 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: tammy powell
Date: 2001-02-21 22:37
Hi well my subject sums it all i need hewlp getting some notes out of the bass claarinet i can get som ebut he high notes and the low notes are hard to get out.
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Author: Gavin
Date: 2001-02-22 04:40
1. Is your bass clarinet in good repair? It is essential that it is. If it is not, you can kiss goodbye to getting those presently hard to get notes until you have it properly regulated.
2. Is your embouchure too tight? The advice given to me when I first picked up the bass was to stick it in my mouth and blow. Kind of the "Nike" principle applied to bass clarinet playing. You need a LOT of air.
3. Practice playing your bass clarinet. Concentrate on your sound. I love the sound of the bass clarinet, especially in the lower regions of the instrument!
4. If you cannot read bass clef, learn to. Get a bassoon studies book and use it to practice.
5. Remember, there is no such thing as a "break".
6. Enjoy!
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2001-02-22 13:31
Gavin's first point about the adjustment of the instrument is a good one. If there are leaks from any of the keys, it will cause problems. If you can, get an experienced bass clarinet player to try out your instrument with their own mouthpiece/reed setup. Another thing you can do is to have a friend press down any keys/pads that should be closed while you attempt to play a note that gives you trouble. The extra pressure will help temporarily seal leaks; so, if it does cause the note to suddenly sound, you have found the cause of the problem. A repair technician could also look at it, but I would try to determine if it is the instrument's fault before taking it into the shop.
But it is also quite possible that you need to adjust to the instrument. Take in more of the mouthpiece than you would with a soprano clarinet and use a looser embouchure. I'm not sure that I'm in agreement with the statement that you need a lot of air. The purpose of the air is to get the reed to vibrate, not to get a stream of wind out the bell. I can play very long tones with my bass because I don't need to let the air out of my lungs very fast.
Your mouthpiece and reed are also important. You didn't say what reed and mouthpiece you are using, but I would guess that you are using the mouthpiece supplied by the school, which is probably the one that came with the instrument. The mouthpieces supplied by the manufacturers are usually not the best. Recommendations for good mouthpieces is a whole new topic area, but I like my Vandoren B45. As far as reeds, you may want to try a softer reed than you have been using with your soprano. This and corrections to your embouchure may help with the low notes.
Finally, you may want to tilt the instrument back slightly under your chair to get the mouthpiece angle closer to that you use with your soprano.
Hope some of this helps. Let us know the results.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2001-02-22 15:23
Tammy -
Following up on Don's advice about tipping the instrument back -- here's something the bass clarinet virtuoso Josef Horak showed me:
Sit forward in your chair, with your left foot forward and your right foot back and turned to the right. Tuck the floor peg in front of the heel of your right shoe. This will bring the angle of the mouthpiece and reed close to the standard soprano clarinet angle. You may have to twist the mouthpiece slightly to the left in the socket to get the reed level. It helps to use a neck strap, too.
Low notes should come out without difficulty. If they crack, play down chromatically from open G, one note at a time, to find out where the problems start. Then have the pad just above the problem note checked to make sure it's seating. Also, any leaks in the pads at the top of the instrument will create problems on the low notes.
Upper register problems are often caused by the double register key mechanism being out of adjustment. If one hole doesn't close completely when the other opens (that is, when you raise or lower your right ring finger), the high register will not work at all. This mechanism gets out of adjustment easily. You have to be particularly careful putting the instrument together and taking it apart that you don't touch any of the long rods that operate it. Also, put the mouthpiece on the neck, and put on the reed, before you put the neck into the instrument, and remove the neck before taking out the mouthpiece or removing the reed. This way, you avoid strain on the middle joint and the register mechanism.
Bass needs fairly soft reeds. Also, they tend to warp on the bottom. I buy fairly hard reeds and sand the bottoms completely flat, which brings down the strength. See my recent posting on how to do this: http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=36670&t=36623.
Finally, bass reeds have to bend a long way around the mouthpiece facing curve. Thus, you have to mount the reed so that the tip is slightly higher than the tip of the mouthpiece, so that when it bends around the curve, they meet exactly. Any leak is disastrous.
Keep practicing.
Ken Shaw
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Author: SusieQ
Date: 2001-02-22 20:20
Tammy,
Welcome to the bass clarinet world, I have found wounderful advice, such as the above, on this BB. I would like to contribute my 2 cents, for what it is worth. As far as reeds go I have found success witht the Legere synthetic reeds. They last forever and are really consistant. I agree with the above that it is critical that your bass clarinet is in good working condition, because they can be a beast to play if they aren't and a joy to play if they are and not much inbetween. FYI Gavin stated to look for bass clef music, however all of the bass clarinet music I have played is in the treble clef, just like the soprano clarinet music, in fact if you want a good workout in the upper register on the bass, play your Bb soprano music. Good Luck and have fun with this wounderful instrument.
