 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: marco
Date: 2001-07-23 20:44
I recently figured this little trick that allows you to see the reed vibrate. be forewarned, though- it emits an ear-piercing squeak that will annoy your family as well as your dog/cat.
To perform this torturous, yet educational trick, all you need is the mouthpiece with an attached reed. with the reed facing up and the tip pointing away from you, suck air in while your mouth is around the bottom part of the mouthpiece.
I have achieved two distinct noises: a high pitched one with the reed vibrating at the corners only, and a lower pitched one with the entire reed tip vibrating. The lower pitched one is achieved by sucking in much harder than the high pitched one.
I used a vandoren V12 3 1/2, but I think it will work on just about any reed, but either of the tones might be harder or easier to get. I wonder what it would sound like on an Bass clarinet mouthpiece. Or an Eb mouthpiece (my ears hurt just thinking about it).
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Author: Anji
Date: 2001-07-23 21:02
And here I thought the object of practice was not to suck.
You SO talented.
Whazzamatta, Nintendo broke?
anji
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Author: mw
Date: 2001-07-23 21:26
My son is taking lessons from a retired Clarinet Professor. He has a procedure they perform --- they hold the mouthpiece's tenon end against the palm of the hand & suck (or blow?) on the reed. When it makes a particular popping sound when pulling the palm away, the reed is supposed to be ready to play. (similar to a joint suction test) Anyone else heard of this "reed check" ?
[[ it could be that this is used as a means to get the reed wet & has nothing to do with suction --- I won't laugh at this 80 y/o pedagogue because his students throughout the world are holding some of the best orchestral, band & teaching jobs out there ]]
Best,
mw
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Author: Sylvain
Date: 2001-07-23 22:43
Hi mw,
I have heard of this technique. It is used to check if the reed (or mpc) is not too warped (seals well on the mpc). The softer the reed the longer it'll stay stuck.
As for the game that marco played, I've also used it to check reed balance.
Sometimes you can see one side vibrating much more than the other.
However, it's very dangerous for your reeds, they tend to split very easily playing this game...
Funny games we play when we're bored ;->
-S
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Author: mw
Date: 2001-07-23 23:30
Sylvain, no doubt.
... in the case of my son, Ben, I think is so excited to be at his lesson & is listening intently ... he forgets to keep his reed wet!
Best,
mw
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Author: mike
Date: 2001-07-24 00:20
I've seen the "suction test" dexcribed in Larry Teal's "Art of Saxophone Playing". Note that not all reeds that fail this test play poorly. Note also that if you play particularly hard reeds on an open mouthpiece, then you're not going to get a long (1-2 sec) seal. And also note that applying too much suction will damage the reed.
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Author: marco
Date: 2001-07-24 01:54
Anji: yes, my nintendo and my TV are broken :-(
... at least i practice more now
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Author: Suzanne
Date: 2001-07-24 03:42
Oh NO!!! Don't let any new composers know about this noise!!!...
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Author: Francesca
Date: 2001-07-24 04:05
I love both those tricks! You'd be amazed at the glares you get from band directors when they hear repeated popping from the mouthpiece, or the gorgeous goose honk I can get out my bass mouthpiece. Too bad I'm going to college, I won't be able to do that anymore without fear of being beaten to death. Ah, the fun a bored bass clarinet player can have in a band that both sucks and blows!
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Author: David Pegel
Date: 2001-07-24 16:54
Most bands do that. Whether you mean it metaphorically or not is the key.
Maybe I should try that with my contra mouthpeice. Anybody who owns an Ab sopranino (rare) should try that and see if it sends any dogs into seizures.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2001-07-24 17:55
Stupid clarinet tricks:
You can make the same squeaky moan by putting the mouthpiece tenon in your mouth and blowing hard, forcing the air out of the untouched reed.
Make a megaphone with your hands around just the mouthpiece tenon, open and close your hands while blowing and make a siren.
On a lot of clarinets, the bottom tenon of the upper joint will fit into the socket at the top of the barrel. You can put half a dozen upper joints together this way, stand on a chair, have friends finger it and make some really awful noises.
