Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2017-07-18 19:44
Hi All,
I confess, "I'm a doubler and have been for over 50 years." However, after many year as primarily a sax player, I have gone even more to the "dark side" with bass clarinet now as my primary instrument. I love it and am slowly working on the pedagogy with the goal of playing as well as I ever did on clarinet or sax.
But I have found that the transition has presented me with many new and unique "operational" problems involving mouthpiece, reeds, embouchure, breathing, voicing, equipment, etc. I am sure I'm not alone.
For others who have made a similar transition, are there some "universal truths..." about learning to play the bass? What were some of the barriers that you encountered in making the switch and how did you overcome them.
Let me start the list with a few easy ones:
1. If you play tenor sax, you have a good idea of the correct embouchure for bass but that is just a starting point.
2. Reed selection is critical. Where a soft reed might provide a huge tone in the lower register, too soft is not good when you get into the clarion and altissimo register.
HRL
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The Clarinet BBoard
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