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Re: Barrels and Bells

Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2011-12-09 04:27

Clearly, the barrel is a key part of the instrument. The entire "playing" portion of the clarinet is below the barrel. When a pulse is formed by the reed, it is transmitted and shaped by the barrel on its way into the clarinet. When the reflected wave returns to interact with the reed (as part of synchronizing the reed with the air column), the rising wave is also transmitted and shaped by the barrel.

The barrel is second only to the mouthpiece and reed in determining how the clarinet reacts.

The bell is more mysterious. It obviously influences the "long" fingerings, but several of my colleagues claim that their aftermarket bells improve the entire range of their instruments.

Try taking the bell completely off and play around. Does its absence affect every note you can play?

My Bb is a Buffet RC, and my A is a Ridenour Lyrique. The RC has that mystical internal bulge in its bell. If I put the Lyrique hard rubber bell on my RC it messes things up quite a bit. But one thing that it really helps with is the tone quality of the long B (3rd line). In many passages, I need to open the throat A or G# key to clean up the sound. With the rubber barrel, I don't need to do that.

Bob Phillips

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Barrels and Bells new

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2011-12-09 00:08