22 20:21
Quite a bit, to be played well. Each of our "clarinet family" have diffs that need be observed. My simple-minded comment to your title ?, Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-11-23 02:55
I've often had advanced students, doublers and professional clarinetists come to me to "learn" how to voice the upper register of the bass clarinet properly. For some it can be very difficult, for others it can come more natural. There is a big difference in the approach to each. In many ways they are two different animals, but both great. Check my website and read the bass clarinet page. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2009-11-23 15:05
I'd say it's a different animal and should be approached that way with only the fingerings being familiar. My experience though is that you can become quite adapt at it with a little focused attention.
Tenor sax reeds work too if you don't have access to REAL bass reeds but try at all costs to use REAL bass reeds.
The Fibracell (synthetic reeds) work very well on bass.
......................Paul Aviles
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2009-11-23 15:48
Hi,
I have always doubled for shows when playing Reed III or IV book and bass clarinet has usually been in the mix. However, in the last several months I have returned to the BC in one of the community bands and am loving it.
As Ed states, it does take a little time to get the upper register voicing down. It took me a little bit of concentrated practice and I have as much range as on the Bb soprano (OK, I have a low Eb now as well). The technique is coming along but dealing with longer key throws and a larger key placement, there are some ergonomic issues that I am overcoming.
The BC solo in On the Trail is just about all under my fingerings except the cross and re-cross of the break but I expect to master that in time. I use a mix of tenor and BC reeds and believe it or not, some of the old wooden-look boxes of #3 Rico BC and Tenor reeds that I seem to have a lot of are yielding some great players. Rico Royals work for me and my best MP is a stock LeBlanc B5 Educator that plays better than my Portnoy and a couple of custom refaced MPs. Go figger.
HRL
PS The BC parts in the wind ensemble are great compared to the tenor sax parts I have labored through in the past (talk about a boring part that is over-doubled by other instruments).
Post Edited (2009-11-23 16:50)
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2009-11-23 16:24
> PS The BC parts in the wind ensemble are great compared to the tenor sax
> parts I have labored through in the past (talk about a boring part that is
> over-doubled by other instruments).
IME that very much depends on the ablilities and the imagination of the composer or the arranger. 'bout 3/4 of my stuff is also covered by bassoon, trombone and tenor sax. (I call that a "musical stripe set" as you could shoot any one of the aforementioned players and the audience wouldn't notice it, except from the *BANG*)
Every so rarely I have something melodious, a five second solo even, but most of the time I'm -pah-ing offbeats.
--
Ben
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Author: William
Date: 2009-11-24 15:23
As for "reeds", I have played #3.0 Legere's on my Grabner CX_BS mpc for the past four or five years and will never go back to cane. FWIW, my bass clarinet is a Buffet Prestige low C model.
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