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Re: Royal Musical Instruments: the Classical

Author: lacygarbar
Date: 2017-03-28 02:15

ClarinetRobt wrote:

> Lacy...
> They look like beautiful instruments. I'm curious what's the
> physical difference between models with the various throat
> vowels (oh,ah,ee)?

Hi! Great question - thanks for asking! There are no physical differences between the voicings, as they are all made the same way. The differences arise from the natural variation in the wood, as no two pieces of wood are exactly the same. We play on them to sort them into the three voicing categories based on how they hold the tongue position when focused as part of our hand selection process. Just like people have natural variation in their tongue position (we are all trying to get to Ee, but not everyone's tongue will go there naturally), instruments have natural voicing tendencies as well. Ever wonder why it is when five people play the same instrument, it sounds five different ways? One person may sound great, two sound just ok, and the other two sound terrible. Or any mix thereof! Or how you can play five different instruments and sound fabulous on one but just so-so or even meh on the others?

The whole idea here is that we try to balance out the natural voicing tendency of the player with that of the instrument. If a player has a low "Oh" tongue position and tends to play super dark, then an Ee voiced clarinet can help to bring their tongue position up and give them more highs and color in their sound, whereas matching them with a similarly voiced "Oh" instrument may result in them sounding too dark and lacking color. Similarly, if a player has a naturally high Ee voicing, an Ee voiced instrument may be too bright and not give them enough depth. Such a player may be better with an Ah or Oh voiced instrument to help balance them and give more depth of sound while they maintain the natural color and highs in their sound. And of course this is all balanced with the right mouthpiece and reed setup - all highly individual as no two peoples' oral cavities are exactly the same dimensions. It's like coming to an equilibrium using your equipment.

Lisa Canning put together an entire video course on this very topic that sheds light on how voicing affects instrument selection. If you're interested, here is the link:

http://www.royalmusicalinstruments.com/product/voicing-concepts-of-sound-production-and-finding-your-musical-voice/

Hope that answers your question!

Lacy

Lacy Garbar
Royal Musical Instruments
www.RoyalMusicalInstruments.com
lacy@royalmusicalinstruments.com

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