 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ainsleygtyler
Date: 2018-11-14 05:13
Hi. So I’ve been looking for a more internediate set up for myself, and I need suggestions for a mouthpiece that would suit me and my current equipment.
So i have been playing for 5 years, and this is my 2nd year in high school band. I currently play on a Vandoren 5RV, which i got in 8th grade. I still like it and can play all notes easily and with decent quality and sound. I don’t remember the exact clarinet I own, but I know it is yamaha, plastic, and I got it when I was in beginner band. I am still able to play it and my director has told me it is one of the better beginner clarinets and that if I can’t afford to buy a good wooden clarinet, its not the end of the world in my case for now.. I like the standard Vandoren “blue box” reeds in a 3 1/2.
My whole setup isn’t causing me any problems, but I’d just like to work towards upgrading for my skills a bit more without buying a new clarinet. I want something that will help to improve my tone a bit more to sound less like I am still on a plastic clarinet, something warm and rich. I have also noticed that I don’t have the strongest (or capibility to be loud, I don’t know how to describe it) sound compared to other people in my section who are playing on their beginner wooden clarinets. In conclusion, I want my clarinet to sound more rich and “wooden”.
I would prefer the mouthpiece to not be too far off from the 5RV, just because I don’t have the time to spend a month adjusting to the feel of a totally different style and shape of mouthpiece. I also don’t want anything over about $150, but I could possibly stretch that.
On another note, I’ve heard that adding a nicer wooden barrel onto a plastic clarinet can improve the sound to make it more rich/woodlike. Is this true? Because I have thought about also looking into doing so
ok another edit but I’m like95% sure I have the Yamaha YCL-255
Post Edited (2018-11-14 05:29)
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Author: Ken Lagace
Date: 2018-11-14 06:12
Your equipment sounds like it is pretty good and is not at fault. I am thinking embouchure and air are most at fault.
There is a 'sweet spot' on the reed for your lower lip and teeth to be for maximum efficiency. A tad more mouthpiece is a usual good test, If it squeaks a lot, then it is too much. Next you should push a lot more air through the clarinet but NOT PLAY LOUDER! You will generate more overtones in the sound with fast air and it will be more 'clarinet' like.
Experiment a lot and lean toward what you would like to sound like. Listen to fine professional players and aim toward the sound you like to listen to.
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2018-11-14 06:31
OK, here's the bad news right up front: the mouthpiece and instrument (including the barrel) you play on have a refining influence on how you sound, but they don't make you sound one way or another way. If you feel as if you sound "like I am still on a plastic clarinet," improving your sound depends far more on your improving your approach to producing the sound than on a change of equipment.
A 5RV *is* an intermediate mouthpiece. You could go sideways to any of several other mid-priced mouthpieces, and any of them might produce some small change in your tone quality, and you might be more comfortable with the response of one more than another. That's a subjective judgment that each player needs to make for himself by trying things.
> I have also noticed that I don’t have the strongest (or capibility to be loud,
> I don’t know how to describe it) sound compared to other people in my
> section who are playing on their beginner wooden clarinets.
This has a great deal to do with your approach to embouchure, the way you move air into the mouthpiece and your choice of reeds. Mouthpieces and instruments don't make the sound. Your breath moves the reed, and the reed, controlled by your embouchure, makes the sound. The mouthpiece and instrument can color the sound, but all they can do is make it easier for you to produce what you want to hear. A new mouthpiece just won't on its own make your sound stronger - you can make a great deal of sound on a 5RV. More vibrant reeds might help - I don't know what you're using or how you choose the reeds you use.
The bottom line is that if you want the ability to play louder or with a fuller tone, you can do that with the equipment you already have. You need vibrant reeds, a productive way of blowing and an embouchure that supports the reed without interfering with it.
People credit barrels with all kinds of benefits. It contains a very short piece of the total air column that is vibrating inside your instrument when you play. A barrel can certainly affect an instrument's pitch, but IMO if you try a wood barrel and hear a difference, it will most likely either be the result of a different bore shape or be too subtle for anyone but you to hear it. Yamaha is a well-designed instrument line, so I suspect the original barrel yours came with has a well-chosen shape for that instrument.
Karl
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2018-11-14 06:53
I agree with Ken and Karl.
It might be worth having your instrument and mouthpiece examined by a professional repair person...just to make sure the instrument is capable of reaching it's full potential, and that you have no nicks/warping/etc. of the mouthpiece. Sometimes these things change so slowly that you don't realize how badly you're fighting the instrument...until the issues have been fixed.
Fuzzy
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Author: Ed
Date: 2018-11-14 07:28
The posters above make some excellent points. I would suggest finding a good private teacher. Your money would be better spent working on your skills than looking around and switching equipment.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2018-11-14 07:59
I strongly agree with the above.........and yet.........
I was never a big fan of the 5RV. Now if it has the LYRE symbol on it next to the 5RV, then that's a different story.
A really good mouthpiece that seems to "do it all," is the ESM (Ernst Schreiber Michaelstadt) MCK-1. Now the reason I might not be opposed to agreeing with the idea of a new mouthpiece is that changing things up a little bit can be very thing to shake you into a new perspective (even if the mouthpiece isn't the primary reason for improvement).
Now, we have discussed on this Board in a more heady discussion, that what produces THE sound on the clarinet is the PRESSURE differential between zero pressure (in your horn) and the pressure you build up in your mouth.
This is what I am trying with students these days: Put your horn down and take a deep, deep breath. Just hold it back with your lips and let your cheeks puff out so you can see and feel the pressure in your mouth. Now, push a little more from the gut so that you feel and see MORE pressure in your mouth. It should feel slightly uncomfortable if you do this for a longer period. THAT feeling is (unfortunately) what you need to feel AT ALL TIMES when you play the clarinet (at least to the point where you are always cognizant of pressure in your mouth).
Doing this correctly will go a LONG way to giving you a much more solid (and loud) sound.
Oh, and a good check on whether your approach is correct is that you should always feel vibrations under your fingers (every register at every dynamic) when the sound is produced correctly.
.............Paul Aviles
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Author: Jarmo Hyvakko
Date: 2018-11-18 11:48
Vandoren 5RV used to be some sort of the professional standard in Europe in the old days. In those days we didn't have handmade artesan mouthpieces, we went to a music shop and took at least half a dozen mouthpieces of the favourite vandoren model and chose the best one.
If you are playing with a plastic clarinet, i would upgrade the instrument. Try to find a second hand professional level buffet in good condition, that's a better choice than an "intermediate" model. It's not a shame to play with an old instrument, my instruments are from 1980's.
Jarmo Hyvakko, Principal Clarinet, Tampere Philharmonic, Finland
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2018-11-19 04:54
Yes, in the 1950s and 60s, the 5RV and the 2RV (probably the same mouthpiece just branded differently) were not considered "intermediate" at all. Louis Cahuzac played that facing (though on the Vandoren Diamond Perfecta), and other top-deck performers such as the Swiss clarinetists Robert Gugolz and Eduard Brunner, and the French Heni Druart and Andre Boutard used it for both solo and orchestral work.
A good 5RV gives a robust, resonant tone that is clear and projects well; it has a wide dynamic range, good intonation across the full range, and is focused and centered. It doesn't have the "darkness" and "cover" in vogue now or the greatest tonal depth, but it is nicely balanced and easy to control.
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