 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ThatPerfectReed
Date: 2014-04-20 06:42
For those that own both A and Bb clarinets, do you find the "A" clarinet harder to play, be it simply because it's a little bigger or maybe ever so slighlty harder to blow?
Or do you almost find the difference between the two clarinets imperceptible?
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Author: wanabe
Date: 2014-04-20 07:04
By that reasoning, would you expect the Eb to be easier to play?
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2014-04-20 10:10
No, my A plays as easy as its Bb counterpart. I think there are more variations among different Bb brands than between A and Bb of the same model and brand.
--
Ben
Post Edited (2014-04-20 10:10)
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Author: Roxann
Date: 2014-04-20 22:44
I expected the Eb to play more easily based on my experience with an A (I thought it a bit harder to play than the Bb...took more air). HA! Was I in for a big surprise!
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Author: Roxann
Date: 2014-04-20 22:46
Oh, THAT imagine is going to stay with me all day! I hope I get as good a laugh out of it five hours from now as I got right now!
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-04-21 07:38
For many brands of clarinet, the "A" clarinet is perceptibly more resistant. Yamaha professional line horns are closer in feel. My Wurlitzer Oehler system clarinets were virtually identical in resistance, only the pitch was different.
However if you play them both often (under battle conditions in the orchestra) you won't really notice much difference at all.
.........Paul Aviles
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Author: Barry Vincent
Date: 2014-04-21 07:51
One thing I've noticed with my A Clarinet , an Amati Klaslice ACL675 full boehm, is that it is not essential to open the RH Eb/Ab key for the high notes to correct intonation. Apparently this is true of most A Clarinets. This simplifys things somewhat.
On the Bb , this key has to be used most times.
As for 'resistance', I find no noticeable difference between the Bb and the A except that, other than not having to use the RH Eb/Ab key, the high range seems to me to be easier in some ways on the A.
However the Amati Klaslice ACL675 is the only A Clarinet I've had experience with.
BJV
"The Clarinet is not a horn"
Skyfacer
Post Edited (2014-04-21 09:42)
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Author: Clarineteer
Date: 2014-04-21 11:38
My Cundy Bettoney Silva Bet A and Bb are the same in resistance but the A has a superior sound and was preferred by the Professional jazz musician that I acquired it from.
Post Edited (2014-04-21 11:39)
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Author: BbMajorBoy
Date: 2014-04-21 14:45
To me, my A is easier, this might be because it's a vintage R13 though instead of an E13...
Leonard Bernstein: "To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time."
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Author: cyclopathic
Date: 2014-04-21 14:46
@David
so what leaky bari would feel like?? shouting in the well?
Post Edited (2014-04-21 17:18)
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2014-04-21 16:21
My Buffet R13 Bb (1973) and A (1977) clarinets weren't manufactured as a pair but they function as a pair. I've given each one its own Vandoren B45 mouthpiece. They play so much alike that I've caught myself absent-mindedly forgetting to switch clarinets and playing in the wrong key when I'm practicing. (I have relative pitch, not absolute pitch.)
I'm an amateur and I don't play in public, but I can easily imagine myself coming in half a tone out from the rest of the orchestra! -- and then having to transpose on the fly until I got a long enough rest to switch. Duh.
My Bb Buffet from 1937 and A from 1931 also play alike as long as I use the same mouthpiece on them. The clarinets in A are longer and a tad heavier, of course, but that size difference isn't always enough to hit the "Doofus!" switch in my brain.
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: fskelley
Date: 2014-04-21 18:26
I was amused this morning by this eBay listing: "Clarinet barrel : 62mm or 65mm or 58cm size". I would like to see a 58cm (over 20 inch) clarinet barrel, and the instrument it fits. And I suspect it would be harder to play than your regular Bb clarinet.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: Ed
Date: 2014-04-21 19:06
Quote:
A bad A Clarinet can feel like blowing into an Elephants trunk.
Spending time at the zoo again?
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2014-04-21 20:21
My understanding is that an A clarinet has a tighter bore than a Bb, at least when comparing a Bb and an A of the same series, This, I believe, is done to minimize the difference in length by flattening the pitch more than additional length alone would. I've always understood that the increased resistance was the result of the tighter bore and that the compromise has other consequences that make some A clarinets harder to play than their Bb brand and model equivalents.
I describe this as "my understanding" because I have taken it completely on faith from other people. I have done no measuring of my own, nor can I find specific bore specifications on the web for popular A clarinets .
Can anyone shed definite light (no guesses or assumptions) to try to validate or refute this?
Karl
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2014-04-21 23:56
My Oehler-system bass clarinet has a much smaller bore than any Boehm-system bass (.780" vs. .905-.935", roughly) yet it is considerably EASIER to blow than any Boehm-system bass.
Ball's in your court, Dr. Watson.........
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Author: BbMajorBoy
Date: 2014-04-22 00:41
Smaller bores are 'easier to blow' according to the woodwind dept manager at buffet in the new E12F launch video.
Leonard Bernstein: "To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time."
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2014-04-22 01:06
Gosh I'm confused.
But wait, sax is 'easier to play' than clarinet and it has a CONICAL bore, smaller than a clarinet's at one end but much bigger at the other! What are we to make of that??
I think the moral of this story is that there is no clear trend --- each instrument of whatever key has its own resistance and we shouldn't try to guess that resistance from the bore specifications.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2014-04-22 16:12
We're dealing with an awful lot of variables here. Unless two clarinets of different sizes were manufactured as a set at about the same time, it's difficult to come up with an objective comparison test. I can make any of my clarinets difficult to play or make them sound inferior by setting them up with mouthpieces or reeds that don't work well on those particular instruments or don't work well with my embouchure. The B45 mouthpieces I prefer on my Buffet R13s from the 1970s are all wrong for me on my Buffets from the 1930s, for instance -- and the two Buffets from the 1930s play alike because I messed around with vintage mouthpieces and various reeds until I hit on the right combinations.
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: RLarm
Date: 2014-04-24 04:14
David,
i've never tried playing an Elephant's trunk but I guess most of the A's I have owned and/or played were not very good horns. They were mostly Buffets (including a Hans Moennig Buffet R13) and the difference in resistance was tremendous when switching from Bb to the A. I once owned a Yamaha YCL 72 A which was very similar to its Bb counterpart.
Several old-timers told me that the older Buffets were virtually similar in feel. Why then did Buffet change things? (Raphael Severe told me that the new Selmer Privileges are very close to each other in response.)
The following is a strange but true story. I purchased a Buffet R13 A from David Shifrin when I began studying with him. However, I couldn't get rid of a buzz that sounded on several notes. I asked him what could be causing this problem. He proceeded to grab my horn, play it and exclaimed "You need to think the buzz out."He eliminated the buzz entirely! I tried again and again over several years but was never able to get rid of the annoying buzz. When I returned home to Hawaii my repairman took a look at the horn and told me, "Robert, there's a bug hole in one of the RH side key pads." He replaced the pad and I never had a problem again.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2014-04-24 05:34
When I was a kid playing the Brahms Trio with Composer George Crumb at the Piano, and his Son David the Cellist, the A Clarinet I had was terrible.
Hence the feeling I was blowing into an Elephants trunk.
My R-13 Prestige A from 1988 is amazing. Before that, I had a Selmer 10G which was also very good.
Soon I'll have a Backun A, which will also be incredible.
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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