SusieQ
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Author: Gavin
Date: 2001-02-23 01:07
Don said: <I'm not sure that I'm in agreement with the statement that you need a lot of air. The purpose of the air is to get the reed to vibrate, not to get a stream of wind out the bell. I can play very long tones with my bass because I don't need to let the air out of my lungs very fast.>
I'd agree with this statement. Perhaps I put it the wrong way. You do not need to strip paint! It is not air pressure that is required, rather a well supported breath of air. I imagine that I use a lot of air much like the wind in a sailing yacht's spinniker - but I probably do not go through a lot of air down the instrument very fast. Some people talk of it as having good breath support. I found that when I started to play bass, my soprano clarinet playing improved as a I had better breath support.
The advice from Ken about the peg is good. You might have to experiment with adjusting the peg length. I wish someone gave me the above advice when I first started playing bass, as the position of the instrument was a problem which was sorted out only after much experimentation.
As regards playing in bass clef, you will not need to do this unless you play the bass in an orchestra. If you are serious about the instrument and want to play in an orchestra, I suggest learning to read bass clef now. There is nothing more embarrassing than a bass player whose excuse to the conductor during the first run through of a piece is "I'm sorry, but its written in bass clef". (This embarrasses not only the bass player but the whole section and you can hear the cellists snickering as they play in all clefs:) Worse still, sometimes, for example, Wagner's Tristan & Isolde, the part is written in bass clef for bass clarinet in A. The best part for bass clarinet I played in youth orchestra (some years ago now)was written in bass clef. It was a violin concerto by Schostakovich. But if you are only ever going to play the bass in band, you will likely never see a part written in bass clef.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2001-02-23 19:56
Many $ worth of advice above !! Tammy, et al. Ken, I'm amazed that your and your pro's suggestions are just what I've learned "by doing" [to the degree of my own ability]. You well describe how I play! I haven't had any bass clef problems, {so far], but have seen a few low D's. Another source of good info, Tammy, is the "bass-clarinet@yahoo.groups discussion forum [not sure of the URL] where experts talk about "many things". Keep at it, Tammy, its great! Don
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Author: tammy powell
Date: 2001-02-23 22:41
well i hate to tell you guys but my school has a bass clarinet that has no peg for the bass i was wondering do music stors sell them. or do u need that same one you got with it.<u know schools something has to be screwed with it>
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2001-02-23 23:16
T - If there is a clamping mechanism on the bell of your bass for a "peg" "rod" "floor support" , having one would make playing-life more relaxed and pleasant, but with a double hook neck strap, a person can survive!! I didn't quite get the "g-clef" [treble clef?] . Luck, Don
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Author: tammy powell
Date: 2001-02-24 00:02
i do have a clamp on the bottom yea g-clef to me is treble clef <soomeone said i needed to know bass-clef but i was saying all my music in in treble so i don't need to know i guess treble> but i am going to the music stor tommor i am going to see if the have a rod or something like that to help me i have a neck strap though i think i can by with it but it wil make my notes come out better if i had a floor peg for more better support to help my neck out a little lol
i have been praticing all day but i get online when my neck starts to hurt but i can deal with pain becuase me i have a luv for music that strong <i know it sounds weird but i luv music more than i luv or like most people>
from all your advice i have gotten most of my notes out i just need to get the high notes out <the 'C' past the 'G' with everything open> and i thank you for all support us bass clarinetists have to stick together to bring out the "bass" power you could say for the band and everyone knows they need us lol<becasue u don't have that many low deep stuff and thats the most you need for better balance>
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Author: Dee
Date: 2001-02-24 00:45
Don Berger wrote:
>
> ... I didn't quite get the
> "g-clef" [treble clef?] .
"G-clef" is indeed another name for the treble clef. When correctly drawn, you will notice that the bottom loop curls around the line for the "G" note. Similarly, the bass clef is sometimes referred to as an "F-clef" since the two dots straddle the line indicating the note "F" when correctly drawn. The "Alto clef," which is used by violists, is sometimes referred to as the "C-clef" as the clef is symmetrical about the line indicating a C.
There are other clefs too but I think this is enough for one day.
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Author: bob gardner
Date: 2001-02-24 14:17
For a peg-- if you can't fine one at a music store---go to a hardware store (take your bell with you) and buy a metal rod that fixs in to hole of your bell, it should be about 12 inches long. You will need a bolt that will fit the bell as well. Then get a small rubber ball (maybe at a pet store) drill a small hole in the ball to insert the rod. Now you have a peg for bass.
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Author: Allen Cole
Date: 2001-02-24 15:08
I have a Yamaha YCL-221 in good repair, but have a terrible time with notes in the clarion register. Generally, from F# to A around the top of my treble clef. It's very difficult to hit these notes directly.
Unfortunately, I play the instrument in a European wind group where I'm frequently saddled with tenor sax or euphonium parts.
Any advice for that specific ailment?
Allen Cole
allencole@richmond.com
http://allencole.tripod.com
http://www.jamschool.net
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Author: tammy powell
Date: 2001-02-24 15:10
ohh yea Don Berger i always been known to call the treble cleff g-cleff it was always taught that way to me well actually my band teacher just says Bb instruments so or calls us by woodwinds or brass or low brass and who ever is playing that part that needs to be gone over so thats why i call it a g-clef
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Author: tammy powell
Date: 2001-02-28 20:30
hey agian i still don't know wut the heck is up with my high botes but i hvae been tying hard at it
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