I'm a Bass Clarinetist, a really serious Bass Clarinetist. I've got 3 of them for goodness sakes! Basically, that's like saying "Yeah, I'm a total freak."
There have always been things that bug me about the way people approach MY instrument (I know I didn't invent it, but it's mine). I've heard everything from "I need harder reeds....no you need really hard reeds." to "This (name the brand) doesn't play well in so and so register" blah,blah, blah. I've also heard, "You can't do this and that, this doesn't "lay well" on a bigger instrument" and my personal favorite "Why would you do that on THAT ?!" Anyways, Things That Bug Me is dedicated to my rantings about how the Bass Clarinet is, generally, poorly taught, misunderstood, and poorly received.
My biggest gripes about my equipment are always about reeds. Most kids start in school using soft reeds, a 2.5 typically. Well, at some point they run into a Band Director whose whole mission in life, it seems, is to get them to play on harder reeds. It never fails, you always hear from someone "You need harder reeds so you can sound better and play in tune." Woo hoo! You mean all I have to do to play in tune is use harder reeds? How hard? 3, 3.5? Ok! I can do that Mr. Whoseewhatzit!
Now that the kid has the harder reeds they spend the next few weeks wondering why their instrument isn't responding like it did. Then they either A) realize it must be the reeds, but they brush that off because their Director told them they HAAAAAADDDDD to have those harder reeds, yet they don't sound better and they aren't really learning because they spend all their time paying a setup that is not tenable, or B) assume their instrument is broken (which is probably partially true, but if their setup didn't suck they'd be able to play throgh the 5000 micro-leaks on ther horn.)
Now the kid is in a quandry, do I stick with reeds that aren't working, beg my Director to get my instrument to the shop, or do I go back to the softer ones that I could play on? Hmmm. They're stuck and they don't know why. I do. (Just one aside here: It's a rare day when you find a teacher who's more insterested in how you sound and how comfortable you are than they are in the "way to do things." I had teachers of the former persuasion. They didn't care what I was doing as long as I could play well. Let's all take a note, because that's the only reason I got to where I am now.)
That Director looked at the Bass Clarinet and said (insert heavy hillbilly accent)(and yes, I can say that because I'm actually from the South. It's like when people pick on your siblings....they can't do that, that's YOUR job!) "That's just like a regular Clarinet." True, except for one thing...it ain't as high! Soprano(Regular) Clarinet players tend to need to change reed strengths relatively early on to help support to strength in their embouchure. It's a necessity, you can't play Soprano Clarinet but one way, and that dropped chin does all the work for you. A Soprano Clarinet embouchure is POWERFUL! You start running into intonation issues on OPEN NOTES!!!, and it only gets worse the higher you go, so you need the POWER!
Hooooowwwever, on the Bass Clarinet, you don't start having major intonation issues until you get much higher on the instrument. Well, if that's the case, using a harder reed to account for like 4 notes makes no sense, and those 4 notes aren't THAT hard to play........ And we all wonder why alot of kids who play Bass Clarinet can't play high notes very well and we have these never ending conversations from, of all people, ADULTS!, about which instruments "play high notes better." WOW!!!!! If you're a non-band nerd and you're confused, you should be, cuz this ain't hard.
The Bass Clarinet is rivaled only by the Saxophone in its ease. Ever walk down the hall of an Elementary School with a Bass Clarinet in your hand? I have. All the kids say the same thing "Wow, that's a big Saxophone!" (Except for that one kid who paid attention when you told them it's actually a Bass Clarinet and they go around correcting everyone.) I digress. From the mouths of babes to our ears. It's a big stinking Saxophone!!!!!!! Armed with this knowledge the instrument got a wholeheckuvalot easier.
Every Saxophone player I've ever met is always referencing the "embouchure wheel" from Larry Teal's The Art of Saxophone Playing. The embouchure wheel implies that no one point of your mouth is holding a majority of tension. Hmmmmmmm....that ain't like the "regular" Clarinet. All of their tension is held in the wrinkled upper lip (which flattens your chin).
