 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: locke9342
Date: 2014-10-05 08:42
So, I know there are notes above the high G that they don't usually list in regular fingering charts, but are there lower notes below the E that they don't list and talk about regularly? If so please post a link to the fingerings.
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-10-05 09:47
That sounds like it would violate the laws of physics. But if there's a way to do it, I'd sure like to know.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2014-10-05 16:23
I saw and heard (from 5 feet away) John Denman bend low E3 down to Eb3 at a jazz concert. I think he laid his tongue on the reed to add mass. He may have cupped his tongue to create a vacuum and pull the reed away from the rails, as in the slap tongue.
You can also stick all or part of a toilet paper or paper towel center tube in the bell. I recently saw a YouTube video in which the player used half a dozen tubes of different lengths.
Heckel makes an extended foot joint, to low A, for the last note of the Nielsen Quintet, and all bassoonists make paper towel extenders for that note.
Ken Shaw
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Author: kdk
Date: 2014-10-05 16:35
Does anyone know of a fingering chart for the basset clarinet extension? If that's what the OP means, there should be charts around. Are the extended notes on a basset the same as the extended fingerings on a low-C bass clarinet?
I agree that, short of physically extending a standard clarinet there would be no way to do any better than fudging low E downward. A full Boehm instrument would have an Eb(/Bb) extension that could maybe be fudged down to D.
Karl
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-10-05 17:31
Basset clarinets (as well as basset horns and low C basses) will vary from make to make in the configuration of the notes from low Eb down to low C, so depending on the make you have, it's all down to you to spend time with the instrument to work out which key does what as there aren't any published charts.
Maybe Yamaha publish one for their low C basses in the booklet that comes with them, but as far as I'm aware, Buffet, Leblanc and Selmer don't publish or supply booklets with their basset clarinets, basset horns or low C basses.
Chances are if they did, it would soon be out of date if they changed things.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2014-10-05 17:32)
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Author: jdbassplayer
Date: 2014-10-05 17:43
Guys the OP is not asking about basset clarinets. They are asking if it is possible to play notes lower than low E on a standard clarinet.
Unfortunately this is not possible without modifying the instrument somehow. You might be able to lip the reed down to play a low Eb but the note it would produce would be far from pleasant.
On a side note trumpets can play lower than the lowest note listed on most fingering charts (low F#) through the use of pedal tones. This basically means that you are taking advantage of the lowest fundamental frequency of the trumpet. A clarinet can already play in its lowest fundamental frequency so there is no way to go any lower.
Hope this helps
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-10-05 18:50
You can always play a high note and if possible, hum that same note while playing but slightly out of tune to get a difference tone that's below the range of the instrument.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: as9934
Date: 2014-10-05 19:17
You could pitch bend down to about the d but that would be pretty difficult. I have been practicing I can bend a max of maybe 60 cents.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Wind Ensemble
Buffet E11 clarinet , Vandoren Masters CL6 13 series mouthpiece w/ Pewter M/O Ligature, Vandoren V12 3.5
Yamaha 200ad clarinet, Vandoren B45 mouthpiece, Rovner ligature
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Author: locke9342
Date: 2014-10-05 20:48
Well, I wasn't expecting much, but its nice to know defiantly that you can't just finger a lower note. I was looking into basset clarinets but my teacher said they weren't in Bb so I probably wouldn't be able to use them in class on a daily basis plus their really expensive.
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2014-10-05 22:45
Well, back in the 1920s, when the Jay Gatsby parties were raging till 3 in the morning and the booze was flowing out of the musician's pores, some jokers used to pass around "Party Tricks for Saxophone" (or the more sedate "Parlor Tricks for Saxophone" ) books that included, along with slap tongue and laughing hyena effects, a cardboard reed trick that would give the alto sax, for example, a bass register of rasping timbre and uncertain pitch.
Try it on clarinet. If you have an old playing card you don't want or a thick index card or even a paperback book cover or a not too thick cardboard box handy, cut out something vaguely in the shape of a reed. Affix the cardboard impersonator to the clarinet mouthpiece and see if the subterranean bass register sounds appear. They do for me, totally at the expense of the regular registers and rational tuning. Cardboard reeds will also give you very percussive slap tongue effects.
Still, you could win a bet this way, if you're betting that you can get some really low "notes" out of the clarinet any which way, without lengthening the tube. And, remember, I never said this was anything more than a stale party (or parlor) trick from a bygone era, unless someone in the avant guarde wants to reclaim it as a "retro" sound effect, along with Tin Lizzie and fliver car horns, running boards, megaphones, and raccoon hats.
Post Edited (2014-10-06 01:22)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-10-05 23:09
Stick a duck call in the bell - you can play down to low F and as soon as you close the low E key the duck call will come into play. Then adjust your breath pressure to get notes an 8ve lower than you'd normally get.
I just tried this and it works!
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: maxopf
Date: 2014-10-06 00:20
kdk: Here's a chart for low C clarinets.
http://www.wfg.woodwind.org/clarinet/basscl_alt_1.html
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