 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: alanporter
Date: 2008-04-06 17:47
I bought a bunch of clarinet ligatures from ebay. Most were soprano clarinet size but one was slightly too large in diameter. It was too small for alto or bass clarinet, so I must assume that it is for one of the smaller saxes. Anyway, as an experiment, I placed a one millimeter thick strip of moderately soft rubber on top of the reed and the ligature fitted perfectly over it. I was surprised at how nice the tone was when I played it like this.
Has this sort of thing been done before ?...or have I discovered something new ?
tiaroa@shaw.ca
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Author: pewd
Date: 2008-04-06 21:35
i've known several people who take a bonade ligature, bend it out slightly wider, then glue on a strip of thin cork over the rails - somewhat similar to what you're describing.
can you post a picture?
you said tone is good - how is the articulation?
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: alanporter
Date: 2008-04-06 22:50
Thank you Paul. I cannot show a photo, my old camera has "died" and I haven't got round to replacing it yet.
The articulation is slightly hesitant, but that may only need a change in embouchure. I am using an inverted Vandoran ligature, I don't know if that is relevant.
Alan
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Author: pewd
Date: 2008-04-07 02:14
try some double stick tape and stick the rubber to the ligature ; then try it out on multiple reeds and let us know how it goes.
if you like it, then you can super glue the rubber permanently to the ligature ; this should make it quicker when changing reeds.
or keep it your way - if it works for you, hey cool, have at it.
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: C2thew
Date: 2008-04-07 04:45
putting thin cork on the ligature has been done on the mitchell lurie springboard ligatures used on a kaspar mouthpiece that my friend has, though i honestly didn't know if it did anything. never heard the ligature/mouthpiece played. i'm guessing that the cork would even out the brightness on the mitchell lurie ligature and make it more stable, but that's just the extent of my guess.
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. they are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which was already but too easy to arrive as railroads lead to Boston to New York
-Walden; Henry Thoreau
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Author: BobD
Date: 2008-04-07 11:42
Or put the rubber or cork on the upper part of the mouthpiece to minimize scratching or to prevent slippage when using plastic reeds.
Bob Draznik
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2008-04-08 21:36
One time I got a little . . . curious we'll say, and I took a plain old rovner ligature, and starting inserting items between the rovner and the reed. I started with a brass tack (point through the hole) putting the head in contact with the reed. Then went to pieces of string, cloth, anything that was in my reach for that practice session and would fit. It DID have affects on the sound. Like Paul alluded to above, most of the time it would affect tone or articulation. Rarely it'd something else like volume or pitch or something along those lines.
If you have a half hour one day, line some stuff up and play around. When you think of it, ligatures are some point had to be THOUGHT of and experimented with in order to find out what works. While most of today's ligatures are just slight variations of common themes (leather, or metal), there ARE some that are definitely thought of 'out of the box' and, while maybe a little wacky, work for some or others. Bois ligature comes to mind, as does the Pomarico lig and then there are the people (myself included) who have experimented with shoelaces, velcro strips, rubber bands, and other things.
One day when you're practicing and it just happens to be an 'off' day or you just aren't feeling up to the task, have some fun and experiment.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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