Ever notice how a Saxophone, even with the clearest tone, has the slightest hint of breathiness, raspiness, reediness (I like to call it syrup)? Ever notice Soprano Clarinets just don't unless it's intentional? Hmmmmm........ I think we're on to something. The reediness comes from a reed/mouthpiece combination that is generally freer than that of the Clarinet. Saxophone players tend to play softer reeds because the instrument is quite responsive and you don't want to kill that responsiveness with insanely hard reeds, unless you're, you know, insane. Now, I'm not saying this is universal, or that no sax player uses hard reeds, or that all Clarinet players use hard reeds, but this is a good generalization.
Approach the Bass like a Saxophone. A little softer reed than you might think. 2.5's are fine! I played them from my Sophomore Year of High School to my Junior Year of College. I was first chair in every ensemble I played in during that time (I know, I'm a show off, but you get the point, I didn't suck.) Use a reed that isn't wearing you out after 5 minutes. Don't feed so much tension into the instrument, I doesn't like that and it doesn't need that to play in tune. Because the instrument is so low it settles into pitch better than a higher instrument. Open up a little bit, don't be shy. The instrument likes LOTS of air. I mean, I love me some Dr. Pepper, and air is the Bass Clarinet's Dr. Pepper..... can't get enough. Don't be afraid of some syrup. If you sound reedy, COOL!, it's probably a neat sound. The Bass Clarinet is not supposed to sound EXCLUSIVELY like a big Soprano Clarinet.
Now I know what you're thinking. "Yeah, if you're so good, post some sound clips or something and prove how great you are, dude!" Ok, I promise to figure that out so at least you'll have some entertainment to go along with me ranting like a maniac.
Now we have Alpha and Omega. Two different instruments that are very simlar. A(Clarinet) = B(Bass Clarinet. B = C(Saxophone), BUT, A does not equal C. A and C are related by marriage though. That marriage spawned my instrument, the Bass Clarinet.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Only 3 1/2 years late with my comment:
ReplyDeleteThanks for one of the most down-to-earth, commonsense discussions of the b.c. I've ever read. You won me over the moment you started ragging on band directors (and they are not alone) whose blind mantra is "harder reeds." As a pro sax player, and a few notches down on clarinet but still pretty decent, I long ago realized that the best reed (and the best mouthpiece, and the best instrument) is WHATEVER WORKS FOR ME, and to hell with what anyone else thinks.
I grew up playing hard reeds because I was told I should, and there is, in fact, a good case for starting a young player on the hardest reed he or she can handle. But now, decades later, I use soft synthetic reeds on all seven of my saxes and all five of my clarinets, Bb down to contra. Synthetic reeds (I like Fibracells, but use Legeres for some horns and some specific musical passages) let me clip and scrape to my heart's delight, knowing that however soft I make a reed, it'll still give me excellent intonation in the upper register (particularly important on sax). I generally buy 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 reeds, but by the time I've finished working on them, they tend to be around 1 1/4. (Any band directors reading this are now screaming in outrage.)
Yes, getting a good sound in the upper register of a bass clarinet is going to require some work, mainly with your embouchure, and especially if you've been playing mainly sax for years. But you don't need a $12,000 French rosewood horn (as gorgeous as they are), and you don't need to be playing on #4 reeds.
The most important factor in your sound, I've always felt, is the mouthpiece. More important than the instrument, in many cases. Find a well-stocked, enlightened music store, one that has a huge selection of mouthpieces that you can try out. Bring in your bass clarinet and a selection of reeds that you're already familiar with, and spend some hours in that little windowless back room, experimenting. Doesn't matter if your clarinet is a $100 eBay special, so long as it's been checked out and fixed up by a competent tech. Try as many mouthpiece and reed combinations as you can; chances are you'll find something that really works.
My only rock-bottom rule: No matter what instrument you buy, even if it's a professional Selmer, take the stock mouthpiece that came with the horn and put it in the microwave for three minutes. Then throw it away. (Don't try this with metal mouthpieces.)