Author: bethmhil
Date: 2012-05-26 02:28
I suppose this happens, but I have been disgruntled with my mouthpiece setup for quite a while. Neither of my clarinet teachers have been much help because they don't pay a lot of attention to the tone I want to have, so I have basically been alone in this battle... I was playing on a Kaspar for a long while, but it made my tone bright and uncontrolled at loud dynamics. There was a gorgeous amount of color in terms of overtones in my tone, but it was almost too "colorful" with my natural embouchure. I switched to a Pyne, which was good, but was a bit too 'vanilla' for my taste-- I like color too much, I suppose.
I then switched to a Gennusa Excellente, and it was great... It was dark, warm, extraordinarily resonant... It gave me control with color, something I had wanted for so long. But, after a while, I began really noticing how restrictive it was in terms of dynamics... this made me begin to overcompensate, and my tone became incredibly bright and brittle when playing super-articulated passages and up in the altissimo register. Unfortunately, I managed to drop a chair after an ensemble placement audition because my tone was not as nice as it once was in previous semesters.
Sad and discouraged, I went to my local music store and tried every Vandoren mouthpiece they had-- the M30, M15, 5RV, 5RV Lyre, B40, M13, and the M13 Lyre. I was surprised to find the M13 Lyre to be similar to my Gennusa, but darker and less resonant... but controlled at every dynamic and basically every register! Thus, I bought it. Listening to a recording of the Mozart Requiem that the ISU Concert Choir and Orchestra performed, I love my tone very much... listening to my all-Poulenc recital from April, not so much. It is buzzy and stuffy, not at all what I want. And thus, I am unhappy with my tone yet again.
I know mouthpieces are extremely personal and are not interpreted the same between two or more people, but objectively... what are some thoughts on perhaps Richard Hawkins or Michael Lomax mouthpieces? Would it be possible for them to give me what I want in terms of control + color, or should I stay away from them in general? Are there others that might work better for what I'm looking for?
BMH
Illinois State University, BME and BM Performance
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The Clarinet BBoard
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