Author: EricBlack
Date: 2020-10-29 08:06
Hey SecondTry,
That's a good question! I thought about talking about it in the video, but it was already getting long so I had to cut some stuff. I tested this out a little bit with the Playnick Nommos B2, one of the Silverstein reeds and a smattering of different cane reeds. In general the Cane reeds played 5-10 cents sharper than their Silverstein counterpart. However, I believe the Nommos B2 was probably designed to compensate for this. The Silverstein played pretty much smack-dab in tune throughout the registers. Thus, in this case I didn't really mind the pitch difference.
That being said, I have also had similar experiences to yourself and others in the past; Legere's play slightly flatter than cane reeds. I spent quite a bit of time trying to make them work with my equipment in grad school. As Mark said, the issue improved over time, your embouchure does adjust, however in my case, even with the adjustment I still found that I was using more pressure than I would like to get certain notes up to pitch. For reference I was playing on a 13 series BD5, a mouthpiece known for already playing on the low side, so I am pretty confident that had I simply switched to a 442 version of the mouthpiece, it would no longer have been an issue. Alas, I was very fond of that particular copy and didn't want to switch.
Ultimately I think for anyone suffering this problem, the best course of action is to either buy a higher pitched version of the mouthpiece they are using, or a mouthpiece specifically designed to play with plastic reeds. A shorter barrel is always a possibility as well, but having a mouthpiece specifically designed for the use of plastic reeds is a real game changer in regards to their playability.
A quick note to Mark! I'm still really not sure what causes the buzziness. And I don't think I was very clear in the video, but I believed it at the time to originate from condensation collecting on the baffle of the mouthpiece. Swabbing the mouthpiece always seemed to temporarily remove the buzzing. That being said, it could just as easily be moisture from the underside of the reed or a combination of the two. Or something else entirely for that matter! Let me know if you think of anything else that could be causing it!
|
|
The Clarinet BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
