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Greetings and thank you (Part 1)

Author: OneWatt
Date: 2021-01-10 02:38

Greetings ...and thank you all for this wonderful forum!

I feel awkward posting (my first) as I've been playing clarinet for merely 1 month. But perhaps some of this may be of help/interest to other newbies who follow along, so here I go...

Due to length I'll break things into two parts.

Part 1: Introductory post covering my LJ Hutchen student model clarinet experience.
Part 2: Why a Ridenour Lyrique 576BC and ATG kit are now en route to my home.

Background: I'm a 60+ yr old self-taught musician (far too many to cite, but the list includes EWI and flute). Being a lover of both Mozart and Bebop, clarinet was long on my bucket list. But reading how clarinet fingerings change with each register (i.e., that cylindrical 12th thing) I grew tentative about over-committing to this beast. So I decided to go "cheap" - just to see how it all felt.

Luckily I found a gently used/refurbished "LJ Hutchen MKII" Bb clarinet - serviced & sold by Mr. Paul Effman in NY - the designer/owner of the brand. It cost me $69 on eBay. And so you can appreciate why my expectations were low. Nonetheless, Paul and I exchanged a few email pleasantries, and this delightful man shipped it out the very same day.

Meanwhile, reading about how important a mouthpiece is, I splurged for a Vandoren B45 which (thanks to Amazon) arrived a week before UPS finally delivered the clarinet. Hence, I honked and squeaked for a week, trying to evince some sustainable tone. My heart sank, now with a clearer sense for how hard this was all going to be. And I'd spent more on the mouthpiece than on the clarinet.

Additional context: My bookshelves are filled with music literature/methods, but nothing for clarinet. I downloaded public domain materials and bought a hardcopy of Langenus's 3-volume method. Studying the fingerings on paper, comparing/contrasting different sources, I gained some sense for the 12th interval thing, while also enjoying some minimal control over my squeaking mouthpiece.

All I needed was a clarinet.

Okay, I'll fast forward through this past month...

The LJ Hutchen clarinet far exceeded expectations. As a student model it's outstanding - providing respectable intonation and tone. The one I bought was gently used, well-serviced, highly playable (no discernible leakage, pads/corks in excellent condition) and in far better shape than even Effman's eBay listing suggested. In fact, this clarinet's primary limitation was its new owner ;-)

Now I don't want to sound boastful but I'll share how I'm progressing largely to confirm that the LJ Hutchen model is an outstanding value - even new at around $280.

Based on Tom Ridenour's youtube'ry, I committed myself to start out using French double-lip embouchure. Tough at first (and slightly painful when tempted to bite), yet as of today after a month of 1-2 hours daily practice, I've gained significant tone and pitch control from low E all the way up to C6 (two lines above the staff) and slightly beyond.

With daily long tone practice (e.g., Kelly Burke), I'm now quite comfortable playing through all of Snavely's 1st book (1 of 2) and have reached Langenus "Second Book" (that appears within Vol 1 of 3). I also practice scales, diatonic arpeggios in a few easy keys applying various rhythms, and am now working on whole tone and diminished runs - which I hope will prove useful for my pending bebop/improv days.

In short, I'm living proof that the LJ Hutchen clarinet is highly playable with (what I consider to be) surprisingly decent tone and respectable intonation. As a total newbie, it did not hold me back. On the contrary, it was the vehicle that took me to this point in my initial progress with the clarinet.

But there's more...

So, I get hooked reading this forum (thank you all again!) along with watching various YouTube offerings (T Ridenour, M Anderson, et al) and decide that a higher quality instrument ought to be in my future at some point ... and I'm not getting any younger ... (Part 2 offered in next post for anyone still interested)

- - - - - - - - - -
Israel = Ancient Hebrew for "Wrestles with God"
Klarinet = Ancient Greek for "Struggles with Reeds"

Post Edited (2021-01-10 02:43)

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