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Re: Perpetual Flatness Rant

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2023-04-09 16:13

So I am in the opposite camp. I am quite happy to have the issue of playing lower. It comes for me on two fronts. The first and most important is playing with a relaxed embouchure. Even with that thought it is always easier to lip down than lip up. The other issue for me is playing with Legere reeds which don’t vibrate as easily as cane and bring pitch down another degree.

The solution (as long as you have a mature sound) is to use shorter barrels. The average “Buffet” barrel length is 66 millimeters. I have been using 62mm for quite a while. Recently I have been playing on German mouthpieces and find I will have to move down to 60mm barrels (for R13 style clarinets…..50mm for Yamaha CSG).

Yes, it can be hard to find short barrels (lot of Chinese options on EBay for cheap money). However, Jonathan Copeland of Copeland clarinets can make any size barrel (he is in partnership with Wesley Rice) in either wood or hard rubber. And they are great!

Don’t tear yourself up biting! Use shorter barrels.

………..Paul Aviles

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Perpetual Flatness Rant new

Klarnt

2023-04-09 09:52