 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Vubble3
Date: 2013-07-07 17:25
Am I the only one who feels that I sound worse in the summer season than in any other seasons? Even my reeds feel very course and unreasonably stiff at times especially in this season which makes my playing very aggravating. Is it just me having this problem?
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Author: tims
Date: 2013-07-07 18:16
Humidity and temperature greatly effect every aspect of playing, so of course there will be differences noticed in the summer. If you perform a lot during the summer you may need to find a reed/mouthpiece combination that works better for that situation. I used to play a lot of outdoor concerts in the summer here in Texas with high humidity and high temps and ended up using both a different mouthpiece and reed strength. Tuning will also be different. Mostly it's just different, not actually worse, but because it's not what you are used to, it ends up seeming like a lot of work to get a decent sound.
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2013-07-07 18:46
Texas? The instrument was designed to be played at about 72F. For every 10 degrees above that the pitch of sound waves increases by about 1%. Thus A 440 at 72F will run up to 444, etc. , at 82F.. We played, and sweated, in 95F, many times during outdoor concerts here in San Antonio.
richard smith
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Author: davyd
Date: 2013-07-07 21:50
With a number of the groups I play in on hiatus for the summer, I go from playing 3 or 4 times a week to playing 1 or 2. I'm sure that makes a difference in some way.
I concur with tims and rtmyth that playing outdoors in humidity and heat doesn't exactly help.
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2013-07-07 22:35
Playing outdoors doesn't help regardless of temperature and humidity. Added heat and moisture around you make you uncomfortable and change the acoustics (including pitch tendencies) of all the instruments. Unless you play in a really well-designed shell, playing outdoors makes it hard to hear the rest of the band or orchestra. It's hard to blend and balance, play in tune and make all the other adjustments that good ensemble demands when you can't hear the rest of the group clearly.
All that is added to whatever effect the conditions have on the reed.
I do all of my practicing and reed prep in a temperature-controlled room at home (AC during the summer, heat during the winter, open windows when it's comfortable) so I don't find the reeds themselves or my sound change very much from season to season - certainly not as much as they seemed to when I was much younger and couldn't afford good air conditioning. So I choose and adjust reeds at home and then use the most playable (or least uncomfortable) one at an outdoor job.
Karl
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Author: Vubble3
Date: 2013-07-07 22:48
I live in California, it's dry.
Buffet Bb R13 A RC Prestige
buffet chadash and moennig barrels
Lomax classic lig
b40 lyre
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Author: Alseg
Date: 2013-07-07 23:23
There is a lot going on with the speed of sound, the nodal and anti-nodal placement, the bore diameters in all axes with the changes in temperature and humidity. The venues are likely at differing elevations and therefore different barometric pressures.
Maintaining consistency is nearly impossible.
Instead of getting drastic with all that equipment of yours, V3, try this:
One tweak that might help is rotating the mouthpiece ever so slightly left or right for starters...one degree to start. Or simply cant the reed a tiny bit towards one rail or the other.
Oh, and .....there ain't no cure for the summertime blues.
Former creator of CUSTOM CLARINET TUNING BARRELS by DR. ALLAN SEGAL
-Where the Sound Matters Most(tm)-
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Author: Wes
Date: 2013-07-08 00:46
Yes, the summer is different for reeds, I think. Thinning the tip of the reed may make it respond better. A few minutes under an incandescent bulb can dry the reed some, making it respond differently, especially useful for oboe reeds in a humid climate. Good luck!
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