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Old Newbie With Mouthpiece Question

Author: marcusl
Date: 2015-06-15 07:38

I’d like to share an experience and then ask a question at the end.

I studied clarinet from elementary through high school, and then played in my university symphony orchestra for two years until the scholastic demands of my major (physics) caused me to quit the clarinet for good in 1973. Recently, my wife and I came across my old A clarinet while cleaning the basement. I suggested we sell it, thinking that a used Buffet R13 might be worth as much as $500 (I now see that it is worth far more). “Don’t you want to play it first?” she asked. I opened it up. I always kept my mouthpiece, ligature, reeds and other gear with my Bb clarinet (also an R13), but it was stolen from my car in the mid-seventies. The A case still contained the original Buffet mouthpiece that came with the instrument, however, and a single 42-year-old #4 Mitchell Lurie reed. I carefully sanded the reed down until I could nearly see through it and, remembering hearing that players in Mozart’s time attached their reeds with string, tied it onto the mouthpiece with some mason’s line from my toolbox. To my surprise, musical sounds came out. Postponing the proposed sale, I ordered a box of #2 reeds and a Rovner ligature. Having played it a few times since, I have the following observations:

1. The clarinet still feels very natural in my hands except for the odd sensation that the top and bottom sections of the instrument are rotated, even though they are absolutely aligned. Go figure.

2. Although I can play for only 10 minutes at a time before my embouchure gives out, my tone is nice and I’m mostly on key. (The transition from lower to upper notes is not effortless, but that might be a function of the mouthpiece). That this can be true so long after last playing the instrument is a matter of utter astonishment to me.

3. The human central nervous system is a work of wonder. I was able to sight-read some simple Bach pieces transcribed for solo clarinet with reasonable accuracy, then moved on to the Mozart Clarinet Concerto. As I reached the section in the first movement that moves up into the high registers, I began to panic. I could see a high note two bars away that I couldn’t remember what it was or how to sound it—what to do? Then I reached that note and my fingers automatically squeezed the correct keys and my mouth and throat changed shape and the high E sounded nicely! And on I went.

I compare this experience to French, which I studied in college followed by months in France during grad school where I became reasonably fluent, yet today I cannot read even a child’s book like “Le Petit Prince.” Why should clarinet scales, sight-reading and fingerings come out with surprising proficiency? I wonder if it’s the difference between cortical thinking (language involves the highest brain functions) vs. muscle memory. We don’t need to think "breathe in, breathe out" all day long, or think through the myriad steps involved in walking, because they are laid down as circuits in the spinal cord, ganglia, and lower CNS. (This makes evolutionary sense. Imagine if you had to think “ok, swing right leg forward, land on heel and transfer weight to sole, now pick up left leg—no wait, don’t pick it up, arch foot so toe remains on ground then push off and lift while transferring weight to right leg, shift your body a bit to keep your balance...” all the while remembering to breathe in and out. The human race would have been eaten by saber-tooth tigers before we ever had a chance to develop fire or tools.) So I wonder if the muscle memory survival mechanisms that allowed our Australopithecus ancestors to outrun danger now works to permanently encode musical fingerings in neural pathways that, once laid down, can remain dormant for decades but still perform effortlessly when finally called upon again?

Well, so much for amateur musings in physiology, philology and musicology. Here’s my question:

I’d like to continue playing and, perhaps, begin taking lessons again once I retire, but I need to improve first. I also need a new mouthpiece, but I’m in no shape to try and compare a dozen or more, nor would the one that works well for me now necessarily be the one I would need later. Should I suffer on with the Buffet until I improve, or take a chance on buying one now that I may later have to replace? I’d appreciate your thoughts.

Post Edited (2015-06-15 07:43)

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