Author: Max S-D
Date: 2021-08-21 00:53
As a contributor of a recent ligature thread, I'll say the same thing I used to tell my (mostly enthusiastic high school-aged) students who would ask me about ligatures:
Nobody has ever changed between two functional (holds the reed on securely) ligatures and gone from having a bad sound to having a good sound. There can be a difference, especially to you, the player, but it's never THE difference. If you have a few bucks burning a hole in your pocket and want to experiment, don't let me stop you, but go in with your expectations set appropriately.
This is why I still like to keep a mental inventory of quality equipment available at a low price and why I started my own silly ligature thread.
Sometimes a shiny new thing is fun and few of us can honestly say we aren't above that. Whenever I get a new piece of equipment in the mail or from the store, the first thing I do is go practice. I will freely confess that many of those times I was probably not going to practice or was not going to spend as much time on the clarinet/sax as I ended up spending.
If you can afford it and it's fun and makes you want to play, then do it. If it's not fun for you or doesn't make you want to play, don't do it. If you can't afford it, don't stress it. If you're in a deep anxiety spiral about which ligature has the most positive effect on your tone, to the point that it is interfering with your time spent thinking about matters of musical expression, probably step back for a bit and reevaluate the situation. Not accusing anyone else of that, by the way. That's a personal experience.
I'm sure if I handed Sabine Meyer or Martin Frost or Don Byron (or most working professionals) a basic $2 two-screw ligature like you'd see in band rooms around the world, they'd all sound better than me. But I still like my toys.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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