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Re: Routine extreme altissimo SOLVED?!

Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-03-02 08:21

It's been 10 days since my last report here. Sorry for the length of what follows. I'm trying to be thorough, and I don't know what is or isn't important.

- I took 3 Vandoren blue 2.5's (my numbers "1S", "1T", and "1Q") through a week long careful breakin- 5 5 5 10 10 10 10 min with little or no altissimo. Not how I like to use precious practice time, so it better be worth something if I'm to ever do that again. 1Q was ultimately unplayable and rejected. S and T are in my rotation with 2 others ("1P" and "1U") that are of similar age but were just thrown into the fray with no breakin. At this point I guess S/T are slightly better but that may just be because they do have more play time. Once all 4 of these have some more age and I finally quit adjusting them I will see whether there's a difference. And of course I will be interested in whether S/T have a longer useful life than P/U. I hope not.

- My newly discovered technique for restoring C7 play- squeeze/rub the tip of the reed- has allowed me to mostly quit clipping, so once I have each reed well balanced and compliant enough I'm good so long as I don't go too far. So yes I've clipped a few times but I think that's tapering off for all 4 P/S/T/U and all 4 are approaching equal playing characteristics.

- Beeswax proved hard to find in my regular routine, so I got some food grade canning paraffin- $4 for a pound that would last me about 500 years even if I used it every day. And I've rubbed modest amounts on front and back of some of the reeds. I've tapered off because it didn't seem to prolong the C7 play time (all pretty subjective). In the long term it might make a difference in reed life so I've put it aside for later investigation.

- Up to yesterday I was still discouraged at how short my C7 time was even after squeeze/rub on the mouthpiece or off. Sometimes less than one complete song. But this was still better than I was at the top of this thread- I would have had to sand or clip the reed to restore C7 play, now I can do something nondestructive.

- YESTERDAY I must have made some kind of subtle embouchure adjustment (believe me I've tried that 100's of times) and found I was able to consistently play C7 even on reeds that had gone "soft". That is, I could still tell the difference when the reed would shift on me- C7 would be harder to hit, sustain, or play with any volume than on a freshly adjusted reed- but I could still play and control it. I was so shocked I stopped and went through all 4 reeds P S T U, plus a few old rejects, and found the same thing. Then I played my entire concert set of 8 songs, on reed 1T, playing C7 pretty much whenever I wanted throughout the program, with only a couple of minor adjustments that would have been no big deal even with an audience.

- TODAY was not quite as good as yesterday (precise science on the clarinet is like nailing Jello to the wall)- but I was still happy. I am over some kind of hump, purely by technique- and that's always the best answer (equipment will seldom be optimum no matter what the name of your ligature).

- I still plan to invest or squander $32.50 on a box of 10 Gonzalez GD 2.5's just to see if they play easier up high as reported. There's always good old eBay if I decide I don't like them and have 6 or 7 new ones left over.

I'll post back here when I know more, whether that's in days, weeks, months, or years.

Stan in Orlando

EWI 4000S with modifications

Post Edited (2014-03-02 03:31)

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Routine extreme altissimo OK new

fskelley

2014-02-06 07:09