The Clarinet BBoard

Getting on Bass

Author: kilo  Date:   2011-02-12 18:15 This is a continuation of my previous thread Okay, here's the story so far. Obtained a Bundy bass from the local school. The condition of the case alone was enough to give me some trepidation. It's a one-piece, which I thought might be a good idea for a school instrument, less assembly stress on the rods and keys. But I could tell right away that the left hand cluster was bound up and the soft keys were bent. Oh well, I continued putting it together out of curiosity. I wetted a Rico 2½ and put it on the Hite mouthpiece and got ready to try and make a sound. Took a bit of time to get my fingers spaced right but, my goodness, didn't that low G sound nice! I played the poor thing for a while, getting used to some of its quirks but I knew that I wouldn't get mush further on this particular bass until it was repaired. Meanwhile, following Ken Shaw's recommendation I ordered a stand (a Hercules) and a Clark Fobes "Debut" mouthpiece. By the time I was able to secure a different bass I had the stand and the mouthpiece. This bass is a new Yamaha 221, and everything was in working order except the bridge mechanism wouldn't close the Eb/Bb pad using the one-over-one fingering. A little fiddling and I got that working. Then the low Eb stopped closing ... hah — a rod had slipped out of its post and lodged itself under the right hand cluster; screwed it back in and everything's okay. I also notice that when I first take the instrument out of the case and it's cold the left hand middle and ring finger key assembly is awfully sluggish. I don't know if the post should be tapped a bit or the rod filed but after the horn warms up it works, although it's a tad sluggish. I think I'll have a tech look at this. I think that playing baritone and tenor saxes actually helped me as far as the volume of air is concerned. I'm used to playing those things with pretty big tip openings and I had no trouble maintaining a good air supply. And I think overtone studies on the tenor also helped me in voicing the clarion register. The big difficulty, initially, is lapsing into sax fingerings — I don't have this problem when doubling on soprano clarinet; it's the neck strap and the position of the bass which gets me confused. Time on the horn will help me get over this. Ed Palanker's "Bass Clarinet 101" has been helpful — I've recommended it to another new bass player on another forum. I've just been running over etudes from Cavallini, Müller, and Lazarus, concentrating on jumps between the registers and trying to control the altissimo. I've been really amazed at how my throat is getting a workout; I can feel muscles being used which I can't consciously control but are obviously responding to the voicing requirements of the instrument. Playing the show is going to be demanding. Along with the two clarinets I'll also be playing baritone sax — both as a bari and a bassoon. The on-the-fly transposition of the bassoon parts, dealing with the two big, cumbersome instruments in a small space, and just being new to the bass will make this hugely challenging. But I'm not complaining.

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