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Re: Alto clarinets

Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2017-11-24 22:59

I guess I am an alto "...expert..." since I chose to play alto in our new clarinet choir in Portland, Oregon. I can understand how your band mate would be frustrated with one of the many poor altos out there in clarinet land. So, getting a better instrument would be ideal. If not, I was able to greatly improve my alto tone and intonation by buying a Clark Fobes San Francisco alto mouthpiece. When I bought my older Selmer alto, someone had done a fine job of repadding it so there were no leaks. BUT there were many problems with the corks being the wrong size, etc. By either increasing their size with tape, or filing them down I was able to fix many of the intonation issues. For example the throat tone Bb was very flat, and adjusting the cork on the linkage, made it possible to use the normal fingering.

As an arranger, I am very pleased to see more and more altos being played. With a good player and decent equipment it is a nice addition to the clarinet section sound and the range fits well for a complete sounding clarinet quartet for example.

All the best reeds

John Gibson

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