Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2014-11-24 18:47
Mr. Monie:
I enjoyed reading your discussion of how convention wisdom, which is where I drew my conclusions about mouthpiece attributes--independent of their accuracy or my personal feelings on those attributes--may not be so wise.
If there's one thing I think we all could agree upon is our ability to site fine players who didn't go with this wisdom, still yet, bucked it, and played in ways that made us happy that their muscianship landed upon our beloved clarinet.
But that said, in your opinion, are the conventional wisdoms, at the very least, more apt to be right than wrong across the set of all players, and therefore the most logical assumptions to make for the developing player?
Maybe the trick is for the prospective mouthpiece purchaser to sit down with a whole slew of well known makes and models, along with an assistant who sets up their reed and ligature for them while they remain blindfolded, and try stuff out without knowing mouthpiece specifications and developing pre-conceived expectations/biases of what those specifications will mean for them.
But that approach could prove time consuming and expensive. So is it not more efficient, if not also a compromise, to look at mouthpieces that lie within "the ballpark" of specifications on a mouthpiece they use and like, and/or that others report being similar in play to a mouthpiece already appreciated by the potential consumer of a new one?
As it regards your discussion on mouthpiece material, as cited from Mr. Behn, I find that interesting too. I don't think (and I wouldn't be surpised if you agree) that Mr. Behn is by any means saying that mouthpiece materials don't matter, so much as he is saying that the right non-rubber materials "can hold their heads high" in the mouthpiece marketspace.
From what I read on Mr. Behn's painstaking recreation of Chedeville mouthpieces, I'd have to say that the materials with which a mouthpiece are made of are quite an area for Mr. Behn, of both interest and belief that such things make a difference.
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