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Re: Rare ligatures

Author: BartHx
Date: 2011-04-16 16:34

I wonder how many have had ligature experiences similar to mine? I've never had a private lesson. Everything I have learned has been through school, reading, trial and error, and emulating my older brother who had private lessons through high school because he wanted them. Overall, it seems to have worked fairly well for me. However, I have heard very little about ligatures. I started playing in group lessons at school in fourth grade. We were told that the ligature should be "tight". Over the years, I did not account for the fact that I was growing and getting stronger than a fourth grader, but I still kept putting my ligature on tight. I, eventually, got to the point that I realized I was destroying both reeds and ligatures and was amazed to find that the reed worked just as well, or better, when it was only snug. I now tighten the ligature just enough to firmly hold the reed in place and get a much better response. Sometimes, to challenge myself, I use a relatively loose shoe lace for a ligature. That will tell me very quickly if I am applying forces to the reed, while playing, in directions that I should not.

I wonder how many broken ligature problems are the result of people over tightening them without even knowing they are doing it? In how many cases are the problems due to the way the ligature is used and have nothing to do with its design?

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Rare ligatures new

travelingclarinetist

2011-04-14 02:43