Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2016-11-18 06:41
wkleung - No I kind of disagree. It's more about what your ears hear. Within just a few feet or less everything changes. I MUST recap a few things here. When Marcellus and Gennusa played in front of me, within just a few feet, I freaked out. I had goose bumps. They sounded that great. The sound was magical.
My point is Bob asked me to describe the reed. I did what he asked. I didn't say his sound sucked! I said the reed sounded a shade bright, buzzy, with a nice spine. This is 2 feet away. When each of us play we often don't hear the same thing that someone hears just 1 inch away from us. It's sort of like putting ear plugs in your ears, the sound is different. A player hears totally differently than someone just inch away. This is sooo important to remember and to take note of and remember for LIFE.
A conversation with Ricardo with the Philly Orch. said he uses a different plastic for the orchestra and a different plastic reed for teaching in the small studio. Point taken he is hearing differently. He wants a sound for different sized places.
This follows exactly what Iggie and Marcellus were looking for.
One trick I learned from Iggie was to sometimes practice with those buzzing alarm clocks ringing. This often helps you hear if you and the reeds are projecting correctly in a small room. You can hear that ring and that ping. It's sort of like playing in an orchestra. You know know what volume to play that ppp solo to that fff solo.
So in a hall you want your sound to bounce all over the place. Ring everywhere. Sadly most halls suck, like the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The New Eastman hall in Rochester, NY is a lot better, they took out about 300 seats and moved the walls inward. Smart move.
All of these guys know exactly what they what.
The reeds were just fine. DO NOT play with a dark setup at any audition. I'd much rather see you play on a 1960's plastic Bundy clarinet and a 1940's Brilhart mouthpiece, and I'm not kidding here. You will be heard and the sound will be just fine. I'm trying to let everyone aware of the difference between warm and dark. It's such a fine line. When you audition in a dead room you really want a good bright sound that carries even in a small room. If you are playing the Mozart Concerto you can hold back the forte's a shade, such as in the second movement. Whenever I play that piece, the second movement, get in the HEAD of this crazy guy. He loved to dance with the ladies. No TV then, so on Friday nights everyone went dancing. Think of him dancing so smoothly with the ladies. I often press DOWN on the keys THEN slowly lift the keys to the next notes for ease and gracefulness. You don't want that punk rock feel with bouncing heads flying everywhere But the most graceful and romantic R rated ballet. If you press down ever so slightly and gently on the keys first, you are gaining complete control of the tiny nerves and muscle endings in your finger tips. Complete LOVE instead of your first time slow dancing and stepping on the toes of that person at 12 years old and he of she takes a flying leap to the floor knocking down a few other 12 year old friends! Good times back then Sorry, couldn't help to add some humor here.
The very top pro's often get lost with the correct sound, so if they are lost well their students are, the instrument makers are, and it's now a mess. In a few years we could soon see some MAGIC coming out of horns if these instrument makers; will listen to us. I think so. As players we do NOT need $29,000 horns to achieve this. We can do this with $2000, Maybe $1000, some great sound engineers and some great sounding players. Lets get together and say farewell to the Divine $19,000 horns, when a $1000 horn can sound just as good.
Remember folks, Bob Marcellus played on a pre R13 horn. in the Cleveland Orchestra. Dated around 1928. Yes Hans Moennig did his magic to it, but Bob played on it for most of his amazing Cleveland career. People thought he played on R13's. Well he did. But that '28 was his main joy. Nothing fancy, a smaller straight barrel Buffet. He probably paid $75 for it. Hans probably charged him $25 or less.
I probably won't post anything else on this topic unless needed, such as a company calling me for advice and I will pass on the word. A huge hint to the makers out there! Still FREE of charge! I make amazing mouthpieces mainly by hand, but I'll share my knowledge to Vandoren. I like Bernard Vandoren. We met at Rico about 25 years ago. A great guy! I'll talk with Selmer and Buffet. I will surely be Yamaha's right hand man. They are sooo close to getting it right. Anyway, I've said enough. Everyone understands or will start to understand. Of course there is a learning curve. We have to break a major error from Buffet going back to the mid 1970's when Buffet went to their large bore.
Cheers to that sweet sound coming back!
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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