 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: nron
Date: 2017-01-20 03:27
Hello all
Recently I have been difficulty playing around the D (0xx/x00), E, F and G above the stave . Whether it is leaping into that register or just stepping up to it I have been having a lot of trouble avoiding squeaks and grunts.
I wouldn't have considered this a problem but I happened to play my old clarinet the other day and everything just popped out with ease.
I play a buffet RC prestige (serviced within 6 months) and compared it to a r13 (serviced probably more than 5 years ago).
thanks for the help
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-01-20 04:37
"Serviced recently" is not synonymous with "in excellent condition." Players post here so often insisting that their instrument is the image of mechanical perfection because a local repairman "serviced it (fill in an appropriate time interval)."
Do you know anything about the repair person who worked on your Prestige? Do you know that he or she is competent *with good quality clarinets* (not school rental quality instruments and not trumpets and flutes)?
Was this problem with the altissimo notes present when you got the serviced clarinet back from the repairer? If it has started happening only after a reasonably long time - say at least a month - it's possible something has gone out of adjustment since the service and his work was faultless. Service six months ago is not a guarantee that nothing has gone wrong since.
The bottom line is that, if one instrument is easy to play and another isn't, the greatest likelihood is that there's something mechanically wrong with the one that's giving you trouble. There's nothing inherently different between an RC Prestige and an R13 except, maybe, positions of some keys, that should make one harder to play than the other.
It sounds as though you probably have a leaky pad somewhere near the top of the clarinet. Before you waste time and build frustration trying to find explanations in your technique or your mouthpiece or your ligature or anything else, have the instrument checked by a good repair tech - if you trust the one who did the original service then go back, otherwise look for someone with high recommendations and a high level of skill specifically with clarinets.
Karl
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Author: pewd
Date: 2017-01-20 04:51
Have another clarinetists (competent!) play it and evaluate if for you.
If the other player has problems with it, back to the shop (a different one!)
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2017-01-20 06:37
How do you vent the left index finger hole? Do you take (lift, slide, roll) your finger completely off the hole? If so, try just leaking the hole, opening it 1/2 way or less. You want the minimum amount of venting that will establish the altissimo.
Ken Shaw
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-01-20 07:13
This may turn out to help, but why would Nicholas (the OP) have an unstable altissimo on one Buffet and, by his report, a trouble-free one on the other if his method of venting were the problem? In any case, half-holing (or even venting less than half-way) isn't likely to be comfortable as a normal way of fingering those notes - it's a fussy way just to get an altissimo note to speak normally.
Did you mean this just to be a diagnostic technique? If minimally venting LH index helps get over the break, what will it show?
Karl
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