Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2015-02-11 22:16
If your son's perfect pitch bothers him, or in turn you, by among other things, his cessation of playing whenever he is not in key, MAN did you and he pick the wrong instrument to study music with.
The clarinet is known for many beautiful attributes, its abilty to maintain perfect intonation across its entire range as a general rule certainly not being one of those attributes.
While pitch correction of the E/F will help, you will pay large sums for a clarinet with such hardware, and it still won't address other intonation issues that clarinet players deal with using a combination of training (e.g. embouchure and alternative fingerings,) repair adjustments by clarinet accousticians, and "sucking it up," or "accepting intonation compromises" as the nature of the instrument.
For example, playing the throat Bb with the register key has always been recognized as a compromise. The register key is in a less than ideal place to make the Bb voice in better tune, but not otherwise in the ideal place for this Bb, so as to not make the notes above the throat tones, actuated by this register key, terribly out of tune either. As per prior threads on this, some clarinet designers have had the register key open different vents depending upon whether the throat "A" key was also actuated, or made seperate mechanisms for the register and throat "Bb" key to be actuated by the left thumb, but most designers have implemented this with one vent and accepted compromise.
Really, if pitch is a major concern, spend less on this problem by purchasing a better clarinet as it regards overall intonation: a Ridenour.
I am of the opinion that not only Ridenour designs, but the fact that most of his offerings use hard rubber, not subject to the dimension changes of wood, aid in the consistency of his clarinets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHcO3z_x_hY
A while back there was a mile long thread about this video where in response to criticism, Mr. Ridenour defended it by saying that he used a standard embouchure across the range, and did not "play for the test."
Post Edited (2015-02-11 22:37)
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The Clarinet BBoard
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