Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2014-12-18 06:50
Ms. Fox:
I’d like to focus on the clarinet change option you contemplated, as posters seemed to have already given attention to your subject matter title, and its mouthpiece-centric angle. I will though talk about mouthpieces too.
I would highly recommend that before making any swaps of clarinet, mouthpiece notwithstanding, that you have someone in the know, ideally a good private teacher, examine the clarinet for issues.
It’s likely, even if the instrument has issues, and given your daughter’s entry level play I might guess not, that a good repair tech could resolve them.
Do note the general “don’t change much yet,” status of most posters. You may not realize it, but you were lucky enough to have one of the foremost names in clarinet mouthpiece makers, Brad Behn, address you post. Even he’s right now opting for a ‘don’t go changing the mouthpiece quite yet’ stance.
The Vandoren 5RV Lyre is an excellent mouthpiece period, not just, but often especially for beginners given its small tip opening (distance between reed and mouthpiece tip). Couple that with your daughter’s urge to want to push down an otherwise extremely light (relatively speaking) reed (which she may do without realizing it because it’s somewhat of a solution for slightly hard reeds-which is how she may see that 2 ½ reed), and I don’t think any of the 30 series (M30, M30D, etc.) mouthpieces from Vandoren, with their larger tip opening (read: all other things equal, usually more open mouthpieces are harder to play and control, and require softer reeds) will make things better.
As we’ve been talking about on this board recently, tip opening is only one of many factors regarding the amount of jaw pressure, or the ease with which a mouthpiece plays. Still more, the more open mouthpieces often have more flexibility, which can produce issues for the budding player who needs to operate within the often smaller window of variation that a closed tip mouthpiece often provides. Mr. Cutts' former post about the lay, or slope of an M30 and 5Rv mouthpiece where it contacts, and then diverges from the reed being similar, (and I respect his findings) would still find us in agreement (as the specifications are published by Vandoren) of the M30 having a larger tip opening.
As far as wood clarinets go, here’s the skinny. In truth, clarinets have and are being made of many materials, many of which have the capacity, I think, and many others agree, to sound great, not the least of which being hard rubber. I’m not saying a plastic clarinet is likely to sound as good as a wood one, but please know what I believe to be more the reason why: It’s not the plastic, IMHO, per se, so much as plastic has generally been associated with the same entry level clarinets for which workmanship is often shoddy in an effort to cut costs, and keep profits high.
To restate, put plastic in the hands of a fine clarinet craftsman, and a potentially wonderful instrument could, at least in theory be made. People will disagree with that, but many of us lean in the direction of believing that once a decent material (plastic, hard rubber, granadilla wood, etc.) is chosen for clarinet production, sound is more about the skill of the instrument’s designer and player.
So wood is somewhat of a surrogate for quality when compared to other materials, barring, IMHO, Ridenour’s Hard Rubber models, Buffet's Greenline instruments, and maybe some other models as well: but both, I think, are excellent, if not also too pricey for you to consider in the near term, even if the locus of your daughter’s problems could be isolated to her current instrument, and it being deemed by those in the know as unrepairable or not practical to repair.
The reed’s the cheapest thing to change or reposition, and note if improvements occur.
Post Edited (2014-12-18 16:47)
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