Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 1999-08-16 19:31
Willie wrote:
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Is there any way to get a Contra Alto to play ff or fff outside of hooking it up to a large rock & roll amp? At our last out door concert, we to cresendo way up on some of our pieces and I couldn't even here myself over the bari sax and he was barely puffin' on that thing. The profesor is always asking me to play louder 'cuz he likes the deep voice the Contra has (not bad comin' from a trumpet player). It's an old LeBlanc metal EEb with an old LeBlanc mp. I also sometimes use an unmarked mp that uses bari reeds which is handy when I can't find Contra reeds, but it sounds the same. I tried a couple #3s and they won't hardly play at all even when scaped down.
Willie -
I played nothing but contra-alto and contrabass in the West Point Band for a couple of years, and, believe me, the Leblancs can ROAR. If you have one in good condition, with the right reed, and you have the breath to play it, you should be able to drown out the entire section. I played a BBb contra at the ClarinetFest in Columbus a year ago, on the "Bydlo" movement from Pictures at an Exhibition, and nobody missed the tuba.
However, the Leblancs are very finicky about pad condition. Even a tiny leak, particularly in the extremely complex register key mechanism, can make they nearly unplayable. Find the 3 holes (2 register + 1 for Bb) and press the register key, watching for movement of more than one pad. First, finger low F (for the lower register key); then the A above (for the upper register key) and finally the throat Bb. Then finger low A and move the low G finger pad up and down to switch between the register keys. More likely than not, the coordination will be off. Fortunately, there are adjusting screws that make it possible (though not easy) to balance the mechanism properly.
Starting with second space A, go down by half steps, seeing if there is a particular point where the response goes bad. That's where you will find a leaky pad. It's best to go to a repair shop to get this fixed.
The older Leblancs (say, 30 years old) have different mouthpieces than the newer ones. The older ones are better, since they take wider reeds and thus make more sound. The new, narrower ones (which take baritone sax reeds) are not as good. On the low notes, all you year is the reed slapping against the mouthpiece, with no pitch to speak of. The older ones take Vandoren contrabass clarinet reeds (or at least the one on my old BBb contra does).
It's possible that you're using the wrong size reeds. If a baritone sax reed is put on one of the old mouthpieces, there will be leaks along the rails where it doesn't reach all the way across. If you have the newer mouthpiece and put a contra reed on it, the reed will overlap the sides of the rails, which kills the response.
If your reed is too wide, you need to sand it down to the correct width, which is about the width of a sharp pencil line narrower than the outside of the rails. Get a sheet of 400 grit waterproof (black) sandpaper and put it on a flat surface (preferably a sheet of glass). Hold the reed near the middle with the tip forward and the butt end back. Sand with light pressure (never allowing the tip to wrinkle), always drawing the reed toward you, from butt to tip. Reverse the sides every 20 or so strokes to take off evenly from both sides. Finally, round off the sharp corners _very_ gently, always stroking from the outside toward the middle of the tip.
If your instrument is the "paperclip" model rather than the straight one, it may have the extension down to low C. If it does, you can usually remove the extension and put the bell on where the extension used to be, or even leave off the bell. This will usually improve the overall response, if you don't need the low notes.
Have fun. Make big noise.
Ken Shaw
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