I have just finished playing the Clarinet I book in a school production of The Sound Of Music, this at an area private school that regularly uses "ringers" to structure their pit orchestras. As part of this process, we have some students scattered here and there in the group, generally playing alongside of an adult.
In this case, the Clarinet II book was being doubled by a young freshman, playing (as I discovered at the Sunday matinee) a Jean Baptiste soprano clarinet. Normally he had sat on the other side of the adult on the part, and so I wasn't able to hear him up close and personal. However, this day he was on his own and moved over to sit next to me.
And, that's when I first heard what was going on. The young fellow was good enough on articulations, and kept up well with all of the choppy parts as we moved through the book. However, I gradually noticed that some of the notes that he was playing were way, way, WAY off on pitch.
Specifically, his C below the staff was more like a B# in the untempered scale. Since the majority of his part stayed away from that particular note, it only came up occasionally, but when it did he was way out of the chord.
During the intermission, I asked him if he was having trouble with the horn, and he said that he couldn't make any of the notes on the lower joint speak when in the lower register. I put my mouthpiece on his horn, and then I found out about Chinese clarinets.
Yes. the lower register would not speak below A. But, the worst thing was the C below the staff - better than a half-step flat no matter what I would do. Also, the fingered B was so muffled as to be useless (the forked B was okay), and the throat tones were very different than the rest of the notes on the horn.
Also, the crows-foot was out of adjustment, and nothing that I could do (with a bassoon player's reed pliers) could bring it back - the thing would not bend well.
The young guy said that his grandfather had bought the horn for him, and he had been using it in this same condition since the start of the school year. (In defense of his band teacher (no private teacher), she has been seriously ill the entire school year and her band has basically been run by the school's choir teacher in her absence.)
I gave him my Bb clarinet for the second act (the school did not have another working Bb clarinet) and played the second act on my A, transposing (usually successfully) on the fly. I also told him (and his teacher) to have his parents call me (which has not yet happened).
I have never played any working clarinet that was as poorly out of tune with itself as was this instrument. While there may have been some mechanical issues involved that I could not resolve with the limited means at hand, the portions of the horn that were undoubtedly working were wrong, wrong, wrong. And, that flat C was just the way it was, no ifs, ands or buts.
At least I know what kind of clarinet to look for the next time I need to make one of my clarinet wall hangings...
In this case, the Clarinet II book was being doubled by a young freshman, playing (as I discovered at the Sunday matinee) a Jean Baptiste soprano clarinet. Normally he had sat on the other side of the adult on the part, and so I wasn't able to hear him up close and personal. However, this day he was on his own and moved over to sit next to me.
And, that's when I first heard what was going on. The young fellow was good enough on articulations, and kept up well with all of the choppy parts as we moved through the book. However, I gradually noticed that some of the notes that he was playing were way, way, WAY off on pitch.
Specifically, his C below the staff was more like a B# in the untempered scale. Since the majority of his part stayed away from that particular note, it only came up occasionally, but when it did he was way out of the chord.
During the intermission, I asked him if he was having trouble with the horn, and he said that he couldn't make any of the notes on the lower joint speak when in the lower register. I put my mouthpiece on his horn, and then I found out about Chinese clarinets.
Yes. the lower register would not speak below A. But, the worst thing was the C below the staff - better than a half-step flat no matter what I would do. Also, the fingered B was so muffled as to be useless (the forked B was okay), and the throat tones were very different than the rest of the notes on the horn.
Also, the crows-foot was out of adjustment, and nothing that I could do (with a bassoon player's reed pliers) could bring it back - the thing would not bend well.
The young guy said that his grandfather had bought the horn for him, and he had been using it in this same condition since the start of the school year. (In defense of his band teacher (no private teacher), she has been seriously ill the entire school year and her band has basically been run by the school's choir teacher in her absence.)
I gave him my Bb clarinet for the second act (the school did not have another working Bb clarinet) and played the second act on my A, transposing (usually successfully) on the fly. I also told him (and his teacher) to have his parents call me (which has not yet happened).
I have never played any working clarinet that was as poorly out of tune with itself as was this instrument. While there may have been some mechanical issues involved that I could not resolve with the limited means at hand, the portions of the horn that were undoubtedly working were wrong, wrong, wrong. And, that flat C was just the way it was, no ifs, ands or buts.
At least I know what kind of clarinet to look for the next time I need to make one of my clarinet wall hangings...
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