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Re: Why are student clarinets easier to play?

Author: shmuelyosef
Date: 2018-09-02 03:17

Part of this might be expectations. I played an R13 for a long time and didn't know any better. I used a closed tip mouthpiece with a hard reed, but wanted to play big band, folk music, klezmer and jazz more than orchestra stuff.
One day a friend let me blow his Selmer Centered Tone with a VD B45 and I was blown away by the range of sounds I could get out of it and increased tonal flexibility. I have since gotten rid of my Buffet and have a CT and a Series 9 Selmer that are my primary instruments. The Buffet was great, but the resistance it presented was optimized for intonation control, where the Selmer was clearly optimized to volume/projection and tonal flexibility.
The last couple of years, I have gotten involved in a couple of underserved public school music programs and have helped them with fixing up some of their woodwinds, including clarinets. I started playing woodwinds as an adult with sufficient means to buy nice instruments without playing "student" horns, but had at least discovered that some student horns (mostly Yamaha 3x and 4x series saxophones) could be made to play extremely competently with nice tone if they were paired with well-designed mouthpieces that had competent facings.
I have discovered recently that Vito clarinets can behave similarly and indeed, they are nearly as competent as my older Selmers to play when properly set up. In some ways the keywork is superior, particularly on the recent ones.

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