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Re: Airy and fuzzy tone on Bb Clarinet

Author: zhangray4
Date: 2017-08-17 06:25

Hi OmniClarinet314,

I am a senior in high school. Maybe I can help you out, as I had similar experiences, and maybe I can suggest a few points.

Although I do not play on the mouthpiece you play on, I have experimented (a lot, actually) on Black Master and White Master reeds. Before that, I've basically used V12 and V21. At first, I liked the change to Black Master and White Master for some reason. However, I soon went back to V12s, because I felt you had to sort of "bite" to get a good sound. Even if you don't bite, you still need more embouchure support, in my opinion. Those Black Masters are for Austrian/Viennese clarinets, which feature very closed tip mouthpieces. Our French mouthpieces do not usually go as closed as they do. So for the Viennese, they may be fine with the Black Master, since the closed tip mouthpiece allows them to use less pressure with the embouchure.

I could play on the Black Masters, but it would be so tiring, at least for me. Immediately after I went back to the V12s, I felt that I was pinching the reed. When I relaxed my embouchure, I got a spready sound that tended to go flat as well. Now I can play on V12s, but it took time to get used to relaxing the facial muscles.

I ended up switching to the Steuer reeds ultimately, which I currently use. The tip is thicker the Vandorens, so it won't take too much to adjust to coming from the Black Masters.

So all in all, I would suggest not using Black Masters. I have tried using it, but I don't think it is worth using. Might as well try a French cut reed that produces a similar feel, in my opinion, a brand like Steuer.

Hope this helps!

-- Ray Zhang

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