Get an A clarinet and switch the lower joints with a Bb, so that one clarinet is Bb/A and the other is A/Bb. It makes two clarinets in, sort of, B natural, each out of tune in its own horrible way. A few seconds of a duet will bring the band director on the dead run.
Next week, we learn about some of the obscene things possible with a bass saxophone.
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Author: Suzanne
Date: 2001-07-24 21:33
More stupid clarinet tricks
Finger long B, sit down and put the bell into a cloth chair with just barely enough space for some wind to escape, and you will find that, with the right embouchure and air manipulation, you can play a goose-like version of Taps and Revelle.
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Author: clarinet713
Date: 2001-07-25 01:16
What's really fun to do is when you and the other clarinetist are bored at the beginning of orchestra, or in a stairwell, to play the chromatic scale as loud as possible-one person starting one note after the other-or one can play it on A and the other B flat-it drives the flute players nuts!
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Author: Pam
Date: 2001-07-25 02:02
Man, some of you guys gots too much spare time. I'm rolling on the floor laughing!
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Author: David Pegel
Date: 2001-07-25 03:32
Clarinet713,
The flutes get back by getting out their piccolos (Need I continue?) And played The "Stars and Stripes Forever" Piccolo Run, First String after Dog-fight, not to mention as many times 8va as possible. And they played different tempos.
It was that day and for that reason that I found out why an orchestra only has one piccolo.
Q: How do you get two piccolo players to play in unison?
A: Shoot one. ;P
Good Clarineting!! And I hope this doesn't offend any piccolo players!
David
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Author: Joseph O'Kelly
Date: 2001-07-26 04:16
The "Sethophone" is an instrument that my friend Seth and I put together in our spare time. It consisted of 2 bass clarinet necks, one contra-bass neck and bass clarinet bell, bass mnouthpiece and alot of duck tape. I wass actuly able to play fanfare for the comon man on it by changing emboucher. My band director laughed and said, "thats how adolph sax got his start."
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-07-26 15:45
my tapered bore piccolo makes an excellent pear shooter. I screw the paper up, put it through the emboushure hole, close all keys, and blow hard. Of course it comes out sideways and people don't know where it came from. It can shoot right across a hall, and very accurate. But I panic if the missile is slightly too big and jams just before a pic solo!
I used to do the same with aluminium foil bottle tops, shaped like a bullet head to just fit the bore diameter of a flute without its head. Slower but more conspicuous.
If I want to pass a note to another player a few metres away I tuck it under the Eb key of the piccolo, jam the piccolo in the lower end of my flute, and jam the flute into the lower end of my alto flute. The clarinetists beside me, for some reason, start making hissing noises out of the sides of their mouths, and sometimes even squeek before they give up playing altogether. Hehe!
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-07-26 15:47
I once slipped cotton across under a clarinetist's reed and neatly trimmed the ends off. What a panic when he tried to play! It took him so long to find that the problem was not a leak.
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Author: Jessica
Date: 2001-07-27 23:07
I learned a cool trick at music camp. If you stuff your swab in your bell (not too effective with a silk swab, but very effective with a cotton swab) you can play overtones without the actual notes coming out--when I first tried I could only get 1 overtone for each note, but now I can get 3-5 per note & it has actually improved my tone.
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Author: IHL
Date: 2001-07-29 05:44
In response to Gordon's comment about the piccolo pea-shooter, I found that a descant recorder (mouthpiece removed) makes a very good missile shooter. put a pencil into the barrel, then pointing the recorder slightly upwards so the pencil doesnt just fall out, finger low C and blow as hard as you can. It shoots at least 15 metres but with slightly limited accuracy. I have only tried this at home but next time I have band I'll smuggle the recorder and some pencils in my clarinet case
hissing noise out the side of their mouths? It's restrained laughing but I usually dont bother restraining my laughter!
cya
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Author: 7
Date: 2001-08-07 11:21
OHHHH!
Being new to this whole clarinet thing.. this sounds like some great ideas to scare my wife while she's alseep.
bwa-ha-ha
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