Video from church

I like it. The acoustics of the Church are very flattering to the tone of your tárogató, I'm glad to see the instrument is working out so well, which reed were you using for that performance? Your tone sounds a lot like mine...
 
Thank you Princess and Gandalfe, I appreciate the feedback.

It is a very expressive instrument. I never tried the sax, I wonder how that would compare.

The reed I used last night was a Legere Signature #2.5 (plastic). And there was virtually no warming up the instrument - I took it out of the case and played it about 20 minutes later.

BTW, this was not part of the performance - at this point there were only about 3 people in the audience, before our real concert.

George
 
Gandalfe said:
I think your Tárogató voicing sounds a lot like a human, maybe more so than the sax. It is obvious you like the instrument based on this performance!
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I absolutely agree with you now that you mention it, the expressiveness of the tárogató is actually quite phenomenal in the hands of a talented musician.

"No" warming up sounds nice. Usually my tárogató asks for a moderate warmup, versus my clarinets which like less than 3 minutes most of the time (data based on playing in fair to ideal weather conditions and indoors).

I really want to try one of those reeds now. You never know what you may get out of it given each mouthpiece can be a beast to tame with certain reeds, but it may solve some funk I've been having lately in my lower register.
 
PrincessJ said:
I absolutely agree with you now that you mention it, the expressiveness of the tárogató is actually quite phenomenal in the hands of a talented musician.

"No" warming up sounds nice. Usually my tárogató asks for a moderate warmup, versus my clarinets which like less than 3 minutes most of the time (data based on playing in fair to ideal weather conditions and indoors).

I really want to try one of those reeds now. You never know what you may get out of it given each mouthpiece can be a beast to tame with certain reeds, but it may solve some funk I've been having lately in my lower register.
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I noticed a BIG difference between the Legere and the Legere Signature. Love the latter right now. But, in the very bottom, it does want to flip to the 2nd octave, at least with my mouth piece. Moreso than the soft 1.5 reed. Doesn't bother me though.

George
 
Sounds phenomenally good for only playing such a short time!
 
I usually only have to practice once per day whenever I get free time, once you "get the hang of it" it sticks, like riding a bike. Some people it takes longer but is well worth the effort. If you sound great now, I can't wait to hear you play about 3 months or so from now with more practice!
 
PrincessJ said:
I usually only have to practice once per day whenever I get free time, once you "get the hang of it" it sticks, like riding a bike. Some people it takes longer but is well worth the effort. If you sound great now, I can't wait to hear you play about 3 months or so from now with more practice!
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The type of music I'm required to play is a bit more complex than this. Lots of double tonguing etc. I'm fine with that on panpipes, not so much with a mouthpiece in the way:)

But thanks, I'll do my best.
 
PrincessJ said:
I usually only have to practice once per day whenever I get free time, once you "get the hang of it" it sticks, like riding a bike. Some people it takes longer but is well worth the effort.
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The taragot is also my first reed instrument. It seems really natural for me. I have tried a clarinet, for a few minutes at a time, and it was much harder for me to generate nice clean tone with it. It was a plastic student Yamaha that my niece used to play.
 
Gheorghe said:
The type of music I'm required to play is a bit more complex than this. Lots of double tonguing etc. I'm fine with that on panpipes, not so much with a mouthpiece in the way:)

But thanks, I'll do my best.
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Ah so you're like me then. But even still, the little nuances and techniques will eventually click in permanently. The trick is to practice, but not over-do anything, and do it right, because it's much more difficult to un-learn than to learn. Double and even triple tonguing ended up coming easily to me after about a solid week of hour-per-day practice, and no-finger-sliding slurs after about three days on a nice soft reed.

Clarinets have a more "pinchy" embouchure and for some this can be very uncomfortable and understandably so. I started on clarinet and moving to tárogató was actually a terrifying experience given the condition of my old mouthpiece, but is much easier with the new one I just finished.

I like how you say "mouthpiece in the way" as it's been said similarly for many other musicians struggling with certain articulation techniques, that feeling goes away very quickly with enough practice. Even prolonged flutter tonguing becomes a second nature, which is a really good little thing for me to practice singe I deal with rather intricate pieces requiring a great deal of expression from the instrument, far beyond the notes. I'm a rhythm and didgeridoo player and it's only natural.

My tárogató/mouthpiece combo relies very heavily on personally controlled intonation, so I had to learn to do some serious slurring practice just to get my embouchure comfortable with lipping up/down notes on the mp. The new one is a lot more solid with a rico 2 reed.

Anyhow I'm happy to hear you're feeling so comfortable with the tárogató. You sound really darn good.
 
PrincessJ said:
Anyhow I'm happy to hear you're feeling so comfortable with the tárogató. You sound really darn good.
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Well thank you, I appreciate that.

Totally forgot about flutter tongue. It's a neat ornament, but it's pretty rarely, if ever, used in Romanian/Hungarian music. Zamfir has used on the nai in the 70's on recordings with James Last, but that was composed western music. I didn't realize it could be used on reeds.
 
It's a trickier thing to master on the reeds but it can be done. Believe it or not some jazz style musicians use a similar effect for growling (versus using vocals). It sounds nice when done right, I really don't listen to jazz but if it works it works.
 
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