Author: Dan Shusta
Date: 2020-01-19 10:32
Marc C or GBK, if the following is inappropriate, please delete.
Well, we all waited for 3 days and no response from the OP. I thought maybe I should wait a week. However, so much good advice has been given above and after reading Bob Bernardo’s response above, I couldn’t agree more that this is, indeed, an important topic to discuss.
Absence any response from Exiawolf, I decided to use the BB search function and see if I could find out a little bit more about him in hopes that that knowledge might give us all some ideas as to what is causing his problem.
After I inputed his name and clicked on search, I received 233 responses which included some Original Postings. Since there weren’t that many, I decided to read through them and summarize my findings.
Here they are:
2014/05/27 Plays Vandoren V12 at strength 3.5, sought advice on breaking in new reeds
2014/06/01 Wrote about hearing a metallic sound in his new Masters CL4, series 13; He reveals that he played a 5RV Lyre for the previous 4 years and did not have this problem. (So he has been playing for 10 years.)
2014/06/03 Discusses hearing metallic sound on his Masters CL4 series 13 using Vandoren V12, 3.5 reeds. Writes about how his embouchure may not be matching the CL4.
2014/06/04 Talks about going from V12, 3.5 to strength 4.
2014/06/04 Talks about metallic sound being dampened by taking in more mouthpiece (CL4)
2014/06/04 Talks about eliminating metallic sound by switching to Vandoren Blue Box 3.5, loosening his ligature slightly, then discusses how his tone quality has vastly improved as well as resonance and articulation.
2016/01/21 Considers himself a “closed mouthpiece guy”. Now playing an M13 Lyre well at 3.5 but seeks advice as to whether he should strive for Vandoren’s upper limit of 4.5. He cannot get anything above 3.75 to work for him to make his tone sound good.
2016/01/25 His teacher advised him to switch to an M15 and work on basics.
2016/04/27 Sought reed advice for BD5 he wants to try out.
2016/06/11 He switches from his M13 Lyre to the B40 Lyre then back again to the M13 Lyre. He tells everyone that he has come down to 3.0 for the B40 Lyre but his articulation problems are driving him nuts! (His words.) He later discusses how little experience he has in adjusting reeds well.
2016/07/20 Discusses how upset he is at himself for weekly switching between B40 Lyre and M15. He reveals that he uses V12, 3.0 with B40 Lyre and V12, 3.75 with M15.
2016/08/02 Seeks advice for best reed for B40 Lyre. Then expresses dismay (MO) that all symphony players using this mouthpiece are using 3.5 and even 4.0 strengths!
2016/12/01 Now playing B40 Lyre and is trying Grabner G13. Doing comparison between B40 Lyre and Grabner G13.
2017/10/04 Talks about reed strengths for BD5. V12, 3.5 were nearly unplayable for him. (His words.) Then discusses greater success with V12, 3.0 strength.
2018/03/18 Discusses his own squeaking problem due to throat closing up. He then discusses how he suffers from increased tension on certain notes and that he is working to be more relaxed while playing.
2019/04/07 One response about Backun’s new mouthpiece specs.
2020/01/16 One posting on Embouchure fatigue.
The thing that stood out the most for me was his switching from closed to wide tip openings numerous times. Even he stated “he was upset with himself for doing this”. Since he’s been playing for 10 years and is in his 2nd year of getting a Musical Performance degree, I would think that he should have had sufficient time to strengthen his embouchure to play longer than 2 minutes. However, he didn’t state which mouthpiece he was playing. If he has suddenly switched over to a wide tip opening after playing on a closed tip mouthpiece for quite a while, I can see why he might be having an endurance problem.
Another thing I noticed is his inclination to play on the strongest reed listed for a particular mouthpiece or even beyond that. On 2016/08/02, he stated that symphony players were playing 3.5 and 4.0 on the B40 Lyre mouthpiece when Vandoren lists a much lower reed strength number (2-3) as being appropriate.
Hopefully, by now, he has learned to adjust reeds.
To me, there seems to be so many problematic areas, it’s almost as if “where does one start”?
Since I consider myself as only a researching hobbyist, I need to hear from “real players” to comment on what he has written on this BB in the past (which I believe is public domain).
My purpose in doing all of this is not to embarrass him or expose his faults, but to help him and others who might be having the same problem.
OK, it’s time to turn it over to the “real players”...
Post Edited (2020-01-19 10:40)
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