Hello all again!
After my marginal success with the previous instrument, I went ahead and bought the most cheapo, crappy... nah, just the only instrument that doesn't cost three paychecks that I could test (I'm afraid this horn is considered "exotic" in Israel so most musicians get theirs by private import and I cannot afford that).
Now, the horn itself is fine, I guess, other than some high pitch chirp that I get randomly on almost all the notes. After some testing I figured I'd try narrowing it down to either instrument or mouthpiece (which is stock, but only until about April 10th!), and discovered that when I try to play it, most of the time I'd get a clean (though ugly-sounding) note, and other times I'd get the chirp, at the exact same pitch that I'd get when I play the instrument itself!
Now that it's obvious this is the mouthpiece - I want to figure out why it happens. My ligature is kind of weird - it is asymmetrical, has only one screw on top, and on the bottom there's a stripe of weird hairy material that looks like hardened wall filling, and it's the only thing that comes into contact with the reed. Its length is about 3cm (which is the length of the ligature), and width is 3, maybe 4 milimeters. Despite what "Clarinet 101" documents say about mouthpiece squeaking, when I move it down (and give more freedom to the reed), the chirp happens less frequently. If I take more mouthpiece into my mouth, the effect also decreases.
Does this sound familiar to any of you?
After my marginal success with the previous instrument, I went ahead and bought the most cheapo, crappy... nah, just the only instrument that doesn't cost three paychecks that I could test (I'm afraid this horn is considered "exotic" in Israel so most musicians get theirs by private import and I cannot afford that).
Now, the horn itself is fine, I guess, other than some high pitch chirp that I get randomly on almost all the notes. After some testing I figured I'd try narrowing it down to either instrument or mouthpiece (which is stock, but only until about April 10th!), and discovered that when I try to play it, most of the time I'd get a clean (though ugly-sounding) note, and other times I'd get the chirp, at the exact same pitch that I'd get when I play the instrument itself!
Now that it's obvious this is the mouthpiece - I want to figure out why it happens. My ligature is kind of weird - it is asymmetrical, has only one screw on top, and on the bottom there's a stripe of weird hairy material that looks like hardened wall filling, and it's the only thing that comes into contact with the reed. Its length is about 3cm (which is the length of the ligature), and width is 3, maybe 4 milimeters. Despite what "Clarinet 101" documents say about mouthpiece squeaking, when I move it down (and give more freedom to the reed), the chirp happens less frequently. If I take more mouthpiece into my mouth, the effect also decreases.
Does this sound familiar to any of you?