Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2014-05-24 22:47
First, check intonation, playing slow scales, arpeggios and wide intervals. As Keith Stein said, a mouthpiece that plays out of tune is useless, no matter how good it sounds.
Second, make as many different sounds as possible to find out whether the mouthpiece has flexibility.
I've read that Ralph McLane tried out new equipment by playing the Brahms Lullaby. You don't have to play fast to hear how a mouthpiece sounds. Sure you'll noodle, popping high Cs (as in the Martino Set for Clarinet), but playing a perfectly even, singing line is more important.
I also listen for a high-frequency "ping" in the tone, which gives you carrying power. And how to vary it's strength to play beneath the melodic line or step forward for the solo line.
I go over to the corner of the room, face inward and play a fortissimo low E and gradually fade it away to nothing, listening for and bringing out the B above it, until it's louder than the E.
The opening of the Saint-Saens Sonata will test the quality of the throat tones and the ability to go over the chalemeau-clarion break smoothly. The second movement tests the ability to play a light staccato. The third movement tests the resonance of the low tones and then the ability to play softly and cross back and forth across the clarion-altissimo break.
Ken Shaw
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The Clarinet BBoard
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