 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: m
Date: 2011-01-26 11:35
My daughter was told by her band instructor that she is "over blowing" her clarinet and that she is ready for a new one, an intermediate one. He suggested several and they are all wood and a bit more expensive than the composite ones. Do you think I should just get her a better composite one or a wood one. Also, she tried a Buffet e11 and a Yamaha and found them both a bit more difficult to play. Does this make any sense? Please help, any advice is welcome as I have little to no experience and I feel as though music stores are simply pushing the most expensive clarinets on us.
Thanks and looking forward to hearing from anyone with advice-
m
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Author: kdk
Date: 2011-01-26 11:48
What is the band instructor's main instrument? "Over blowing" isn't a term most clarinetists use in this kind of connection. What exactly does he mean by it?
Have you had your daughter's present clarinet checked for mechanical problems by a competent repair person? What mouthpiece is she using? Even a beginner-level rental instrument in good condition with a decent mouthpiece and responsive reeds shouldn't cause a basic problem with sound production. Without wanting to minimize them, the differences among different brands and levels of instrument are a little more subtle than that.
If the band director is not a clarinetist (or even a reed player), he may not have a very good first-hand understanding of what could be causing any problem he hears in your daughter's playing. Or he may have a clearer idea of what's wrong than his description suggests - he may be talking down to you because he doesn't think *you* will understand.
See if you can get anything more specific and meaningful from him than "over blowing" and then perhaps come back here with what he tells you.
Karl
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2011-01-26 11:53
Ok, the vernacular is not right. You cannot OVERBLOW a clarinet. He might mean that he feels the clarinet in not of enough quality and it is holding back her progress.
This is not necessarily the case either. Usually the issue is a clarinet that has not been gone over by a good tech to get all the leaky pads fixed. If the clarinet has good pads and good springs, the usual place to improve is with a decent mouthpiece, a decent reed of a MATCHING strength (matching the tip opening and her ability I mean) and good private instruction (nothing fancy, just someone to give her good rudiments and prevent learning bad habits).
...............Paul Aviles
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Author: Jaysne
Date: 2011-01-26 12:30
Well, you can overblow on a clarinet--it just means that you're blowing too hard.
But this is not a function of the instrument--it's a function of the player. It doesn't matter what kind of clarinet you have; you can overblow on any of them. Buying a different clarinet--no matter what the price--is not going to fix that.
To answer your question, no, this does not make any sense. I would call the director to get more information as to exactly what the problem is, and why he thinks another clarinet is the solution.
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Author: concertmaster3
Date: 2011-01-26 13:22
Paul is right. See a good tech to get it fixed, and from there, try a good mouthpiece/reed combination.
Things like the Genussa Mezzo, Fobes Nova, and a few others people mention are great for the developing student, designed by some of the leading mouthpiece makers. I'm a little far north of you, but if you need help picking out some things, there's a store here in Winston that has some of these mouthpieces and should let you try one out.
What grade is your daughter in and what's her current clarinet setup?
Ron Ford
Woodwind Specialist
Performer/Teacher/Arranger
http://www.RonFordMusic.com
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2011-01-26 14:22
While it's difficult to tell what the band director means, I suspect that he hears a thick, stuffy sound. Does your daughter feel a lot of resistance and get red in the face when she plays?
It's almost certainly NOT the clarinet. A plastic student clarinet can sound fine if it's in good shape. What brand is it? First, have her current clarinet checked out for leaky pads.
It may be time for her to move up to a harder reed. If she's been playing her #2-1/2 reeds, try #3. If she's playing #3 and having trouble, go down to #2-1/2. Playing heavier and heavier reeds is just a macho thing. Once she finds a comfortable reed strength, she should try a plastic Legere. It's expensive ($17 or so) but outlasts many cane reeds and sounds excellent.
What kind of mouthpiece is she using? She will probably benefit from a better mouthpiece, such as the Fobes Debut, Hite Premiere, Ridenour Encore, Redwine Mezzo, Behn Overture and others, which are in the $35 range. These will blow easier and give a better, freer sound.
Put your daughter on the board and let her describe what it feels like.
Ken Shaw
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Author: hans
Date: 2011-01-26 14:52
m
Re: "She tried a Buffet e11 and a Yamaha and found them both a bit more difficult to play", I'm wondering if she tried them with her usual mouthpiece and reed combination. If not, the comparison is not very valid.
Hans
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Author: kdk
Date: 2011-01-26 15:38
hans wrote:
> m
>
> Re: "She tried a Buffet e11 and a Yamaha and found them both a
> bit more difficult to play", I'm wondering if she tried them
> with her usual mouthpiece and reed combination. If not, the
> comparison is not very valid.
>
> Hans
Certainly true, but often the difference in the feel of a different instrument can throw a young student and make him/her feel like the unfamiliar one is harder to play. So her reaction may not have been meaningful even if she did use her own mouthpiece and reed.
Karl
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2011-01-26 18:26
If the teacher is a brass player, then by "overblowing" he might mean she's blowing hard with a poor embouchure (lip either too tight or too loose, or she's puffing her cheeks out and just blasting away) and therefore squeaking a lot: cracking the intended note up to the 12th or the larigot (the 19th, which is often the squeak note), the way a trumpet player produces an octave, except she's hooting the note upstairs by accident instead of on purpose. A better clarinet won't help with that, but a different mouthpuece and reed setup might.
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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Author: Chris P
Date: 2011-01-26 18:41
... as well as a better teacher.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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