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Re: What's Gone Wrong PLEASE

Author: Matt74
Date: 2021-01-15 02:06

You may not be able to see leaks with a light. Try using very light pressure, barely enough to hold them shut, and do it in a dark room. If the pads have deep impressions, you might not be able to see it. Most clarinet techs use feeler gauges instead of lights.

The pressure test is good too.

I suspect the problem is not your pads, but your voicing. You probably do have some leaks, but the problem sounds like voicing. If it were the pads the whole instrument would be stuffy, and the first register would probably be giving you problems as well. It would also tend to cause problems below a certain note, rather than above. IDK without seeing it, but that's what it sounds like.

When you get above second register G ( xxx|ooo ) or A ( xxo|ooo ) on some woodwinds they get weird. The register key seems to work pretty well for notes below that, but above that you have to help it out by bringing out the higher partials with your throat/palate/tongue. So, if you have a nice smooth dark sound on the lowest notes of the first register E and F ( xxx|xxx xx ) when you get up above second register "G" the horn may "grunt". It might fall down to the first register, not sound at all, or be really out of tune. Try raising your soft palate (it feels like flaring your nostrils or something like that), or changing your throat. Make the tone brighter.

You may also be biting, or accidentally bumping one of the keys open a crack (like if you are bumping the trill keys with your right hand).

On the clarinet sometimes cleaning the register tube, or changing the register key pad height helps.

- Matthew Simington

Post Edited (2021-01-15 02:13)

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