 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Won Kim
Date: 2001-09-02 16:31
Hello.
I'm curruntly using a selmer USA b-flat clarinet (Cl-210) and Vandoren B45 mouth piece. I'm planning to change my mouth piece at sometime because of the tune problem. Most of my instroctor's students are using Grand Concert <thick blank> by Rico. and I also use the same model in strength of 3 and 1/2. I'm wondering that the reed fits good for my clarinet and mouth piece. Indeed I like it because it gives me a really dark and deep sound. But sometimes I feel hard to play a fast staccato. I even had a hard time to clearly play the 16th notes with staccatos in Mozart concerto. So I usually send my reeds before I play. Is there any good reed that will fit my cla and mouth piece and provide me both dark and deep sound even when I play very fast staccatos? Thank you.
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Author: Song and Wind
Date: 2001-09-02 19:42
With all due respect to Grand Concert users, I had the same articulation problems with those reeds on my own B45. Currently I use the Vandoren Traditional, strength 3 1/2, and with a good, broken-in reed I can get the dark sound I want in addition to a responsive staccato.
Just my own experience.
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Author: A.J.
Date: 2001-09-02 20:46
I also use Vandoren 3 1/2 on my B45. They give me a good dark sound.
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Author: Jonathan Farquhar (Aus)
Date: 2001-09-03 04:35
You should try the GC Select EVOLUTION reeds. I used to use Vandoren Classic size 4 and had tried the grand concert select reeds which didn't work at all for me. But when i tried grand concert evolutions a few months back, i decided to and have fully changed to using them. I have found that for me - I can get 6 or so really playable reeds from the one box of 10 reeds, compared to 1 or 2 that i used to get with the vandorens. I have not had any problems at all with them and find that the consistency of strength of reeds in a box is still unbelievable as they are all pretty much the same strength and feel. I also have to work less on balancing them than i did to the vandorens. They are more expensive but in my opinion in the longer run they end up being cheaper. My mouthpiece is a Viotto B3, Clarinets are Festivals, Ligature - used to be BG Super Revelation but just changed to using a shoelace which is a story in itself.
Basically u should use whatever reed suits you the best ie. u should try out all the brands that u can get your hands on.
And also if you try to make your tongue more relaxed during the staccatos it could also help your problem. The more relaxed your tongue is the faster and lighter your staccato should become.
Additionally if you think your reed is to blame for the difficulty of staccato then you might look at thinning the tip of the reed (the top half-millimeter or so of the reed to help articulation)
Jonathan (from Aus)
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2001-09-05 02:46
Bore matching:
Why don't you test Selmer C85-118? B45's bore may be too large for Selmers except 10G and Signature. Larger bore mouthpiece makes a smaller bore clarinet stuffy.
Reeds:
I use Alexander Classic. This is a improved copy of MORRE reed like Vandoren V12 and has a thick heel of 3.2 mm compared with 2.8 mm of ordinary Vandoren. Thicker heel reeds seems to have more projection as Guy Dunguin wrote in a book.
Staccato:
You may mean 'detached' (detache in French) articulation. This means clealy devided without any added accents and contiuous than staccato. Strangely speaking I never saw any staccato markings in Mozart compositions.
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