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Set-up change due to surgery?

Author: nellsonic
Date: 2018-08-02 02:45

A month ago I had surgery to correct a substantial hernia. Now I'm finding that my recovery is not mixing well with clarinet playing, even with lots of time off, greatly reduced playing time, and softer reeds. Muscle strain in the stomach area is a constant hazard and a distracting source of random pain. I met with my surgeon yesterday and he was not very helpful other than to tell me that the actual recovery time may be a year and may never be complete!

In an effort to not get in the way of healing, but still continue to to be able to play and teach I'm looking into set-up possibilities that are low resistance but still support a professional classical sound. From what I know second-hand, experimenting with German mouthpieces or looking into Brad Behn's offerings seem like possible paths. I would appreciate any insight or advice from those with actual experience in such things. At age 49 I'm far from ready to give up! Perhaps when a year has gone by all will be well again, but I can't just hang around and wait.

My current set-up is a Wodkowski custom mouthpiece with a 1.03 tip opening. Before surgery I was using mostly Steuer Exclusive strength 3 reeds. Now it's mostly Legere Signature Euro strength 3 1/2. The resistance is definitely less on these, though not enough and the sound quality is marginal, lacking the color of a good cane reed. If I dare to use cane it's been Silverstein or traditional Vandoren Strength 3 1/2. I play mostly on Yamaha CSVR's. My bass clarinet is not getting any play these days at all....

Anders

Post Edited (2018-08-02 02:50)

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